Rationale for Creating a Digital Identity as a Professional

Being a professional means developing a professional digital identity  so that a teacher can:

• create a global network of colleagues to support his/her professional development
• contribute to the professional learning of others
• influence policy
• be an active participant in the educational community through local, state, regional, national, and possibly international conversations. 

This is all possible through the power of social media. Our teacher candidates construct, negotiate, and re-construct their professional identities, making their learning public, and we ask them to capture this learning through the creation of a personal web space.

Each web space is as unique as the individual who created it, but the spaces do share some commonalities.

• First, we asked each resident to have an updated home page describing him/herself for the reader. 
• Second, we required a tab called, “Platform.” Over the course of the two year program, interns add to this tab their philosophies inspired by their coursework.
• Third, we required a blog component to the web space. Each intern must have a blog where s/he posts weekly reflections and artifacts from teaching. A space to "Reflect and Connect" 

More information is located here.