When and where should we be teaching students about their digital footprint?

Digital footprints are most likely not the domain of any one course and time.  Given that this is essentially an issue of privacy, it should definitely be stressed to parents that this is something for them to discuss with their children.  However, anyone who is not aware of the ways in which a digital footprint is even made could have trouble with this.  Nevertheless, even in general terms it can be discussed.

Of course a technology class is an obvious place to discuss this issue.  Many students learn to make and post videos in technology classes.  Their videos are all associated with their user names for the video hosting sites, such as on YouTube.

I have a possible answer to the question that Mary B. posted on her blog about this topic: "How do we get students to understand that what they do today will impact tomorrow?"

Given that students themselves might best know how and where to find information online about themselves and others, I could envision a project for use in perhaps a Humanities course where students are asked to play detective and track down information about themselves or a classmate.  We could ask students to take the role of a potential employer who needs to check the character of a student (themselves), as was mentioned in Kim Komando's article "Your online reputation can hurt your job search."  Their findings might give them perspective on what they want to be making part of their digital footprint.

Such a project or similar activity, could also take place in any class during the first week of school as part of a Get-To-Know-You activity.  

The obvious time to approach this topic would be as soon as students begin using the internet.  As the internet is changing so rapidly, digital footprints will probably look different as time passes and technology and applications change.  Repeat visits to the topic would be relevant in each new context.

Finally, teachers could give reminders any time technology is used in the classroom.  Much like classroom management reminders are given before activities with potential for off-task behavior, digital footprint reminders could be given before students log on to their laptops for any work requiring the internet.

Does ISBs AUP take this issue into account?

After skeptically reading deeper in the MS AUP, I did in fact find the following:

Social Networking:

Online safety is a personal responsibility. It is important that students are aware of the implications of their actions online, both to themselves and to others. The actions students take in social networking areas like MySpace, Facebook, or others, can impact their university applications, job searches, and overall reputation. It can also provide sensitive information to online predators. 

Students should keep themselves and the people they know safe by carefully screening who their online “friends” are and what information they share. 

I'd say that's a definite attempt to address the digital footprint issue.  Now it's just a matter of disseminating this information to staff, students and parents.