Who needs digital citizenship professional development?

How do you rate your digital citizenship as an adult? As a teacher? As a parent?

In an article in this mornings New Zealand Herald titled "Racy photos land teacher in strife" an assistant principal posted a sexy photo on her Facebook page which ended up being viewed by students and community members.  This raised the question for me whether this was intentional, a stupid mistake or an adult who has never been taught how to be a digital citizen.  

As a net geek and teacher committed to my classroom digital citizens I have made it my business to learn about what good digital citizenship looks like. But how many teachers or parent out there have been taught the goods / bads and do's / don'ts or the why's / how's; have you ever had professional development or training yourself?  So perhaps as educators we should be taking a step back and looking at our colleagues and communities. Ask yourself where the education should begin?

Stephanie @traintheteacher tweeted me back with a link to the New Zealand Teachers Council website "Teachers & Social Media". This site aims to promote discussion about the Code of Ethics for Registered Teachers, and they provide a range of scenarios good and bad to promote thinking and learning.  

School leaders could show this video at a staff professional development or community meeting. Use the discussion questions provided on the page "Committed to the Profession" to start a discussion. Perhaps you may find you need to provide digital citizenship skills professional development.

We all (students, teachers, parents, community) are living in a new digital world that has grown at an alarming rate. If teachers, parents and adults in our community don't understand digital citizenship and aren't good digital citizenship models, who will teach them?  Who will teach our children?