#TimesAreChanging

Technology, typing and tweeting have joined traditional foundations of elementary education. Joining a growing group of classes using social media, an Illinois school has added these trending topics to its first-grade curriculum. Teacher Jodi Conrad has found Twitter a useful method of communicating with parents. In addition to daily tweets, her class has a blog, creates YouTube videos for a private account for parents and writes books with computer software. “These are tools that come standard in life right now,” Conrad said. Training youngsters in social media in the safety of a classroom environment recognizes the changing times and is a unique way to motivate students. Kids are eager to use the new technologies, and pressing the “tweet” button on the touch screen is a privilege. In a digital era, in which Encyclopaedia Britannica goes out of print after over two centuries, these 6-year-olds are simply following the trend.

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