Ten years ago, handing grade school students tablets in an academic setting would have been a disaster. Progress would have most likely came to a complete halt in the classroom if I was handed a laptop or tablet back then.

But as technology becomes more relevant and prevalent in childrens’ lives, the use of technology in schools is becoming not just a proactive academic movement, but in fact necessary.

Recently, a local school district announced that they will be leasing Chromebooks for each of their students within the district next year, from kindergarten to 12^th grade.

Keeping up with technology is a difficult thing to do, but in my opinion, it is most essential and will have the biggest impact in the classroom, allowing students to learn how to use these advancements, which run nearly every company now-a-days, at an early age.

When I was going through middle school and high school, we had required classes to teach us about Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint and so on. Now, kids are learning how to use those programs on their own at an even earlier age.

Kids are exposed to this technology daily, so why not use that same technology to help them learn quickly and efficiently. Most kids learn best through hands-on activities, and though that might still be true to this day, hands-on activities now take place, at times, through a computer screen or electronic device.

Students are basically around high-end technology beginning at childhood, but to set those aside in the classroom, only to replace them with textbooks and pencils, seems a bit regressive.

Millennials are wrapped around an electronic device more than any other generation, and though there are disadvantages to that, it’s the way of the future. If kids are to understand that, it needs to be taught and used in the classroom.