by Berry O'Neill

Created on: April 11, 2009

In a time when each passing day is met with newer, better technology, schools are incorporating new inventions and innovations into their curriculums. The technological fervor has spread to education; where a few notebooks and sundry pens and pencils might once have been sufficient as school supplies, a host of electronics and gadgets are nowadays not just useful but necessary for the modern student. Schools in the twenty-first century either provide or expect students to obtain certain digital school supplies.

By far, the most useful digital items are computers. The myriad of activities a student can perform on a computer are such that every student should have access to a computer at school, and preferably at home as well. Computers can be used to write and proofread documents, surf the internet, make presentations, research, e-mail teachers and peers, and many other educational applications. Students who were absent from school hardly miss a thing with computer access; teachers or other students can send the missing student class notes and homework assignments, and most courses have online textbooks and study materials for student use. Computers may be fairly expensive, but they have become less so in recent years, and most computers are also outfitted with supplies that students would otherwise have to buy individually, like calculators, dictionaries, and translators. Along with computers, students should also have a few CD's or USB storage devices to transport computer documents to and from school. Truly, computers are an indispensable tool in virtually every classroom.

Besides computers, there are several items which every student or classroom should have. Calculators are useful for all levels of math and can save time that would otherwise be spent on tedious, rudimentary equations. Electronic dictionaries and translators are also handy for language courses, condensing thousand-paged tomes into small, hand-held devices. Most reference books, in fact, have been translated into an electronic format, allowing for easy access and retrieval of information. In fact, a number of actual books have been transformed, and students can read them on computers or on special electronic devices.

One electronic device that no school should be without is an electronic cataloging system. In past days, students wishing to find a specific book had to use an arcane card catalogue. However, with modern technology, students can simply type in the title or author of a book into

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