The plastic moving parts of a slide rule or the click of an abacus once represented the only computing power needed to accompany learning. Now, there is not an educational subject, classroom tool, or organizational product left untouched by technology. Teachers are using SMART Boards to create interactive lessons for students that expand minds far beyond dry chalk. With advances in learning-centric websites and Web software, students are taking initiative and self-directing their learning. Textbooks are by no stretch extinct, but how they are published, distributed, and experienced has evolved digitally. The pencil and pen are no longer a sole, lonely analog experience; digital pens and unique digital-capture paper are wholly transforming note taking.

The classroom is becoming more and more untethered. With the explosion of mobile devices, smartphones, laptops, and tablets are taking a more central role in the classroom. Technologies that once received blame for the decline of education are now fostering real, measurable learning. Lessons are not confined to the school day or even to one school. With the tech tools now available to learn at any time and from any place, even those not enrolled in a course of study can find some time to get the benefits of a little education.

Our story looks at how the backpack basics (i.e. textbooks, notebooks, etc.) and even the packs themselves have entered a new era. Yes, even backpacks have succumbed to the tech age, using the sun’s energy to power the many gadgets we tote.

This fall, ditch the humdrum pen-and-paper routine and school yourself in the best technologies for the classroom and campus life.