Digital Media: Engaging Young Individuals

So I watched a PBS series in class entitled, Frontline: “The World Wide Web and Digital Media”, and it was insightful. The series really expounded on the evolution of digital communication and its affects on the Y generation (that's my generation! lol), but what I questioned after watching the series that was so interesting is should computers/laptops already be in the elementary and middle school classrooms? Young individuals are already being exposed to digital communication at early ages (i.e. cellphones, video games, etc.), how about for education purposes? Now I'm not talking about the four or five computers at a table solely used for enrichment purposes. I'm talking about replacing the trees we kill to make that notebook or notebooks students bring to class with a monitor and keyboard. Every kid should have a laptop in the classroom. Hear me out. Because of the evolving digital age, teachers will now have to open their minds to innovative methods of teaching in the digital age. In addition, As the world of businesses' are continuing to use computers as a networking and business tool, students should be learning how to operate every application and software on a computer, so they can be knowlegable and have skills to step into the digital age. Now laptops/ computers in an elementary/middle school classroom without any regulation will cause chaos, so, of course, boundaries are needed for the young students to focus. In the same series that I watched, the young students in one of China's elementary school had an etiquette classes, which I thought was a good idea. The class taught the elementary students how to use the computer approiately. I thought it showed to be quite effective, but I don't think etiquette class can be as effective for middle school students. Some of you may know what I mean so I also think its necessary to block certain applications, programs, and social media sites such as Facebook, Myspace and YouTube and gaming website to help further minimize distraction for students, so that they can focus on what's important-their education. Education should be based on the way of business in the world, and digital communication is the business of the world, so digital communication education is essential. The only way one can create something for the digital world, is if they learn about the digital world. What do you think?