The student in the 21st century cannot be expected to survive on paper and pencils alone. Paper books have not gone away. However, from kindergarten to the graduate student in college at least one computer with internet access is needed as part of their learning process.

Paper bound books are not enough. The days of old hard bound Encyclopedia Britannica has been replaced by Google.com. Webster’s Dictionary, and other great school reference tools can now either be found online of in some digital format. Great reference tools of the 21st century need some electronic device to access them.

Smartphones with apps like Webster’s Dictionary, and news feeds are helpful, but not required. Tablets like Xoom and iPad2 allow doing homework a most anywhere option. Then there is the classic desktop or laptop computer with internet access as a minimum requirement for any student.

Tablets, tablets, tablets, more tablets they are taking over the computer world. The latest and the greatest has become the must have electronic gadget of 21st century. Is personal computing every going to be the same? I seriously doubt it.

Back in January as the big Consumer Electronic Show, tablet PC were the big thing with all their accessories.  Here we are not three months later a growing number of people have purchased a tablet to replace the laptop and even the netbook.

Yes, I agree the standard laptop can be big and bulky. The netbook was a good  idea, but the tiny keyboard made is hard for some people to use. Now the tablet is not a bulky as either the traditional laptop, but it does have a even smaller touch screen keyboard. A lot of people are putting up with the key pad for the sake of a smaller device that can be carried where ever they go.

The other day, I was talking to a lady from the state of Georgia. She was telling me that she could not afford to buy a computer. She thought is was a luxury besides being a waste of time and money.

A couple of years ago, I doing cold sales calls on businesses in a rather large strip mall. I walked into this shoe store, and asked to speak with the manager or owner. A very well mannered elderly lady came out from the back room and introduced herself as the owner.

I asked what kind of software she was using to manage her inventory. At that point she harshly stated that they did not use any computer software for inventory management.  The only computer they had was the card reader for processing credit cards.