When walking into this fifth grade class at the Lake Avenue Elementary School in Saratoga Springs, it looks like another typical daily lesson. In many ways it is, but there's an added bonus here.

"We call them cellular computers. They're really smart phones. We don't call them that because they don't use phone capability or text capability, so we have kind of renamed them so the kids don't think they can use them in those ways," said teacher Kristin Passaretti.

But there are uses in other ways. Students can follow along on the cellular computers while the teacher works off a SMART board. It's another way of staying up to date with technology.

"Our world is a technological world, we're moving on with 21st century skills and we wanted to figure out a way to use them in an educational manner in school," said Passaretti.

These fifth graders are the first in the region to participate in this pilot program. It basically give students Internet access right in the palm of their hands and it also helps them follow along with the daily lesson plans.

"What we do is we're always going to open up a project, and inside the project the teacher will prepare something for us, and to get that project, we have to sync," said student Max Willner-Giwerc.

Sync, or basically upload their work onto the teacher's computer so it can be checked. So, in the meantime, has this all been working out?

"I think it is. I think that since they enjoy it, they'll have more focus in their work, so I really do think that they're good, that they're very beneficial," said Willner-Giwerc.

And even though things are always moving forward in this high tech world, it doesn't mean the need of the traditional paper and pencil...at least not yet.

"We still do math computations in our notebooks, we still take notes, so this is just another tool, just like having another textbook, they travel with it in their hands, and they still have it if needed to refer to the internet or some project I've done with them," said Passaretti.

Verizon Wireless donated 40 of these devices to the school. Since this is a pilot program, only time will tell if it continues to be a regular part of the classroom, but so far, they've been a big hit.

"It's new and exciting. It's another tool to make our school day a little different and exciting," said Passaretti.

And equipped for the 21st century.