Should we intergrate technology into the classroom

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The question at hand of integrating technology in to the classroom should not take to much  thought or deliberation to come to an informed decision.  In this current environment of educational needs and the push for students to meet state and government standards, the need for technology to be Incorporated in to every day learning is at a all time high. With Countries like  China and Germany far exceeding the United States in their ability to teach with technology, excelling their students academics and capabilities,  leaves  students in the United States at an extreme disadvantage.
Training teachers as well as students to use technology in the classroom can improve and help excel the learning process and help develop a collaborative school environment.  Technology can make lessons much more interesting for students.  Technology makes  things visual and interactive, so much more interesting than just listening to a lecture.  Interactive lessons on a smart board give you the opportunity to play and learn.  Students like to be active and doing something, and this enables you as the teacher to capture all of the students attention and the results of understanding the lesson at hand is much greater.  Teachers can be enabled to use the Internet to develop, design, and create new and interesting lesson plans.  Administers can now keep complete, up to date digital records of students.  Technology helps create a competitive edged in the education process, we live in the year 2012, we should be embracing and empowering our teachers and students to utilizes as much of the technology that we have access to.  Students who currently utilize the technology that we have available, such as power points, flash drives the Internet and other methods, have a greater advantage both academically and career wise, than students who do not have access to technology.  This is one of the many reasons that state and school educational should collaboratively work to get all schools up to the 21st century, in terms of acquiring and utilizing technology in their classroom settings..  With the announcement on Thursday, September 21st from Microsoft, stating it is launching an initiative called  Youth Spark, where it plans to invest over $ 500 million dollars.  Over the next three years, Youth Sparks aims to  create  education, employment and entrepreneurship to over 300 million youth in over 100 countries.   This is one way Microsoft will assist in lessening the divide between students who have access to  technology and for those who do not access.  It is important that if we want our teachers and students to remain in the 21st century of learning and education, we must continue to pursue and acquire technology for our classroom and the advancement of education.