Photos show how classrooms have changed for millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha

Two students use Smart Board technology on December 10, 2010.

John Carl D'Annibale /Albany Times Union via Getty Images US classrooms have changed dramatically since the early 2000s.

They've changed through technology, mainly from computers and tablets to social media and AI.

Photos show how Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha all grew up in vastly different classrooms.

Much like the rest of the world, US classrooms have changed quite a bit since the beginning of the 21st century.

The onslaught of technological advancement , from the internet and computers to AI, has brought the biggest changes to US education, but societal changes have, too.

The rise of social media in the early 2010s changed how students interact with each other, and an uptick in school shootings in the mid-to-late 2010s called for heightened security systems across various school districts.

Add in a pandemic at the beginning of the 2020s, and classrooms were nearly unrecognizable from what they looked like in the early 2000s.

Three different generations — millennials , Gen Z , and Gen Alpha — have been at the forefront of these changes.

Those born between 1981 and 1996 are defined as millennials, according to research from the University of Southern California , while people born between 1997 and 2012 are considered Gen Z, and those born between 2013 and 2025 are defined as Gen Alpha.

Here's how US classrooms have evolved alongside each of those generations.

Chalkboards were still used in classrooms in 2000, but they all largely disappeared by 2010.

Connie David, who is blind, teaches third grade at Wenonah Elementary School in Minneapolis. -- Minneapolis, Mn., Mon., May 22, 2000--(Left to right) Raphael Kelly (far left) and Kevin Rambacchus watch and listen as Sandy Pierce writes on the blackboard and Connie David discusses the differences between cities, towns and rural areas with the class.

Pierce and David team teach the class.(Photo By JOEY MCLEISTER/Star Tribune via Getty Images) JOEY MCLEISTER/Star Tribune via Getty Images Chalkboards, invented in 1801 by Scottish geography teacher James Pillans, had been a classroom staple since the early 20th century.