Gone are the days in which students fervently scribbled in their thick notebooks, memorized numerous formulas and computed complex math problems by hand- Googlification of the classroom is the new way to go.

Two years ago the Google Chromebook accounted for more than half the devices sold to American classrooms, a number that has since then skyrocketed and manifested itself in various apps and tools such as Google Classroom, Google Docs and Gmail. This is the result of an increasing need to outmaneuver other tech giants like Microsoft and Apple not only in terms of products being sold, but also in terms of educational strategies that aim to retain students as long-term consumers.

For Google, this educational strategy takes the form of altering the very fabric of quintessential scholastic objectives by spotlighting communicative and creative skills such as teamwork and problem-solving, shifting the focus away from information that can now easily be gleaned from computers or instantaneous algorithmic systems.

The director of Google's education apps group, Jonathan Rochelle, highlighted this idea in a speech at an industry conference last year. Referring to his own children, he said: "I cannot answer for them what they are going to do with the quadratic equation. I don't know why they are learning it."

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Therefore, in creating programs that are uniquely designed as interconnected information-sharing platforms that foster the free flow of ideas and creativity, Google is able to institute a culture of file-sharing and transparency that ensures high school students continue to employ these programs even after graduation. This is further reinforced by schools, which can urge students to convert school accounts to personal Gmail accounts to ensure that all their online labor can still be accessed: Google was able to create a product that was and is timeless.

It is this timelessness, as well as Google's genius marketing tactics of selling free Gmail-and-Docs packages to college campuses and targeting educators through Google Educator Groups that have contributed to its immense growth in the past five years. The stock price of now $652 billion Alphabet, which owns Google, has increased by more than 400% on a steady upwards trend. This, coupled with Google's ability to contend with the more expensive Microsoft through low-cost Chromebooks and specialization in the field of education, has made Alphabet a highly reliable and appealing buy for investors.

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That being said, the Google revolution does not come without its fair share of critics. Many doubt the legitimacy of Google portraying the use of technology as an instrument to promote equity and instead see it as a self-serving Silicon Valley agenda. "It centers learning on technology, not students," said Mr. Fitzgerald, a learning app analyst. "It is a very narrow lens on equity that leaves out things like student-teacher ratios."

However, Google has proven that it can deal with critique in the past. While testing out its new app Google Classroom in Chicago Public Schools, Google worked with (and sometimes clashed with) teachers and educators like Margaret Hahn, the former director of technology change management for Chicago Public Schools, to ensure that Google Classroom incorporated all aspects of district policies that they had initially overlooked.

Today, about 15 million primary and secondary school students in the United States use Google Classroom.