I used to work at an ed-tech company. When we talked with teachers, one of the things we learned that students were doing was opening up shared Google Docs during lectures and taking notes collaboratively. Even more interesting is that if one of the students didn't understand something the teacher said, they could use the comment function to make a note and other students would then explain the concept to them.
I think you are correct that the concepts these students are learning probably aren't improved too much by technology, but there are tons of ways in which students can learn and collaborate in real time which wouldn't be possible without devices like chromebooks.