School Tech Futures ... Laptops or Tablets?

One of the more interesting trends in recent months, has been the adoption of tablet based computing for education. It seems that Tablet PCs have become a prerequisite in several of the top schools and universities in the US. Aside from the natural pen interface, the benefits of Tablet PCs are many:

The Tablet is a green solution, because of the fact that you can write notes and create documents without wasting paper.
You can carry your manuals with you, in electronic format.
Some have excellent recording capabilities, so that you can capture essential lectures for later reference.
The capability for wireless and remote conferencing and annotation is a real boon.
Wireless access also allows fast access to information whilst on the move or in even class.

The other thing that all this technology does is, is that sitting in the back of the class won't save you from the spotlight ... the teacher can pick you at random and with wireless tech being what it is you'll have to show you're paying attention. Just one warning ... don't doodle or write love notes as you could find your secret desires revealed to all. Now, how’s that for an idea for a product ... A doodle app which creates a note layer which is invisible to other devices on the network.

I've always held a lot of hope for the future of pen computing. I just want the capability to be able to draw on computers like I can on my sketch pad. It's close, but not quite ready for primetime.