I have used a iPad for 3 years at my High School for Sophomore, Junior, and Senior year in conjunction with my personal Laptio.
Overall, I prefer using my laptop for schoolwork. Not only did I grow up with them (when I was young, my "tablet like device" was a small Dell Inspiron 700M). It was small (10 inches), semi powerful, and, had a 6 hour battery life. Running on good ol' XP, it was extremely productive. Last year, when my newer laptop broke (the unreliable Inspiron 14r N4010), I brought in the 700M for a few weeks. Surprisingly, it held up extremely well with my daily school work tasks of typing notes/papers in Word, doing research on the internet (Firefox) and backing up all that work to my Dropbox!
I mainly prefer the computer because...
1. Physical keyboard: I find it easier for typing long assignments
2 better formatting. When I use my iPad to take notes in Pages and Word, I often get frustrated at the mobile formatting When I use Word 2010, I can play around with more features and, it is easier to get the format to cooperate.
3. Program support: My computer can support more programs than my iPad can. Video editing is easier and more in depth on my laptop than using iMovie or simular apps on my iPad. Even browsing is better (especially with a touchscreen laptop)
4th.
It's funny back in my freshman year's English Class, me and another girl were the only ones that used our devices for our assignments. She had her iPad 2 while, I used my then working N4010. For the most part, she had a harder time taking notes, doing reaserch, and, I was on topic more of the time. When it came time to print, my computer never let me down. On the other hand, printing for her was always a hassle. From disconnection problems to having to take her iPad to the printer on the other hand of the school, she usually had to resort to emailing papers or hoping that it would print out.
One thing that the iPad is good at is for viewing textbooks. Our school uses a major textbook company and, the webpage version is incompatible with my touchscreen laptop. Scrolling does not work and, the formatting is clunky. In the Metro style app, the functions are even worse! Thus, when my textbook is open, my iPad is used side by side.
The iPad is also more portable than a traditional laptop. For example once on a field trip to a muesam, my teacher emailed us a list of questions to answer. Trying to sit down, and type the answers on a laptop would have been much harder than just using a iPad.
Overall, I feel that iPads should be utilized in lower grades and for the higher ones, a choice should be given.
