A lot of people are answering the question of whether an iPad CAN be used for lectures. However, there is the question of whether an iPad SHOULD be used to teach lectures. I'm not a teacher myself, but I can speak of my fiance's experience as a college professor. She tried being tech savvy by embedding video clips into her PowerPoint slides. She got bad evaluations from the students because they wanted to just watch movies and you tube the entire time. She took the videos out and she still got bad evaluations because the students demanded she provide them print outs of the slides instead of taking notes themselves. All this time their grades were poor. Then she stopped doing PowerPoint and went back to writing notes on the board. This forced the students to take notes. Their grades went up, as did her evaluations.
Please don't take me to be a Luddite, I do think there is plenty of room for technology in the class room. I just think it's too distracting in the lecture hall. Your students need to be focusing on the material you're presenting, not the tools you're using to present it. If you think they are capable of doing that, then by all means use the iPad. But if they're not, then you need to leave it in your office while you teach. At the very least, I suggest you teach your class the way you normally would for the first few weeks of the semester. This will allow you to set the proper expectations, as well as get a feel for this set of students. Then start using the iPad and see how they respond, watching to see whether they're actually paying attention to you or just your iPad.
