I thoroughly enjoy my iPad for web browsing, reading emails with light responses, twitter use, watching photos and videos, etc., at home, but I don't bring it to the office or use it much for serious academic work. However, there is one exception to this pattern--I think the iPad is terrific for fieldwork. I do a lot of research in schools and I would much rather bring my iPad than a laptop. First, I'm often walking around from place to place, and it's a lot easier to do that with an iPad than with a laptop that has to be closed and opened again and again. Also, I sometimes take notes standing up, which is pretty easy with an iPad but almost impossible with a laptop. Then there's the long battery life, which also makes life easier, and the speed with which I can get going on any program (as compared to my laptop, which needs to wake up from sleep, etc.) The non-intrusiveness that people are talking about can be another benefit. As for the question asked earlier, why an iPad as opposed to other tablets--was that serious or facetious? Are there any tablets in existence right now that even approach the iPad in terms of touch interface, speed, ease of use, range of apps available, battery life, and weight? I know that I and many others have high hopes for Android tablets in the future, but I don't think we are there yet. Mark Mark Warschauer Professor of Education and Informatics University of California, Irvine Education 3000C Irvine, CA 92697-5500 tel: (949) 824-2526 fax: (949) 824-2965 markw@uci.edu; http://www.gse.uci.edu/markw twitter: http://twitter.com/markwarschauer