Over the past few weeks I've begun experimenting with the iPad and my students who range from hard of heraing to deaf to special Ed to general Ed. (I'm a DHH itinerant teacher).
So far I've seen that each student has been interested in using it - I've used two baby apps to teach iPad skills plus two communication apps - Verbal Victor ($7) and Tap to Talk (free). Sound quality, picture quality, glare and dexterity are all playing a role in how well a student uses it for communication. As for ease of use I'm liking Verbal Victor especially for emerging communicators. For students who can handle sets and subsets Tap to Talk is a quick and easy app or a more complicated and well designed app is Touch chat($145).
Still with all the drawbacks I can see using this for kids in more capacities than communication. For example it was one of the few things that held a young pupil's attention for longer than one minute. Now the challenge is to create apps that address the needs of a wide variety of people and can contribute to everyone's quality of life - one such innovation is the device that allows one to swipe in the air and the iPad screen responds. As I continue to experiment I'll post comments and / or write articles. And I hope everyone else does too. There's so much to be learned from each others' experiences.