In one sense, the reaction to the iPad is very clear indicator of one's educational philosophy. If you are a teacher, administrator or politician who sees the school's role as filling little empty buckets with prescribed information, the iPad is a potential fire hose. It CAN deliver content, and given Apple's control over the apps that run on the device, that content can be provided by a very select number of publishers.
But if your idea of an educated person is one who constructs knowledge, solves problems, and communicates effectively, this is not the tool for you - at least at the current time. Unlike a netbook, the iPad makes creating, saving and sharing even simple written documents, let alone multi-media, nearly impossible.
Thanks to Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk Blog. The most reasonable man in EdTech!