Stanford University's School of Medicine announced last week that it would be distributing iPads to the incoming class of first year medical students.

And today iAnnotate PDF announced that its PDF-reader and annotation app would be part of the required course materials for those students. According to today's press release, "iAnnotate is a complete annotation solution that gives students and other professionals the ability to take notes, highlight and underline in documents and diagrams with the drag of a finger. iAnnotate eliminates the need for voluminous printed texts and easily consolidates and organizes notes and documents. Teachers can quickly grade assignments, and share annotated diagrams, charts or syllabi. Students can easily email and share notes on PDFs to their study groups."

According to Dr. Henry Lowe, senior associate dean for information resources and technology,We really don't know yet how the incoming medical students will use them," but he claims physicians are quickly embracing the iPad. Physicians are a mobile group, he says. They're moving around from clinic to clinic, from patient to patient."

So are students from pretty much middle school on, I might add, moving from classroom to classroom and lugging backbacks full of books and supplies. It'll be interesting to see how our expectations and requirements for filling those backpacks is going to change.