eBooks/eDocs and/or devices are not ready for the education market yet. Amazon conducted Kindle DX trials at Darden B-school (U. of Virginia), Princeton and a number of other U.S. universities. The general conclusion was that while it is a good device for general reading, it was not ready for education because its not easy to highlight, annotate etc. or go to a particular page (since there are no true page numbers).
Meanwhile Swiss B-school IMD is giving the iPad a try and while its likely to have some of the same shortcomings as the Kindle, it appears to be a better tool for facilitating networking in the classroom and for accessing real time information. One of the motives for going digital is to reduce paper use and associated printing/shipping costs.
Clearly the education segment is not going to drive eBook adoption … and if the 'specialist segment' is large enough and distinct enough there could be different devices for different segments … but not soon. Cambridge, U.K. based company Plastic Logic developed a super-sleek device for the business segment called Que … one that would replace not just books but the entire briefcase ... and then changed its mind in August last year. Now its focussing on next generation foldable plastic displays.