If you find yourself responding to family IT requests on a constant basis, the iPad will make all of that go away. Matter of fact, you may never hear from them again.
Just set up the printer and ensure there's enough paper and ink to go for awhile. Check back in six months.
Oh, you'll hear from them again once they discover FaceTime and how it costs nothing to call you. :( or :)
On a more serious note, I am looking into the exact workflow that would be needed to use iPads for students so that assignments (receive / turn in) would be seamless to normal students. Might still be a few years, but I can feel which way the wind is blowing.
That's kind of the last resort. I would prefer something a bit, uhm, integrated. I am not really talking about 1 class, I am talking about all classes. I just want to get something that is simpler than e-mail.
Are you taking direct advantage of the iOS Developer Library for the iPad? If you're not, then maybe all you need is a fancy HTML5 app. It's not as sexy as an app store app, but you control all of the content without worrying about having future releases rejected.
On your serious note, you'd have to build an app with enough of a forward-packed pipeline that would unlock timely student assignments on a regular basis, yet be updatable through the App Store without much fear of rejection, adjusting the content as the class progresses +/-. Just like the Angry Birds franchises do. They ability to synchronize all of that may be difficult at first, but the platform is here.
Just set up the printer and ensure there's enough paper and ink to go for awhile. Check back in six months.