While iPads seem to be the tablet of choice, other devices are also being used. Kajeet, an American cellphone carrier, will give Android tablets to 120 public school students in Virginia and 180 to public school students in Chicago for the 2012-2013 academic year.

At the other end of the spectrum, tablets are becoming increasingly popular at the graduate level. All incoming students enrolled in an online M.B.A.-F.S.A. program, which focuses on the financial and insurance sectors, will get their own iPads preconfigured with applications specially designed for the course. The partnership between the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, in Belgium; University of St. Gallen, in Switzerland; and H.E.C. Montréal will rely almost entirely on digital, distance learning.

“Aside from relieving the previous burden of carrying fat, heavy folders when traveling, the iPad can open the door to new, effective ways of learning,” Jonathan De Grande, program manager at Vlerick, said by e-mail from Belgium. “Lectures are enriched with interactive material and video in a digital carrier that is compact and cost-effective.”

At $750 an iPad, it is a less-expensive alternative to laptops that cost an average of $1,200.

Local U.A.E. students attending public universities generally do not pay for tuition or textbooks, though they are required to buy their own laptops. The introduction of iPads will reduce that cost by nearly half, though in the U.A.E., which has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, few schools reported problems with families that could not afford the technology.

The plan to offer iPads across the U.A.E.’s three main higher education institutions has been in the works for one year by government decree. With the support of the government, a team of specialists visited Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, in April to form a partnership and agree on training services for teachers and students.