I think you overstate the situation greatly. I have in fact written school assignments on my iPad. I have also written a pretty large body of personal notes on ideas on it.
Granted, a seven-inch screen will make it harder. But for creation of content there's always actual paper and pencil. They can keep doing whatever they're already doing in that regard. And if they can't now, there's at least the theoretical ability to attach a keyboard.
The way I see it, the first goal is to be a lighter, more flexible textbook. This is exactly content consumption. It will likely do a good job of this. If it does anything else as well, that's a bonus.
Granted, a seven-inch screen will make it harder. But for creation of content there's always actual paper and pencil. They can keep doing whatever they're already doing in that regard. And if they can't now, there's at least the theoretical ability to attach a keyboard.
The way I see it, the first goal is to be a lighter, more flexible textbook. This is exactly content consumption. It will likely do a good job of this. If it does anything else as well, that's a bonus.