The Question of Banning Laptops in Class

Ken "caesar" Fisher published a very interesting article on ArsTechnica explaining the problematic of providing WiFi internet access to students in class. If I would be a teacher, I know that I wouldn’t be too happy if half of my class was browsing the web while I would be speaking to them. Some colleges have already implemented a system where dictators teachers can knock out WiFi in their classrooms at the flip of a switch, but unfortunately, this system cannot block laptops that have EVDO access, and as you probably already know, EVDO is getting cheaper by the day.

What can you do in the face of blocking efforts that ultimately will fail? Really, professors shouldn't be doing anything new. A well-structured class should have a lecture component that delivers material and analysis necessary for the student's performance in the course. The bigger question is, if Joe Baccalaureate got through Econ 101 with an "A" while spending his time manicuring his rotisserie-style fantasy baseball team in lecture, what was the lecture for to begin with?

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