Turtles all the way down

This will be an interesting experiment:

Late last month, as students returned from spring break, the University of Chicago Law School announced that Internet access would be blocked from classrooms. While individual professors at law schools have created policies banning laptops or allowing them only for specific uses — and while some colleges don’t even have classroom Internet access, or mandate classroom-only use without any enforcement — the move by Chicago appears to be the first institution-wide directive of its kind. Already, there’s been an uproar among students and even senior administrators, while some law professors have stepped up to defend the policy.

The first time I went to school, 20 years ago, we didn’t have laptops or classroom Internet, but we found other ways of goofing off.

There are reasons why Internet access is quite useful in class. You can look up phrases and terms in Wikipedia or online legal dictionaries. You can skim cases in Lexis or Westlaw. You can access the class’s web site where the professor just posted supplemental material. And of course, you can stay on top of the playoff game when the professor drones on about the subtle differences between appurtenant and in gross easements.