At De Novo there's a discussion about whether or not Boalt should put wireless Internet in the classrooms. I'm for it, but Armen (who goes there) is not so sure. This is what I mentioned in the comments:
I vote for wireless everywhere. My school (BU) has it. Granted it's only recently that it's worked reliably, but we missed it when it didn't. For one, rooms are used for multiple purposes (not just lectures). For another, there are legitimate educational reasons for having Internet accessibility during class (the construction of our school means that wireless is the only way to get it): e.g., checking documents on the course website when the professor mentions them, or during OCI having ready access to email for the last minute interviews that could get scheduled, or getting clarifications on what the professor just said via IM (yes, it's happened), etc.Personal judgment and discretion determine whether wireless access might negatively affect one's academic performance. It doesn't do so automatically.
Now I say all this as someone whose entire laptop has recently gone kaput and has been taking notes by hand all this semester. Clearly I can live without technology, Internet-connected or standalone. But I don't think that evidence of my survival necessitates the conclusion that others should be deliberately deprived of the option.
(And my lack of connectivity is just forcing my classmates to IM me by passing notes on scraps of paper. Clearly the Internet is more discrete, and saves more trees...)
but you should follow the link for the rest of the discussion.
However, it should also be noted that since Boalt = Berkeley, I have a lot to say about its diffusion of Internet technology...