*Banning *vs. *using* laptops in class

The students sit in class, tapping away at their laptops as the boring old law professor mechanically plods through his lecture. Except one. Instead of hunching over a portable computer or a notebook, he’s playing solitaire with a deck of cards on his desk. The professor halts his droning. “What are you doing?” he demands. The student shrugs. “My laptop is broken,” he says.

It was a sketch, performed at a Yale Law School skit night some time ago, that sent a chill through the professors’ section in the auditorium. more>>

What do you think? Should laptops be banned and/or wireless access points blocked in classrooms? Or should the lecture itself get moved to the web, so class time can be used for engaged discussion and other activities that don't leave the students time for shopping, sorting photos, and cruising facebook during class meetings?