i for one applaud this

now if only i could do something about people you're having a conversation with using their pda OR
people at work bringing their laptops to meetings. all you can hear is their fingers beating away at the keys. it's distracting AND RUDE. same with the phone. if you want to talk to me, TALK TO ME. if you're going to talk on the phone, i'm going to turn my back on you. i'm stubborn. NO second chances. and hey, it's YOUR loss, not mine

Wide Web of diversions gets laptops evicted from lecture halls
On a windy morning in downtown Washington, a hundred Georgetown Law students gathered in a hall for David Cole's lecture on democracy and coercion. The desks were cluttered with books, Thermoses and half-eaten muffins.

Another item was noticeable in its absence: laptop computers. They were packed away under chairs, tucked into backpacks, powered down and forgotten.

Cole has banned laptops from his classes, compelling students to take notes the way their parents did: on paper.

A generation ago, academia embraced the laptop as the most welcome classroom innovation since the ballpoint pen. But during the past decade, it has evolved into a powerful distraction. Wireless Internet connections tempt students away from note-typing to e-mail, blogs, YouTube videos, sports scores, even online gaming -- all the diversions of a home computer beamed into the classroom to compete with the professor for the student's attention...............