Connectivity in classrooms

A faculty member recently proposed that University classrooms on campus would be "no wireless" by default. Sigh... I sent this reply:

This won't work (on technical grounds), but I would oppose it on philosophical grounds as well.

From a technical standpoint, it's not feasible to exclude wireless networking from classrooms. The base-stations that are providing 802.x connectivity in classrooms are part of a network providing connectivity generally in an area. Moreover, many devices students are using are using 3G (cell phone) technology and are not part of the University's infrastructure. The only way to stop them would be to either enclose the classroom in a giant Faraday cage (impractical, unless you're the NSA) or jam the signals (against Federal law).

I've heard the arguments before and I know how passionately people feel about this issue. When the printing press was first created, I'm sure that some faculty thought it was terrible that students could just buy a book, rather than having to create their own hand-written copy from what the professor read (that's the etymology of "lecture" after all). As the printing press changed the nature of knowledge, I believe the network is changing what it means to learn. Trying to shut it out of the classroom is denying that reality.