The forbidden-laptop zone is territory into which few professors dare tread. Students have been known to protest when laptops are banned from a classroom, and even claim that they are being denied a proper education. Professors who have taken the bold step, though, sound like they've experienced an epiphany. A professor at the University, Don Herzog, tried a one-day ban as an experiment. He was not only stunned by how much better the class was, the students volunteered that it was much better. It's unusual to walk into a law class, or any classroom in a professional school today, without viewing a sea of open laptop lids blocking students' faces and hearing the steady hum of fingers striking keyboards. A growing--albeit small--number of law professors like Herzog are pushing back. Students with laptops, they argue, surf the Web instead of engaging in class, and play games, shop online, or e-mail friends, distracting themselves and those who sit near them.