It was 1992 during an environmental law lecture for graduate students that a first occurred for the instructor and the majority of students present. A bag phone ringer went off in the middle of the lecture period. Offended to have his class interrupted in such a careless manner, the instructor halted the lecture and unceremoniously strode up the stairs and out the back doors while muttering, “Well, that’s a first.” It represented homage to the quickly expanding age of electronic communication and an affront to those holding ground against a rising tide of change.

It soon progressed...