Early bird registration for the AALS Annual Meeting in San Diego ends tomorrow.
Here are some more reasons to be there, from the newly-formed Section on Technology, Law and Legal Education:
Half-Day Program: Friday, January 5, 2018 from 8:30 am – 12:15 in Pacific Ballroom 24.
Join us for an interactive program designed to open our minds to the challenges and opportunities presented to law schools by the changing nature of student learning styles and the legal profession in the digital age. How can we respond to the changing nature of student learning? The premise of the Socratic method is that during a dialogue between professor and student A, all students are closely following along, imagining their response, and drawing understanding from their own reading and their rapt engagement with the dialogue. However valid this premise may have been in the days of Christopher Columbus Langdell, it seems dubious for the digital age. Our challenge is to find ways to meet students where they are. Digital technology offers new possibilities for learning, but also for distraction. How can we prepare our students for work in light of the changing nature of law practice? The work of Richard Susskind and others has illuminated the ways in which artificial intelligence and the worldwide digital communications network have altered the needs and possibilities of law practice. We will consider those changes and how as professors we can better prepare our students for that changing world.
We are working on this in collaboration with a group of law professors from Australia. Peter Strauss (Columbia) and Kathy Laster (Victoria University, Australia) are leading the program. Papers will be considered for publication in the Journal of Legal Education.
Pedagogy Program: “Teaching Through Technology” Thursday, January 4, 2018 from 3:30-4:45.
Technology is impacting everything — from how we shop for groceries, meet our partners, and track our daily walks to how we practice law and teach law students. Join us to learn about how technology is being used in the practice of law and in legal education to make lawyering and teaching more effective and efficient. During the first part of the program, our speakers will talk about the state of technology in the legal practice. During the second part of the program we will hear from law professors as they discuss paper(s) relating to how faculty have incorporated the teaching of and with technology into their curricula.
Papers from this program will be published in Journal of Legal Education.
Speakers
Speaker: Ruth Hauswirth, Cooley LLP
Speaker: Emily Janoski-Haehlen, University of Akron School of Law
Speaker: Elmer R. Masters, The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI)
Moderator: Laura Norris, Santa Clara University School of Law
Speaker: Karen Sanner, Saint Louis University School of Law
Filed under: Uncategorized |
Best Practices for Legal Education 
Also, from the New Law Professor Section:
January 3, 2018
3:30 pm – 5:15 pm
Good teaching is about more than putting on a good show in class. What goes on before class matters as much or more as the classroom performance itself. For example, professors have to articulate their course goals and objectives, make decisions about course coverage and sequencing, and determine when and how to give formative assessment to their students. Equally important is what goes on after class. Once a class session ends, professors need to reflect on what worked in the class just taught and what did not, and they have to think ahead to the crafting of a final exam. This panel will address both the big picture ideas that you should have in mind as you prepare to teach a new course as well as specific techniques to improve your teaching. There will be an opportunity for attendees to get advice about issues and decisions they are facing as they plan their courses. All of the members of this panel are experienced law professors, and a number of them have been recognized nationally for their teaching.
Business meeting at program conclusion.
Speakers:
Paula A Franzese, Seton Hall University School of Law
Darrell D Jackson, University of Wyoming College of Law
Howard E Katz, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University
Kevin Francis O’Neill, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University
Moderator: Eugene D. Mazo, Rutgers Law School