Review: CS-SIS Roundtable at AALL – What’s it All About Techie?: Does Educational Technology Help Law Students Learn Law?

Deborah Ginsberg led a lively discussion about what librarians and ed tech people hope to accomplish by using technology and how they are accomplishing it.  Participants said they wish to engage law students, not entertain.  They hope to use technology to reach various types of learners.  One librarian said she creates online learning materials on LibGuides for students in multiple formats, so they can pick what works best for them.  Her formats include a Prezi overview, video, text, lecture, images and powerpoint. These teaching LibGuides stresssed 5 to 10 resources – very much stripped down from a regular LibGuide for research. This librarian acknowledged that she spent lots of time generating the multiple formats, but she built the materials over the years, so it was doable.

Another issue raised was technology as a distraction.  Many librarians teach in labs, or students have laptops.  Instructors wonder whether students are on Facebook, or are indeed paying attention to the class.   Several participants said you can monitor your students using a product call Insight,.  Insight allows you to see the students' computer screen and show the students' screens on a screen at the front of the classroom.  Another participant felt that using Insight as a way to expose students goofing off created an oppressive dynamic.  Instead, she uses Insight so students can volunteer to show their search screens when they have good results, or to get help from the teacher when a search did not work. Another idea to keep students off Facebook was to use computers for short, ungraded quizzes, which go into student participation scores.  

Along the self-assessment vein, it was pointed out that Walters Kluwers ebooks have self assessment tests.  They can be used to see if students need additional help.  Law School faculty are currently being pushed to do more assessment.  Thus, they have a motivation to adopt new technologies for assessment purposes, presenting an opportunity for librarians to step in and offer some possibilities. 

Technology for assessment or other purposes can be as low tech as a paper and pencil.  Scratch offs were brought up as one example of a powerful low tech tool.  The scratch off looks like a lottery scratch off ticket.  The students are divided into groups, which attempt to answer a question and scratch off the answer.  

Hand on activities were noted as an important way to use technology to engage students.   While legal research, writing and other skills classes lend themselves to hands on activities, it may take more creativity to use hands on activities in substantive law classes.

Participants discussed ways to inform faculty about new educational technology, such as brown bags and speaking at faculty meetings.  While attendance may be low at brown bags, the enthusiastic faculty who attend will pass the information on to colleagues.  One school awards faculty with certificates for learning new technologies and the Dean recognizes them at faculty meetings. 

One librarian said faculty attendance was very high for iPad training.  Someone suggested the Educreations App to show the iPad on a screen and use it like a whiteboard.  You can even use this app to save a video of the lecture.  Dosari is another product to facilitate iPads as wireless presenters. One law school is using their digital sign to show 5 minute presentations about apps that students can watch between classes.  On the downside, one librarian said that students don't want to spend money on iPads and there is a negative stigma attached to them by the students.  She advises telling students about apps usable on Androids and other platforms, as well as usable on iPads/iPhones.  

So, does educational technology help law students learn law?  The answer appears to be “maybe”.  The only way to know for sure is to try it yourself or to collaborate with others and find out what worked for them.