TECHNOLOGY IN AND BEYOND THE CLASSROOM* Pamela Samuelson, University of California at Berkeley Most of the ideas and information set forth below derive from my experience teaching cyberlaw this past semester at Boalt. While the benefits of using the Internet or the World Wide Web in a course such as this are obvious, the benefits of using these resources are far from confined to courses dealing with the law regulating the Internet and the Web. Many professors are using the Internet and the Web in connection with teaching traditional classes. Even if you don't want to use the Internet or the Web extensively, you may want to consider using them for some communication functions (see below) or for some information technology topics you might choose to include in a traditional course. Civil procedure professors, for example, may find it useful to visit websites linking to caselaw and commentary about the criteria for obtaining personal jurisdiction over those who maintain websites or on cyberspace as its own jurisdiction. Torts professors may find of interest Web-based materials on the potential liability of online service providers for torts committed by users. A panoply of materials about the Communications Decency Act and the Reno v. ACLU case are available on various websites for constitutional law courses. At the very least, law professors may want to treat the Internet and the Web as useful sources of information when preparing their classes. I. SOME UTILITIES OF EMAIL IN LAW TEACHING To make appointments As an appointment To receive student papers To send comments on student papers and the like To engage in dialogue with students advantages of email exchanges (e.g., asynchronous, having a record) disadvantages of email exchanges (e.g., lack of affect in medium can lead to misunderstandings) To explain something to a student or ask for a reaction in the event you are worried about how they took something directed at them in class II. USING LISTSERVS FOR A CLASS To announce questions for class discussion To communicate with students about current developments or programs of interest/relevance to the class To allow communications following classroom meetings if there wasn't time to discuss some issues in class To explore what may have seemed like a tangent if presented in class (some of these actually turn out to be more pertinent than they might first appear, and in any event, student-initiated exchanges on subjects related to the class are to be encouraged) To give students an opportunity to see a professor's answers to questions posed by other students that they may have wanted to ask To involve students in discussions from their homes (especially good for students who have commitments that keep them home more than other students and especially good for night owls) But it's sometimes hard to get discussion going on a listserv unless you salt the list yourself or with the aid of student collaborators. (This is largely a function of intervening messages which break up the conversational feel of an exchange of messages.) Accept the fact that some people will lurk. Some advice: Keep sentences and paragraphs short to make it easier for people to respond to each substantive issue in their replies DON'T CAPITALIZE your responses (except in extreme circumstances; in the networked world, capitalization is the equivalent of shouting.) III. USES OF THE WEB Posting your course description and/or the course syllabus (so students don't have to ask you for another copy if they misplace their copy), including updates or revisions Announcing office hours (maybe even with an email link so students can send mail directly off your website to request an actual meeting) Informing students of your schedule (e.g., when you'll be out of town or speaking at some event which they might be interested in) Informing students of class policies (e.g., how you'll deal with missed deadlines and the like) Providing answers to FAQs (frequently asked questions) Informing students of current events (with links to the appropriate websites) Providing a list of questions that a particular class will address Putting up your course notes (some people do it), or at least more detailed topical outlines or related materials Making class handouts more readily available Linking to assigned materials (e.g., using the Web as a supplement) Connecting to other resources (e.g., search engines, sites with pertinent information, sites with links to pertinent information) Giving students assignments to search the Web for resources on a particular topic (you may be surprised how much is out there) Engaging in web-based threaded discussions (which are better than listservs in some respects, chiefly because discussion can be separated by topic and postings responding to other postings can be put together in sequence to give exchanges a conversational feel) Giving students an opportunity to compose electronic or Web-based projects as assignments for a course or seminar (either on their own or in collaboration with others; Prof. Reidenberg, for example, assigns students the task of posting comments on a class bulletin board in response to his posting of a request for comment on a proposed federal regulation pertinent to the class; they discuss what's been posted in class.) Giving students an easy way to review fellow students' work and/or critique it (this can be done anonymously) Providing sample tests and model answers (or other exam preparation materials) Posting grades (with appropriate confidentiality measures, of course) Giving students more information about you (e.g., a list of your publications or pictures from your most recent vacation) Providing students (and others) with access to your articles or works in progress. IV. OTHER RESOURCES Software (e.g., Great American History Machine which has all census data and provides functionality that enables people to map trends, national to county- level, and to engage in exercises such as gerrymandering particular jurisdictions where there has been voting rights litigation) Other law professor websites from which to get ideas my cyberlaw class (which has links to a number of similar sites) http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~pam/courses/cyberlaw/ Bernard Hibbitts' index to many law school course webpages http://www.law.pitt.edu/hibbitts/juristcr.htm Michael Froomkin's Constitutional Law webpage http://www.law.miami.edu/~froomkin/conlaw Sites with lots of legal information and links to other legal information Cornell Law Library (decisions by the International Court of Justice in the Hague, among other things) and Legal Information Institute (recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, among other things) Chicago-Kent Lawlinks Villanova Law School Thomas V. ADVANTAGES What you might expect Use of technology in class (or to extend it) can be motivating for students who may be tired of the same old format for every class. You can help fulfill MacCrate Report goals of turning out students with a broader range of practice-relevant skills. Use of the Web may help students learn about the availability of free or lower cost legal resources than those provided by Lexis and Westlaw. You can get to know the students better than you might otherwise do. You will learn something new in the process. What you might not have expected Students can collaborate with one another in new ways (which may be useful to them in practice). For some students, information technology may make it easier for them to interact with you and their classmates. Some students will have an opportunity to teach you something new. You may have a chance to see your subject from a somewhat different perspective when you use technology in class or invite technologists to your class to discuss issues of mutual interest. You may find new things to write about or new people with whom to collaborate on intellectual projects. You may attain credibility as a forward-looking, technologically sophisticated person. By embracing some uses of information technology, you may avoid being perceived as a dinosaur (i.e., someone who doesn't "get it"). Making time for what is important but not urgent is satisfying in its own right. Putting up your own webpage is very rewarding, even fun. Having a website for your class will provide you with opportunities to share your approach or expertise with other law professors and make intellectual resources more broadly available (e.g., why shouldn't someone at Kansas use part of my cyberlaw curriculum for the digital media part of his or her copyright class?). West and Lexis-Nexis are both looking for "killer aps;" maybe you'll come up with one. VI. WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR Some things work better than others (either in general or perhaps for you) Use of presentation software in class, in my view, isn't worth the trouble. It will tend to constrain your presentation and make it feel "canned;" lighting in classrooms is often a problem even if the equipment situation (e.g., network hookup) is otherwise acceptable. On the other hand, complex charts, timelines, or graphical representations of, for example, the scene of a crime may be depicted well with the aid of such software. Even if some visual aids are good, ask yourself why you are using Powerpoint if an overhead projector would do just as well. Multimedia should only be used when there's a pedagogical reason to do so. (A lot of it is gratuitous. Lawyers are "textheads" for good reason.) It's not enough to learn how to code in html (although this is remarkably easy and there are lots of web resources about how to do this); design issues, especially regarding navigation, deserve attention. Too often people who get involved in preparation of electronic teaching materials spend too much energy hand-crafting an artifact that isn't easily modified, won't scale up, and isn't portable. Modularize your design to maximize reuse of content by yourself and others. The extent to which it makes sense to use information technology may differ from class to class (e.g., Jessica Litman doesn't use the Internet in her first year classes out of concern that some students might worry unduly about being at a disadvantage if they aren't computer literate). Sometimes the technology doesn't work (e.g., the presentation package crashes, the Internet connection goes down, the server you want to link to is unavailable during class). So have a backup strategy. Student reactions may vary Student technical expertise will vary a lot (why I do a survey). But some students may volunteer to help newbies (including you). Some schools still don't provide Internet access to students. Even when schools do provide such access, the campus network may congested at peak usage times. Students have different learning styles; some will take to electronic learning better than others. Using technology to extend the classroom or in it takes time Learning to use the technology Preparing materials for class Using it in class Updating or revising the materials The reward structure of law schools may make it seem risky for untenured faculty to invest in preparing electronic resources. However, this is changing. You may have to grapple with some novel legal issues. Privacy issues may arise if you post student names or papers. Even if you routinely photocopy law review or other articles for your coursepacks without obtaining permission, you may want to think twice before posting the same material on your website as your site is potentially accessible by anyone who uses the web (which may make you an alternative publisher of the material). Be sure you understand the intellectual property policy of your online provider with respect to its claims as to materials posted on their site if you choose a proprietary site as a host. What to do if you aren't that adept with the technology Hire a technically savvy research assistant. Cultivate your local technical support staff. Talk your dean into hiring someone with web-building skills. Investigate the availability of university resources ($ may be available from a campus learning technology development program). Understand that although the tools available now aren't great, they are getting better (e.g., Microsoft's FrontPage). Don't get too ambitious all at once. (That's what the future is for: to learn more and do better.) * This material was prepared for the AALS Experienced Teachers Conference, June 10-14, 1997, in Minneapolis MN. The author can be reached at pam@sims.berkeley.edu.