Six Law School Deans Form a Discussion Group on Ways to Collaborate on More Effective Use of Technology in Legal Education

Press release from PRWeb

The deans of the Australian National University College of Law, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, the University of Miami School of Law, New York Law School, the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law, and Southwestern Law School have agreed to begin a joint conversation on how law schools can collaborate to use technology more effectively and expansively in legal education.

Recognizing that the study of law, like many other aspects of education (and modern life in general), is relying more on technology and moving online, and is subject to being disaggregated and unbundled at a rapid pace, the discussion group will focus on the following issues and ideas:

•     how the law schools might work together to explore ways to facilitate blended and online courses and degree programs at these schools and more broadly in legal education.
•     the prospect of developing a place on the Web to provide access to learning opportunities and information about a wide variety of legal topics on a “just in time” basis (fixed learning, variable time), untethered from legal education’s restrictions around academic calendar and course/program arrangements (fixed time, variable learning).
•     creating a marketplace to bring together those who want to build and sell even finer-grained sets of learning objects, activities, and games with students and others who want those opportunities.

Barmax has free MRPE prep and now has an iPad app

Here is a link to the TechCrunch article about Barmax updating their Bar preparation application and releasing it for the iPad. But perhaps of more immediate interest to law students is their free MPRE app.

From the Barmax website, the MPRE app:

BarMax MPRE

The days of being forced to sign-up for an overpriced bar review course just so you can study for the MPRE are officially over. With BarMax MPRE, you get everything you need to pass the MPRE for free. No strings attached.

BarMax MPRE includes:

– Outline & audio lecture
– Email support (live contact with Harvard-educated lawyers)
– Skeleton outline for note taking (email support@getbarmax.com for skeleton outline)
– 174 REAL practice MPRE questions from previous exams
– Over 100 flashcards categorized by subject
– Lifetime access to the app and course materials
– Review includes:

• Regulation of the Legal Profession
• The Client-Lawyer Relationship
• Conflicts of Interests & the Duty of Loyalty
• Client Confidentiality
• Duty of Competence
• Litigation & Other Forms of Advocacy
• Communications with Persons Other than Clients
• Different Roles of the Lawyer
• Safekeeping Funds & Other Property
• Communications About Legal Services
• Lawyers’ Duties to the Public & the Legal System
• Judicial Conduct

——————————————————-

Certainly, a great way to get a feel for Barmax’s style before committing to a $1,000 application to study for the Bar Exam.  (remember at this time Barmax only supports the CA and NY bars, but the MPRE is standard across jurisdictions that require it.)

As a side note, I categorized this under eBooks as well, because I think interactive apps for education are part of the eTextbook revolution, and offer a better learning experience than static text on a page.

Barmax

Here is a great article from TechCrunch, a technology site about the Barmax bar prep app for iOS  to study for the CA or NY bars.  It is now expanding from the iPhone to the iPad.  I really like this idea and wonder how it will impact the Barbri and Kaplan programs. This article implies BarMax’s success may be related to BarBri being offered for sale by Thomson-Reuters.  It is still limited to those two states and it will be interesting to see how and when they expand.

Teachers: Please stop prohibiting the use of Wikipedia

Chris Dawson of ZDNet makes the following plea in his blog post:

“This plea doesn’t apply to the teachers (or administrators, for that matter) who have figured out that Wikipedia is an incredible knowledge store, cornucopia of primary sources, and go-to site for most the free world. Rather, this plea is for those who, instead of teaching students about Internet site credibility, fact checking, verification, and crowdsourcing, choose to simply prohibit the use of Wikipedia.”

I agree that Wikipedia can be a useful source of information, but as the article says, you have to check the facts and verify it with other sources before relying upon it.

The Kno – A possible challenger to the iPad for Attorney’s and Students

The Kno is tablet or slate computer that supports both a touch interface and writing with a stylus. I think this gives it real potential to challenge the iPad as I believe the lack of writing support is a major limitation. It is going to be available in two models, one with dual 14″ screens and the other with a single 14″ screen.  Otherwise, the technical specifications are planned to be the same.  The dual screen version will fold flat so that it could be carried and used while standing.

Right now their focus is on the education market and providing a rich experience with interactive textbooks.  It allows highlighting of text and notetaking in the margins, as well as providing a note taking application for more detailed work or drawing.

I could certainly envision it being used by an attorney at trial to track depositions, take notes on exhibits and potentially be able to display those exhibits to the jury.

I will be following the Kno’s progress, at this time it is scheduled to be in production and available before the end of the year.

Welcome to the Future: Time for Law School 4.0

Very interesting blog post about the future of Law Schools and whether their current curriculums are serving the needs of the profession.  Since I have not started school yet, I will refrain from commenting, but wanted to share this post.  The author also mentions the lack of technology use to enhance the learning experience at most schools and that is an area I hope to see change in new future.

Technorati Tags: law school,technology,curriculum

 

Welcome to the Future: Time for Law School 4.0

Welcome to the Future: Time for Law School 4.0

Very interesting blog post about the future of Law Schools and whether their current curriculums are serving the needs of the profession.  Since I have not started school yet, I will refrain from commenting, but wanted to share this post.  The author also mentions the lack of technology use to enhance the learning experience at most schools and that is an area I hope to see change in new future.

Technorati Tags: law school,technology,curriculum

 

Welcome to the Future: Time for Law School 4.0