| 8:20 a.m. Greeting: Dean Kellye Testy, Seattle University School of Law |
| 8:30 a.m. Session 1: Glimpses of the Future: The Possible, the Probable, and the Potential of Innovative Reform |
| |
Moderator: Dean Kellye Testy, Seattle University School of Law
Focus: Discussion of exciting experiments in non-traditional pedagogy, with an emphasis on the development and implementation of creative course materials. The participants are invited to share their visions of what the future might hold. |
| |
Questions for Consideration:
- The Global Vision: Given the diverse needs of lawyers in the 21st Century, what are the fulfilling and successful innovations with non-traditional pedagogy that have best prepared your students for the future? What have been your most exciting pedagogical "moments" in these regards, and how might course book/materials complement those moments?
- Print Vision: What successful and fulfilling innovations with non-traditional pedagogy have you undertaken that relied primarily on printed materials, including those that you assembled or adopted? Do any current law school course books serve your purposes in these regards? If not, what sorts of changes might reasonably be made?
- Electronic Vision: What successful and fulfilling innovations with non-traditional pedagogy have you undertaken that relied primarily on electronic materials, including those that you assembled or adopted? Does any existing Internet site or combination of sites serve your purposes in these regards? If not, what sorts of changes might reasonably be made?
- Conference Ideas: Have you learned anything from the recent spate of conferences on pedagogical reform - at AALS, Harvard, Stanford, Georgia State, American University, and various CALI events, among others - that bears centrally on the future development of legal course books/materials?
- Law Publishers: What reforms in course books/materials are law publishers currently considering?
- Interdisciplinary Ideas: Do you know of any innovations in course books/materials that have been or are about to be made in disciplines other than law? Is there anything in particular that we might draw from such advances?
|
| 10:15 a.m. Break |
| 10:30 a.m. Session 2: The Printed Casebook & Its Print/Electronic Alternatives: Advantages and Disadvantages in Content & Delivery Systems |
| |
Moderator: David Skover, Seattle University School of Law
Focus: Discussion of the advantages/disadvantages of the traditional printed casebook, non-traditional printed course books, and their non-traditional electronic counterparts, with emphasis on both contents and delivery systems. |
| |
Questions for Consideration:
- Traditional Casebook Contents: What are the intellectual, institutional, economic, and practical advantages/disadvantages of the traditional casebook, so far as content is concerned? What is the connection between the traditional casebook and the traditional curriculum, and how does that constrain any reform efforts?
- Alternative Course Book Contents: What viable alternatives are there to the traditional print casebook, so far as content is concerned? What are their advantages? On what data might law teachers draw to redesign course materials? What intellectual, institutional, economic, and practical impediments hinder the adoption of such alternatives?
- Print Delivery System: Apart from its content, what are the advantages/disadvantages of the printed course book?
- Electronic Delivery System: Apart from its content, what might be the advantages/disadvantages of an electronic course book? What innovative ways might electronic course books be used to enhance the legal educational experience?
- Premises Underlying Electronic Delivery System: Insofar as an electronic course book might replicate (whether entirely or selectively) the contents of its print counterpart, why not use it? What does the use of such an electronic course book presuppose? (Here the focus is on the data content, and not the electronic receptacle by which it is read. See Session 3 below.)
- Departure from the Canon: Does the promise of unlimited electronic content mean that there will be a corresponding significant departure from the traditional canon of course materials? Assuming, for example, that all existing torts casebooks contain the same 125 core cases, would not those same cases be used in all e-course books? Even so, is not the user of the electronic format more likely to experiment, and thereby depart from the traditional canon in increasing ways?
- Bar Examination: How does bar exam testing influence content choices?
- Impacts of Electronic Bookstores: How might electronic bookstores (like Amazon.com) providing law school course books/materials affect the roles and functions of law libraries and law school bookstores?
- Intellectual Property Concerns: How might issues of intellectual property factor into the considerations above?
|
| 12:30 p.m. Lunch |
| 1:30 p.m. Keynote: Dean Ed Rubin, Vanderbilt University Law School |
| 2 p.m. Session 3: Competing Online Architectural Formats: Advantages & Disadvantages |
| |
Moderator: Matthew Bodie, Sait Louis University School of Law
Focus: Discussion of the advantages/disadvantages of different electronic formats for delivering content. |
| |
Questions for Consideration:
- Online data options: There will be competing designs for the presentation of course materials - for example, one could go to an Internet site (or multiple sites) and find a pre-packaged course book (which may or may not allow for user input), or a database permitting selection of materials, or some combination of these. What are the advantages/disadvantages of such options?
- Database design options: If a database option were to be preferred, what attributes might it have? For example, what should be in this database (e.g., cases and codes, secondary materials, interactive problems, narratives, video streaming)? How should the database be designed to best facilitate user selection of materials?
- Format -- Close-source online architecture (business enterprise paid-access model): What are the advantages/disadvantages of having close-source architecture for the various data options above?
- Format -- Open-source online architecture (public commons free-access model): What are the advantages/disadvantages of having open-source architecture for the various data options above?
- Receptacles: Apart from the electronic format for delivering course book contents, what are the advantages/disadvantages of competing electronic receptacles (e.g., laptops, Amazon's Kindle, Sony's Reader, and the like)? Assuming the inadequacy of existing electronic receptacles, what technological changes would best serve the purposes of legal education? For example, what would be necessary to have receptacles that could receive content from both close-source and open-source formats?
- Intellectual Property Concerns: How might issues of intellectual property factor into the considerations above?
|
| 3:30 p.m. Break |
| 4 p.m. Session 4: Where Do We Go From Here? |
| |
Moderator: Ron Collins, First Amendment Center
Focus: Discussion of desirable avenues for follow-up action.
Summary: Reflections on the Workshop: To What Point Have We Come? |
| |
Questions to Consider: What Next?
- Follow-Up Event: Should there be a follow-up workshop or conference? Private or public? A plenary session at the AALS?
- Consortium: Should specific recommendations on the development of future course books be made? Should a consortium of academics and publishers be organized to propose such recommendations and strategies for implementation?
- Publication: Future publications in: A law review? White paper? Published booklet? Online? All of the above?
- Bar Examiners: How do we engage bar examiners in this process?
|
