Learning / Technology in Legal Education

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Learning / Technology Professor Paul Maharg paulmaharg.com/slides

Transcript of Learning / Technology in Legal Education

Page 1: Learning / Technology in Legal Education

Learning / Technology

Professor Paul Mahargpaulmaharg.com/slides

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preview1. Learning / Technology2. Law Teacher special issue on learning / technology3. Why should we care?4. The digital context5. The state of research6. Medical education vs legal education7. Call for action

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techne / poesis‘techne is the name not only for the activities and skills of the craftsman, but also for the arts of the mind and the fine arts. Techne belongs to bringing-forth, to poiesis; it is something poetic’

M. Heidegger, “The Question Concerning Technology”. In D.F. Krell (ed), Martin Heidegger. Basic Writings (London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978), p. 294.

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Author Title

Paul Maharg, ANU, Canberra Editorial: Learning / Technology

Emily Allbon, City U, London Seeing is believing: we are all converging

Kris Greaves, Charles Sturt U., Sydney Computer-aided qualitative analysis of social media for teachers and students in legal education

Craig Newbery-Jones, Plymouth U. D-Pad: exploring the potential of video games as a phenomenological tool for experiential legal education

Dan Jackson, Northeastern U., Boston Human-centred legal tech: integrating design in legal education

Craig Collins, ANU, Canberra Story interface and strategic design for new law curricula

Paul Maharg, ANU, Canberra Disintermediation

The Law Teacher special issue, 2016

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why should we care about this?What scandalized the serious scholar Erasmus (as it fascinated Durer) was the fact that, not much more than half a century after the first appearance of the printed book, demand had turned it into a product beyond the control of the scholars and specialists. The book had taken over as the transmitter of European written culture, before scholars and educators had had time to come to terms with its power and influence.

Jardine, L. (1996). Worldly Goods: A New History of the Renaissance. Macmillan,London, p.228.

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Special Issue explores the digital experience1. What’s digital?

Specific devices, networks, assemblages? Technical, educational, research affordances, modes of text and search, specific skills, competences, practices, environments?

2. How does digital alter social?Eg distributed communities, socio-material understandings, means of production & modes of use

3. How does digital (+ social) alter literacies?Eg artefacts and practices, formal and informal contexts of research, visual artefacts, digital curation.

4. How does digital encourage metricization of our working lives, and what can we do about it?

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underlying transforming features of digital…• Replicability• Mutability• Connectivity• Instantaneity (& the ‘nearly now’)• Portability• Identity

Jones, C. (2013). The digital university: a concept in need of definition. In R. Goodfellow, M.R.Lea,eds, Literacy in the Digital University. Critical Perspectives on Learning, Scholarship andTechnology. SRHE, Routledge, London, 162-172.

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ten years ago we posed the question…‘School children […] will be coming through to our undergraduate law courses in a couple of years, and we need to provide […] sophisticated and converged learning environments. Are we ready for them?’

Editorial, The Law Teacher, 3, 2015.

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Three brief examples of innovation scale since then

1. Mobilisation of our culture2. Advances in algorithmic applications, eg blockchain (can be

used for financial instruments, payments systems, contracts, voting, utility asset management -- even law school infrastructure

3. Exocortices – eg Emotiv Systems’ Insight device, and open-source brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) @ http://openbci.com

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digital media in legal education – as Spotify?• Algorithmic identification: who I am, what I like, when I like it, find like

music & listeners, Discover Weekly playlist, different views & contexts• Artists = authors; listeners = students; tutors create basic playlists &

students improv on the list• Innovation in project working, eg construction of Touch Preview:

– ‘Spotify has a long history of spitting out new and interesting features from week-long hackathons. It tells its employees to forget their normal jobs, tackle a problem and solve it in a creative way. The Top Tracks feature that debuted last month was born of a hackathon and now, thanks to another week of blowing off of their regular responsibilities, the company has Touch Preview: a feature designed to aid in the lost art of music discovery.’

T. O’Brien, “Spotify’s Touch Preview Lets You Sample New Songs Quickly”, Engadget 22 January 2015. Available at: http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/22/spotifys-touch-preview/ (accessed 22 March 2015)

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and yet, in 2016…• We know little of learning / technology use in law

schools – less than two decades ago• Are we clear about what works?• NSS gives us ’fact-totems’, not insightful data. Cf

LSSSE• No general archive of practice and theory• No meta-reviews or systematic reviews of research

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cf medical education• Studies range from whole-nation surveys to ‘post-holing’ of

specific programmes & institutionsG.E. Kennedy, et al, “First Year Students’ Experiences with Technology: Are They Really Digital Natives?” (2008) 24 Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 24.

• Future preparation studiesB. Robin, et al., “Preparing for the Changing Role of Instructional Technologies in Medical Education” (2011) 86 Academic Medicine, 435.

• Dissemination studies & guidesR. Ellaway and K. Masters, “AMEE Guide 32: E-Learning in Medical Education Part 1: Learning, Teaching and Assessment” (2008) 30 Medical Teacher, 30.

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medical education research infrastructures…?

Cf Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE)• Provides infrastructure for publication of the Guides• Annual Conference across Europe• Publishes Medical Education twelve times a year• Publishes Best Evidence Medical Education Reviews• Supports seminars and workshops on special subjects

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legal education research infrastructures…?• Nearest to AMEE was UKCLE – defunct since 2011• LETR noted poor state of research organisation – see

Recommendation 25, since then, no action.• The result can only be a worsening situation for

theory and empirical research (along the lines stated by Nuffield Report on sociolegal research, a decade ago).

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call for action…Special Issue calls for:• professional bodies and groups that are nationally and

internationally active in legal education to begin the process of developing and organising research infrastructures for learning/technology

• dissemination to the communities interested in and affected by legal education.

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what would this look like?• An international body with diverse funding sources

bringing together jurisdictions, regulators, educators, students, policy-makers, legal professions, other disciplines and professions.

• Look again at AMEE activities…

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Task International body BILETA?

Provides infrastructure for publication of the Guides

Sets out international standards for research, eg Cochrane Collaboration & Campbell Collaboration

Could play a role in the jurisdictions of these isles

Annual Conference globally Act as broker for dissemination of local projects internationally; project clusters

BILETA legal education stream could feed into larger conference

Publishes Medical Education twelve times a year

Online open-source journal to have sections devoted to meta-review & systematic review; no issues; always on.

Could support a section of the online open-source journal

Publishes Best Evidence Medical Education Reviews

BEME to be applied to projects in specific jurisdictions as models

Could play a part in BEME production in these isles

Supports seminars and workshops on special subjects

Workshops to be disseminated worldwide.

Hold specific workshops applicable to the four jurisdictions, possible European reach, too.

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Email:[email protected]: paulmaharg.comSlides: paulmaharg.com/slides