Using Blogs Instead of Propriety eCourse Management Services

OSU law professor Douglas Berman, blogger at Sentencing Law & Policy and Law School Innovation, is using a blog to support his 1L Legislation course this Spring. He has used a blog for course support before. See his upper level Death Penalty course blog. About blogging for his 1L Legislation course, Berman writes

Though the course is a relatively innovative part of the Ohio State curriculum, it is a classic large 1L lecture course.  I am much less confident that this blog (rather than a propriety law-school-support technology like TWEN) will be an ideal tool for me and the students.  But I'll never know the blog potential (and drawbacks) for traditional courses unless I try this out.

I created both course blogs for Berman and each time I've asked him why he isn't using TWEN. Berman wants his students to be exposed to the world outside of Westlaw resouces, the "West First" mentality I referred to in an earlier post. The public can watch this demonstration project by visiting Berman's Legislation Course (at) Moritz College of Law. Check it out.

See also Gene Koo's Blogs as Teaching Tools : CALI/Berkman Lunch Wrapup. [JH]