Law X.0

Technology in Legal Education

To help legal educators locate materials that inform and enrich their teaching and writing, Nova Southwestern law prof Pearl Goldman offers an annotated bibliography of articles, commentaries, conference papers, essays, books, and book chapters that examine the impact of technology on legal education in this 100-plus page article (pdf) The article was published in the Summer 2008 issue of Law Library Journal. [JH]

Using Technology to Improve Feedback on Student Writing in Law School

Daniel Barnett, Boston College Law School, has deposited Form Ever Follows Function: Using Technology to Improve Feedback on Student Writing in Law School in NELLCO. Here's the abstract:

Critiquing student writing is an important responsibility of many law professors. While the focus of a teacher's critique should be on the substance of the feedback, teachers should also consider the form of the critique to ensure that they are providing the necessary guidance to students effectively and efficiently. When choosing the critique format, teachers have a variety of options, including several electronic techniques. Unfortunately, many teachers have not considered the use of technology to comment on student writing. However, advances in technology coupled with the technological savvy and comfort level of today's student, may eventually dictate that all law teachers use some kind of electronic feedback when commenting on their students' papers.

This article is designed to encourage law professors to consider the use of technology to comment on student assignments by demonstrating that an electronic format could help many teachers be more proficient when critiquing their students' writing. To help teachers determine the best critique format for their classes, the article provides a comparison of the different commenting methods and explores the considerations teachers should use when choosing the form of feedback. The article closes with a step-by-step guide to the current technology for providing comments on student writing electronically.

[JH]

Google Apps for Education Edition

USC Law Students Adopt University-Branded Google Apps for Education. USC Law is the first school in the university and one of the first law schools in the nation to implement Google Apps for Education, an online suite of communication and collaboration tools including Gmail (e-mail with 2 GB of storage per account), integrated chat, and applications for calendaring and document and spreadsheet production. Read more about it. See also an overview of Google Apps for Education Edition being added to the USC curriculum. [JH]

Google Apps for Education Edition: Google-Published Information & Resources

• Google innovation. Powerful solutions. Zero investment
• Google and schools, working together to unlock information and promote learning
• Google Apps Discussion Group > Discuss Google Apps Education Edition

Recent Coverage of Google Apps for Education Edition

• Google Apps Education Edition Becoming More Widely Adopted
• Google Goes To School

Jeremy Smith critiques the adoption of Google Apps for Education Edition at Case-Western at Using "Google Apps for Education" at Case Western. I caution readers to compare his criticism of Case-Western's implementation with the services now being provided by the Education Edition before making a final evaluation of this Google service. [JH]