Tech in Law School and Beyond-Part 4

Electronic, online databases are resources that are essential for both law students and practicing attorneys. Two of the most prominent legal digital databases are LexisNexis and WestLaw. These applications are especially useful for researching cases and court opinions in a time-efficient manner with options like advanced search, citators that compare cases in focus with previous rulings, and relevant academic articles (lexisnexis.com). Incoming and recently graduated law students have become accustomed to using digital legal databases, and recently an increasing amount of law firms require all of their attorneys to use these tools for research. Although databases like LexisNexis and WestLaw are extremely helpful, they are relatively expensive. This places a burden on smaller law firms and non-profit agencies who would otherwise benefit from the tools (Schweyer 31). Nevertheless, digital legal databases are constantly changing their features to adapt to growing needs in electronic information within the legal field.

Overall, emerging technology that has been integrated into our society has also managed to reach law schools. Advances in writing and computers, such as blogs, wikis, and class websites, have transformed the ways in which professors interact with their students in the classroom. Additionally, law professors and practicing attorneys are also incorporating new communication and research technology into their field. Therefore, as innovations in writing, communication, and technology emerge, they will become learning tools in law school that eventually transform the legal field.

Sources:

Schweyer, Kitty "Competitive Intelligence Resources in Law Firms." Searcher 16.4 (2008): 30-39. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 18 Nov. 2009.

LexisNexis. "About Us." LexisNexis United States. 2009. Reed Elsevier Inc, Web. 18 Nov 2009. .

Tech in Law School and Beyond-Part 3

Two other popular methods of online writing, blogs and wikis, are also becoming more commonplace within law schools as learning aids. Wikipedia, the most commonly-known form of a wiki, has gained notoriety for inaccurate citations and content due to its open collaborative editing set-up. However, according to Beth Simone Noveck, the collaborative content writing and editing process of creating a wiki for information sharing is useful in an academic setting like law school classrooms. She argues, "Through the public exchange of reason, we learn to air our differences in peaceful, rational ways that force us to think as members of a community, rather than only as individuals. Wikis are ideally suited to the deliberative and collaborative development of knowledge (7)." Noveck also suggests that individual classes in law schools could set up their own wikis for important concepts and terminology. That way, law students learn to not only read wikis critically and check facts but to also utilize new knowledge through collaborative article writing (7).

Along with wikis, blogs have also become prominent as new opportunities for legal scholarship. Law professors have created blogs on their academic areas of focus, such as tax law, government and politics, intellectual property, etc. Many law professors actually use blogs as supplemental material for courses they're teaching and use student comments and feedback for in-class discussion topics. Blogs are also useful for collaborative projects between law professors and students; along with helping their professors with special topic blogs, law students are also encouraged to begin their own blogs for independent legal research projects. Additionally, blogs allow law professors from different schools to collaborate on long-distance research and create interdisciplinary project opportunities with scholars from outside fields (Berman 1052). Thus, despite the overall negative perception of online sources and writing tools in the academic realm, blogs and wikis are developing into helpful learning devices for both law students and professors.

Sources:
Berman, Douglas A. "Bloggership: How Blogs Are Transforming Legal Scholarship: Scholarship In Action: The Power, Possibilities, And Pitfalls for Law Professor Blogs." Washington University Law Review 84 (2006): 1043-1060. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 17 Nov 2009.

Noveck, Beth Simone. "Wikipedia and the Future of Legal Education." Journal of Legal Education. 57.1 (2007): 3-8. Print.

Tech. in Law School and Beyond-Part 2

According to Camille Broussard in her article, "Teaching with Technology: Is the Pedagogical Fulcrum Shifting?", law schools are both preparing students to use electronic resources when they enter the legal practice and utilizing emerging technology within the classroom (905). Innovations in writing and computers are brought into law schools with each new class of JD candidates, and law schools are quickly recognizing the value of incorporating advances in electronic communication in their classrooms. Digital learning tools such as Blackboard Learning System, LexisNexis web courses, and The West Education Network (TWEN), and individual class websites are now heavily used by law professors. Class websites are especially useful for notices from professors, class documents, and other information specific to the individual course. With collaborative learning systems such as Blackboard, automated distribution lists are created for classes to ease communication between law professors and their students. Professors can also create smaller groups for collaborative student projects and allow e-mail communication between group members through the application. Additionally, online learning applications like web courses provided by LexisNexis allow discussion forums and live chat features to extend discussions beyond the classroom (Broussard 906-907). Thus, digital learning tools such as Blackboard have extended beyond the realm of undergraduate studies to help law professors and their students enhance academic discussions beyond the classroom.

Sources:
BROUSSARD, CAMILLE "Teaching with Technology: Is the Pedagogical Fulcrum Shifting?." New York Law School Law Review 53.3/4 (2009): 903-915. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 16 Nov. 2009.

Technology in Law School and Beyond-Part 1

During the summer of 2009, I participated in the Pre-Law Undergraduate Studies (PLUS) Program sponsored by Villanova Law School and the Law School Admissions Council. Nineteen other undergraduate students and I spent four weeks participating in classes led by Villanova Law School professors, preparing for a mock trial, and listening to guest speakers and lecturers. Two of the most important classes in the course were Legal Research, taught by one of the law school's librarians, and Legal Writing. Both of these courses were heavily focused on having us become familiarized with the various methods of legal research and incorporating them into legal documents such as case briefs and legal memos.

The other PLUS students and I quickly learned how to use two major online legal databases: LexisNexis and WestLaw. These online databases were especially helpful with looking up more recent cases. However, when I was assigned a legal memo that required a case from 1954 as a reference, I was lost. I had to go through my legal research textbook and learn how to look up print cases in the West American Digest System in the law library. After I completed my assignment, I learned from my legal research professor that law students were becoming dependent on digital databases for legal research. In fact, my professor informed our class that many law firms now rely solely on subscriptions to LexisNexis and WestLaw for research; for older cases, they use print resources from law libraries.

With each new law school class bringing emerging technology into the classroom (such as blogs, class websites, Blackboard applications, digital law databases, etc.), the legal field is quickly learning to incorporate these innovations into their practices. Therefore, law schools and practicing attorneys are adapting legal research and writing practices to incorporate emerging technology into the field.