Jan. 10, 2008 01:01
2008 Conference for Law School Computing - Help Me Pick a Theme
Posted by JohnPMayer under [ CALI Conference ][ (2) Comment ] | [ (0) Trackbacks ]
The 2008 Conference for Law School Computing will be held on Thursday - Friday, June 19 - 21, 2008 at the University of Maryland School of Law in Baltimore, MD.
We haven't set up the website or even put out a call for speakers yet because I am stumped on deciding a theme for this conference. After AALS, I was thinking of something like "From MacCrate to Carnegie: Back to the Future", but it doesn't have that much to do with Law School IT.
We ARE planning to have a dedicated track just for law faculty with all sorts of innovative presentations on technology that are specifically aimed at the classroom and teaching, but I can't really figure out how to make this work theme-wise.
So....
Below you will find some mockups for themes. Take a look and send me a note (jmayer@cali.org) with your suggestions or whether or not you especially love/hate any of these. I currently have comments turned off due to frequent comment-spam attacks.
I won't say which one is my favorite. You can probably guess.
10/01/2008, 13:29
From what I am gathering from this thread, and from anecdotal evidence, is that the disconnect might be growing between IT and the professors, with regards to the use of technology for teaching law, instead of the other way around. This is not what anyone wants to see happen, as every new semester brings more techno-savvy students to our schools. I might be wrong, but from my perspective, it’s been a slow process.
A theme that might be helpful could be “Bringing Us Together” (by “us”, I mean IT and faculty). Perhaps we have been treating some of the symptoms (what new technology can I roll out now?)and not the problem of why technology is not being used by faculty. At different IT/ higher education conferences (not just law schools) I often hear that IT and faculty have a lot of animosity. Why is this? Can this affect the adoption of technology by the faculty? One could think that it contributes in some way. I happen to think that keeping good relations with the faculty often helps when you implement new technologies. People are more open to trying new things if they like you, conversely if they don’t like you, they tend to shy away from your ideas.
So, with this in mind, we could discuss themes like these: What are the successful techniques that you have used to get faculty on board with new technologies? Can others use your experiences to successfully implement similar technologies? So others can learn from your mistakes, what are the roadblocks that you have run into? What do faculty really want from technology / is IT in touch with the faculty needs? And finally…….. how to make friends with your faculty.
Together, we can change the use of law school technology.
10/01/2008, 10:07
"We haven't set up the website or even put out a call for speakers yet because I am stumped on deciding a theme for this conference. After AALS, I was thinking of something like "From MacCrate to Carnegie: Back to the Future", but it doesn't have that much to do with Law School IT."
Maybe that's your theme right there. I've always had a nagging feeling that the one of the unstated assumptions behind CALI's was that schools that don't heavily implement technology are uninterested in innovation, and law professors who don't use technology are uninterested in teaching. Between the Carnegie report, the Best Practices report, and the theme of the latest AALS meeting, there seems to be a greatly renewed interest in innovation and reform in legal education. If technology has a small role to play in the current reforms, perhaps it's time for a critical reflection on some of the basic assumptions regarding law school IT?
I'm just sayin'.