Roundtable Sessions

Notes from roundtable discussions

1. Do you offer specialized legal research classes?

• State and federal regulatory law as a complement to doctrinal admin law class (1 credit)
  • involvement of doctrinal faculty
  • include guest speakers/local attorneys
• 6-week long course for one credit
• Should you choose one problem to cover over length of course, or change it up every week?
  • "same process, new context"
• Take students to observe a real-life administrative hearing
• government offices may have specialized resources that schools don't have
• "some human has got to be dealing with it" --find interesting speakers to bring issues alive to the students
• basic business research snuggled into a survey course or stand alone (will curriculum support it?)
• Health law
  • 2.5 hour classes for five weeks
  • involvement of WL/Lexis reps on new interfaces, related to subject matter
• demonstrate strengths of what can be obtained from government websites
• how to get administrative support for class? How compensated? $$ or title
  • treat as adjunct faculty
  • some positions are tenure track/others not
  • stipend/lecturer title
• Is the course for credit?
• Do you have control to run the show?

2. How do you evaluate effective training?

• Avoid using law school-standardized evaluation forms for research training; draft your own.
• Ask questions focusing on what the students learned, not whether they liked the class.
• Don’t use a form. Give students a blank sheet of paper and let them write anything they want.
• Best results if you do it early in a multiple class course.
• Ask which teaching methods worked best for them—hands-on, video, etc.
• Use a 1-minute writing exercise. What was the best thing you learned? What do you wish you had learned? Use the comments to alter follow up labs/sessions.
• Have students fill out surveys in class, not later.
• Keep surveys short. Ask only the most important questions.
• Get expert advice on survey design—local center for excellence in teaching, statisticians.
• Paper v. Online
• Ask students to rate their own skills.
• Survey firm librarians, other employers periodically. What do they want law schools to teach? Do our students have the research skills you expect them to have? Compare results over time.

3. Notes from using technology in the classroom

• To deal with laptop attention drift, tried having Google doc open during class
  • did not work! But worked for after class involvement
• For back channel, BC uses Berkman's Question Tool.
  • this is also not taking off, bc students are comfortable asking questions live, but they used it also to have students vote on what was the hardest question on the midterm.
• Prezi--motion sickness, distraction cited. Most have only seen one good Prezi. RO thinks it could be useful for illustrating process of bill becoming a law, highlighting hot spots.
• Mind maps--alternative to Prezi? Was much easier for organizing outline of paper.
• New features of PowerPoint 2010 that are useful: autoplay, timing with clock
• Working with academic technologists/instructional design teams.
• iOS compatible projectors
• Demoing research on a Blackberry by using a document camera.
• Teaching with iPads at YLS and BC. Can use Apple TV to mirror iPad screen while roaming classroom. Zoom feature is handy.
• "High tech Socratic method": hand student iPad and ask them to tweet an answer.
• Cool Tools for lawyers class at BU
• We're interested, but how do we get other law librarians interested in tech tools?
• BC looking at Google Plus hangouts--how can that be incorporated? Reaching students who are abroad/off campus.
• How to we change teaching methods/accommodate learning styles?
• Touch screen signage.

4. Tips, tricks and tools in teaching

• Provide food and drink, even if it’s on your own dime.
• Enhance student engagement by having them submit in-class exercises using Google Forms.
• Communicate with students outside class to maintain, refresh engagement. Use a wiki, send weekly “how’s it going?” e-mails.
• In classroom, lecture for 20 minutes or so, give an in-class exercise, then have student volunteers present their work for candy.
• Post slide and notes after class.
• Build an ambiguity into assignments to encourage students to seek conferences.
• Use a problem-based rather than a bibliographic model.
• Use pop culture examples and real-life examples from practice.
• Teach comparison between searching by key word in full text and using an index.
• For smaller classes, use a graded oral exercise. Give them a problem, follow them as they work on it. Great tool for analyzing what they know.
• Why is it important? Do you really want to tell the judge who asks where you found your authority, “Your Honor, I Googled it”?

5. Risky and dangerous ideas in law libraries

• Risky and Dangerous Assumptions:
  • There’s no need to teach book; Lexis and Westlaw are all students need to learn.
  • That law firm librarians, not junior attorneys, do all the research.
• Risky and Dangerous Situations
  • There are not enough teaching opportunities in library school
  • Not knowing how to reach junior partners and students
  • Balancing keeping up with what’s current with over-utilizing technology
  • Legal secretaries should have more education to be more effective
  • Miscommunications from the top down.
  • Law school librarians are disconnected from law firm librarians.
  • Making training sessions too general, discouraging some junior attorneys from attending.
  • Relying on WestlawNext and Lexis Advance too soon.