Lilac 2008, Wiki Based Collaborative Research And Writing In Legal Education

‘ The machine is us’: wiki-based collaborative research and writing in legal education Professor Paul Maharg Glasgow Graduate School of Law

overview

Summary of chapters & themes of Transforming Legal Education

Wiki writing

Wiki writing and the Transforming Initiative

book outline

Part 1: In(ter)disciplines

Trading Zones

The Empty Quarter: Interdisciplinary Research and Practice

Part 1 Conclusion: Elasticity and Obstacle

book outline

Part 2: Laminations

The Road not Taken: Realists and the Curriculum

‘ By the End of This Module …’: The Intimate Dimensions of Ethical Education

Codex to Codecs: The Medieval Web Redivivus

Part 2 Conclusion: Adjacencies

book outline

Part 3: Metaverse

Simulations and the Metaverse

Transactional Learning in Action

Relational Objects: Transactions, Professionalism, E-mergence

Multimedia and the Docuverse of Law: Learning and the Representation of Knowledge

Part 3 Conclusion: Simulation and Transformation

Afterword: Elective Affinities: Experience, Ethics, Technology, Collaboration

some of the book’s themes

Transformation

Transactional learning: Dewey, Stenhouse, Garrison, constructivists, situated learning, etc

Rhetoric and communications theory

Legal educational history: meditations on failure, difference and the survival & migration of forms of education

Technology as saturated learning environment

Technology and control

Imagining the future

four key themes

John Dewey

E.L. Thorndike

John Dewey E.L. Thorndike 1. Philosopher & educationalist Educational psychologist 2. Theoretician and practical implementer Theoretician & experimentalist 3. Interested in the arc between experience & the world Explored the dyadic relationship between mind & the world 4. Pragmatist approach to learning: prior experience, ways of contextual knowing Adopted as precursor of a behaviourist approach to learning: assessment-led; laws of effect, recency, repetition 5. Emphasised learning ecologies Emphasised teaching strategies 6. Followed by: Bruner, Kilpatrick, standards movement, Constructivist tradition Followed by: Watson, Skinner, Gagné, outcomes movement,

Practical implementations? See Part 3... SIMPLE: simulations in legal learning…

Are close to the world of practice , but safe from the (possible) realities of malpractice and negligent representation.

Enable students to practise legal transactions , discuss the transactions with other tutors, students, and use a variety of instruments or tools, online or textual, to help them understand the nature and consequences of their actions

Facilitate a wide variety of assessment , from high-stakes assignments with automatic fail points, to coursework that can double as a learning zone and an assessment assignment

Encourage collaborative learning . The guilds and groups of hunters in multi-player online games can be replicated for very different purposes in legal education.

Students begin to see the potential for the C in ICT ; and that technology is not merely a matter of word-processed essays & quizzes, but a form of learning that changes quite fundamentally what and how they learn .

We need:

Clear research evidence sim environments will enable successful alternative approaches to knowledge, collaboration, professionalism, ethics... at reasonable cost.

Career-long assessment environments

To address our successes and concerns directly those to those with financial & decision-making powers, eg:

institutional management

regulatory bodies

policy-makers

SIMPLE: evidence-based alternative

SIMPLE: community of practice

Aims –

Be collaborative: staff, students, different institutions, different professions

Be international – in our increasingly globalized jurisdictions we need to enable our students to work with others

Liaise with institutions & students in developing countries

Integrate with other forms of simulation, eg standardized clients

Form of a Foundation

Will all this work to transform legal (or any other) education...?

No. Not on its own...

We need to change the signature pedagogies of legal education...

signature pedagogies Sullivan, W.M., Colby, A., Wegner, J.W., Bond, L., Shulman, L.S. (2007) Educating Lawyers. Preparation for the Profession of Law, Jossey-Bass, p. 24

four key themes of Transforming …

transforming the signature pedagogy...

what part can technology play in this?

Take the example of social software, which emphasises:

networks of meaning

Distributed learning across the internet and other forms of knowledge representation

Collaborative learning at all levels

intermediate online education, 2006

Still focused on:

Organisations , ie LMSs, silos of knowledge

Products , ie handbooks, CDs, closely-guarded downloads

Content , ie modules, lock-step instruction

Snapshot assessment of taught content

social learning > 2010+

Focus shifts to:

Organisation has weak boundaries, strong presence through resource-based, integrated learning networks, with open access, eg MIT & OU open courseware

Focus not on static content but on web-based, aggregated content

E-learning as understanding & conversation, just-in-time learning

Assessment of situated learning

Web 2.0 Michael Wesch, The Web is Us/ing Us

wikis…?

Think of an online, dynamic encyclopaedia – Wikipedia, eg, or a developing set of definitions & documents

Useful for developing projects, developing knowledge, sharing knowledge

Can be edited, shared among a community of readers / clients -- private or public

Wikipedia

Jurispedia

practical examples of wiki texts...

Planning a conference:

http://careo.elearning.ubc.ca/wiki?Technoculture

Taking collaborative notes:

http://careo.elearning.ubc.ca/wiki?CS430

Staff collaborative writing:

http://careo.elearning.ubc.ca/wiki?CS430/Chapt12

Collaborate on an entire book :

http://www.eu.socialtext.net/codev2/index.cgi

how to edit a wiki? Lee Lefever, Wikis in Plain English

0ther uses... e-portfolios + wikis

Personal digital collection of information, reflection on learning and future plans

Records and demonstrates a person's learning, career, experience and achievements.

Belong to the learner - not the organisation

Populated by learner

Primarily concerned with supporting learning

Lifelong and lifewide learning

Wiki can enable collaborative writing on the e-portfolio

other uses... Wiki + blogs + RSS…?

Where...

Wiki is central text, blog comments on & advertises wiki-text, RSS pulls in information to blog or wiki

Blog is central text, wiki drafts are tangential, RSS feeds into wiki

Other uses... video in a wiki

ALIAS... ALIAS – Ardcalloch Legal Information & Advice Service

... and collaborative writing

Professional skills: legal writing

Simulation of professional writing contexts

Creation of wikis within ALIAS – Ardcalloch Legal Information and Advice Service

Students will:

See each other’s drafts

Amend drafts

Staff will:

See student drafts

Comment on drafts

Staff will include professional legal writers as well as GGSL staff

Transforming wiki

Syndicated blog postings...

Transforming wiki

the transforming initiative What are your ideas about how law should be learned, taught, assessed in the future? What are your practical suggestions, techniques, case-studies, examples of good practice, successful implementations, that might help to transform legal education? It might be a big initiative, it might be the merest change to classroom technique – it doesn’t matter. All ideas are welcome. www.transforming.org.uk

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