Professional education and ICT: two case studies from Law Professor Paul Maharg Glasgow Graduate School of Law

professional education and ICT:two case studies from Law

Professor Paul MahargGlasgow Graduate School of Law

Glasgow Graduate School of Law JISC seminar, 18.1.06 2

presentation

1. Key issues2. Examples of ICT in action:

simulation learning & discussion forums Multimedia, knowledge & professional learning

3. Questions & discussion


key issues

How can we best use ICT in professional legal education?

How can we use ICT to help students > professional lawyers?

How can professional lawyers best use ICT in CPD?


How can we best use ICT in professional legal education?

Students… Help students learn skills & knowledge Support identity change: student > practitioner Give students practice in developing professionalism

Staff… ICT can be…

loss of power, control & authority distrusted because it is disruptive of normal routines

… and always is a re-negotiation of professional practice


example 1: web-based simulations at the ggsl

1. 276 students divided into 70 firms of 4 per virtual firm

2. Students & tutors see: student virtual firms – passworded office

environments virtual community -- Ardcalloch discussion forums FAQs

3. Tutors are given: assessment web pages administration environments


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 groups 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.













transactional learning: personal injury

negotiation project

Administration: 276 students, 70 firms, 7 anonymous information

sources 70 document sets, 35 transactions students have 11 weeks to achieve settlement introductory & feedback lectures discussion forum voluntary face-to-face surgeries with PI solicitor &

commercial lawyer re negotiating strategies


PI project: assessment criteria

We require from each student firm a body of evidence consisting of:

fact-finding – from information sources in the virtual community)

professional legal research – using WestLaw + paperworld sources

formation of negotiation strategy – extending range of Foundation Course learning

performance of strategy – correspondence + optional f2f meeting, recorded


PI project: (some of) what students learned

extended team working real legal fact-finding real legal research process thinking in the project setting out negotiation strategies in the context of (un)known

information writing to specific audiences handling project alongside other work commitments structuring the argument of a case from start to finish keeping cool in face-to-face negotiations more effective delegation keeping files taking notes on the process...


PI project: what students would have done differently…

‘In tackling this project I think that our group made two main mistakes. The first mistake we made was in approaching the task as law students as opposed to Lawyers. By this I mean we tried to find the answer and work our way back. Immediately we were thinking about claims and quantum and blame. I don't think we actually initiated a claim until a week before the final settlement. I think the phrase "like a bull in a china shop" would aptly describe the way we approached the problem. […] Our group knew what area of law and tests to apply yet we ended up often being ahead of ourselves and having to back-pedal

The second mistake we made was estimating how long it would take to gather information. We started our project quite late on and began to run out of time towards the end. None of us appreciated the length of time it would take to gather information and on top of this we would often have to write two or three letters to the same person as the initial letter would not ask the right question.’


PI project: what students would have done differently…

‘At the beginning we thought we perhaps lost sight of the fact that we had a client whom we had a duty to advise and inform. On reflection we should have issued terms of engagement and advised the client better in monetary terms what the likely outcome was going to be.’

‘[…] unlike other group projects I was involved in at undergraduate level I feel that I derived genuine benefit from this exercise in several ways:1. reinforcing letter-writing, negotiation, time-management and IT

skills2. conducting legal research into issues of quantum3. working effectively in a group as a group - not delegating tasks at

the first meeting and then putting together pieces of work at the second meeting.’


transactional learning

Transactional learning: Transactional learning is active learning. Learning to do legal transactions. Transaction + reflection. Collaborative learning. Holistic process learning.







place of the discussion forum?

Emerging identity as student/practitioner

Ardcalloch simulationActual practice reality

Diploma inLegal Practice

Diploma inLegal Practice


example 2: multimedia and knowledge management

Three questions:1. Multimedia is a highly effective learning tool – but how

can it best be used in professional legal education?

2. Can simulation and multimedia be combined?

3. Can simulation, multimedia and knowledge management be leveraged to provide a powerful professional training environment?


Interviewer: […] do you think the webcast environment helped orhindered your exam study?

Student: I think they helpedInterviewer: Why?Student: Because you have just got more explanation when you

are going over things that you can never get down inlecture notes or in handouts, to understand it. I think youlearn better when you are sitting listening as well, insteadof sitting reading, because you have a tendency just toskim through things when you are reading. You’vedone it all before and you should know it, but if you haven’tlistened to something you can speed it up a bit. But you are stillhaving to listen to it all, you can’t just skip big bits

out. So I think it definitely helped.

quality of learning


quality of learning

Interviewer: Do you think the webcast environmentshelped or hindered your study for the exams?

Student: Definitely helped. It was very, very positive. Iknow some people have complained that theyfound it hard to work and all the rest of it. ButI just thought in comparison – I have sat fouryears of exams before I came here, I am anexpert as far as exams are concerned, and thishas really, was two of the easiest exams I havesat, in terms of revision for them. I felt that Icame in well prepared – maybe my results willshow that this was not the case! I definitely felt that I

was really learning the material. I understood it better.


VLE research…

http://www.ggsl.strath.ac.uk/ltdu/research/default.htm


Knowledge management

simulationmultimedia

… the learning organisation


further developments…

Four principles:

1. Integration: All technologies (electronic, paper, vellum, clay tablets…) should integrate to support learning across the curriculum

2. Convergence: electronic technologies need to converge seamlessly to provide an integrated learning environment.

3. Communication is the heart of a VLE4. Creativity (sustaining or disruptive) is essential to re-

design


… to become a flexible immersive environment…

For: professional & commercial

e-learningInter-professional simulationsGlobal simulations within a

professional body, eg global law firm

International commercial applications

Use of shell applications for range of users

Use of 3-D environments & avatars


… in partnership with others

Other professions & commercial bodies WS Society College of Law in England & Wales Large law firms Universities of Rotterdam & Leiden, Netherlands (KODOS

Project) New York Law School and Cardozo Law School, USA


contact details

Professor Paul MahargGlasgow Graduate School of LawLord Hope Building141 St James’ RdGlasgow G4 0LTE: [email protected]: http://zeugma.typepad.comT: 0141 548 4946F: 0141 552 4264

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Professional education and ICT: two case studies from Law Professor Paul Maharg Glasgow Graduate School of Law