USES OF BLOGS IN LEGAL EDUCATION › au › journals › JCULRev › 2006 › 2.txt › cgi... · Uses of Blogs in Legal Education 13 created by users aged 30 and under.18 Similarly,

USES OF BLOGS IN LEGAL EDUCATION

PETER BLACK∗

Abstract

Over the past decade the use of blogs as a new communication technology has rapidly expanded. Today, individuals, businesses, communities and increasingly by educational institutions use approximately 60 million blogs. This paper looks at the potential use of blogs in legal education. From a pedagogical perspective, the proper use blogs provides numerous educational benefits. While blogs cannot and will not replace face-to-face contact or more traditional forms of content delivery, their use can enrich student learning. However, the use of blogs must be balanced against possible criticisms and potential weaknesses that are also explored in this paper. The pedagogical justification for the use of blogs in legal education, along with student willingness to embrace this new communication technology, is tested by two surveys, one of first year law students and another of Masters students. The theory and practice of blogging indicates that law teachers should consider incorporating this innovative teaching mode into their teaching and learning methodology.

I. INTRODUCTION

The proliferation of new communication technologies on the internet allows individuals to engage and interact with others in novel and innovative ways. Whether the medium of communication is a chat room, a blog, wiki, a video sharing site like YouTube1 or a social

* Peter Black, B.A., LL.B. (Hons I) (Qld), LL.M. (Columbia). Associate Lecturer, Law School, Queensland University of Technology. Teaches Legal Regulation of the Internet, Constitutional Law and Intellectual Property. Maintains a blog at http://www.freedomtodiffer.com. Email: [email protected]. 1 YouTube < http://www.youtube.com > at 10 November 2006.

Uses of Blogs in Legal Education

9

networking site like MySpace2 (which tend to incorporate elements of all of these new communication technologies), the use of these technologies on the internet continues to foster individual expression and community development.3 The blog, or weblog, is a particularly popular and user-friendly medium that has considerable educational potential.

This article begins by outlining the key features of a blog before charting the rapid expansion in the uptake and use of blogs. It then considers the uses of blogs in a legal education setting and describes student perceptions of blogs in modern legal education. Whilst the focus of this article is to make a case for blogs as a teaching tool, some of the potential weaknesses and problems with incorporating blogs will also be addressed.

II. WHAT IS A BLOG?

A blog is a website where regular entries are made (such as in a journal or diary) and presented in reverse chronological order. They often comment on the news or on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or music. Some are personal online diaries. ‘Blog’ is both a noun and a verb. Individuals blog and maintain a blog. Those who post to a blog are referred to as bloggers, and the global collection of blogs is known as the blogosphere. The term ‘blog’ dates back to 1997 when Jorn Barger, called his website a ‘weblog’, and then in 1999 Peter Merholz broke the word into ‘we blog’.4

A. Characteristics of a Blog

Blogs can have one or more authors who post text and hyperlinks as well as other media such as images, videos or audio. They usually are maintained and hosted by dedicated web applications like Blogger5 or Typepad6 meaning that the creator need not be familiar with hypertext markup language (html). 2 MySpace < http://myspace.com > at 10 November 2006. 3 David Huffaker, The educated blogger: Using weblogs to promote literacy in the classroom (2004) 9(6) First Monday <http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_6/huffaker/index.html> at 3 September 2006. 4 ‘It’s the links, stupid’, The Economist, 20 April 2006 <http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6794172> at 6 September 2006. 5 Blogger <http://www.blogger.com> at 10 November 2006. 6 TypePad <http://www.typepad.com> at 10 November 2006.

Peter Black 10

A blog typically has the following features: Name – the main title of the blog; Description or catchphrase – a short statement about the blog; Main column – contains posts in reverse chronological order; Side column(s) – usually contains some of the following:

information about the author or authors, links to sites and blogs, links to recent posts and comments, archive information, site meter, and RSS feed information.7

The posts in the main column typically contain the following components:

Post date – the day and date the post was published; Title – the main title or headline of the post; Body – the content of the post, containing text and/or other

media; Comments – comments added by readers; Trackbacks – links to other blogs that refer to the entry; Permalink – the URL of the individual post; Category – subjects that the post discuss as labelled by the

blogger; Footer – at the bottom of the post containing post date and

time, author, category, permalink, comments and trackbacks.8

Although similar, blogs differ from discussion boards or forums in two important ways. First, discussion boards and forums are ‘shared community spaces in which individual voices may make themselves heard but are afforded no space of their own’, whereas blogs provide a ‘platform for individual expression’ while supporting comments and critiques from the community.9 Blogs give the author (or small group of authors) control over the content, while discussion boards and forums are decentralised, giving the larger group control over the content. Second, blogs have greater functionality and are more user-friendly than discussion boards or forums. As blogs are created using 7 RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication, a standardized format that allows users to subscribe to a blog’s content using tools such as newsreaders or aggregators. 8 See Peter Duffy and Alex Bruns, ‘The use of blogs, wikis and RSS in education: A conversation of possibilities’ (Paper presented at the Online Learning and Teaching Conference, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, 26 September 2006) <https://olt.qut.edu.au/udf/OLT2006/gen/static/papers/Duffy_OLT2006_paper.pdf> at 1 November 2006. 9 Ibid.


11

dedicated web applications they are not only relatively easy to set up, their look and feel is more attractive than a discussion board or forum, which tend to appear messy and can be difficult to navigate. These differences offer two compelling reasons why blogs are preferable over discussion boards as a teaching and learning tool. However, there are also more nuanced differences, as summarised in the following table.

Table 1: Differences between blogs and discussion boards10

Feature Blog Discussion Board

Control Centralised and individual Decentralised and group Authors Centralised – individual or

small group starts all topics Decentralised – group shares responsibility to start new topics

Intent Personal accounts, news, reflection

Group input, decision making and collaboration

Responses Comments are interesting but not required

Replies are required for a discussion

Design User-friendly with attractive design options

Appear messy and can be difficult to search and navigate

Tools RSS, category archiving, trackbacks, permalinking all present

Some have integrated new tools, but not as common or easy to use

Chronology Reverse chronological order Wide variety of organisation and presentation; usually by topic

Personal connections

A deeper look into one person’s or small group’s thinking

A broader look at a large group’s thoughts in context

Spam control

Can be easily unspammable Must be managed closely to deal with spam

Archiving Presented on main page and then archive by date and category

Message board discussions are often presented in multiple places across the online community and archived independently

10 Adapted from Lee Fefever, ‘What are the Differences Between Message Boards and Weblogs?’ (2004) Common Craft <http://www.commoncraft.com/archives/000768.html> at 14 November 2006.

Peter Black 12

There is also some confusion as to how blogs differ from wikis, such as Wikipedia. Essentially, while a blog is a website where an author or a small group of authors control the content, a wiki is a website where anyone can add and edit content. Although there are considerable uses for wikis in legal education, this is outside the scope of this article.

B. The Proliferation of Blogs

Since 1997 the use of blogs has grown rapidly. According to Technorati, a search engine for blogs, there are over 175,000 new blogs every day, with approximately 6 million posts per day, or just over 18 posts a second. 11 In total, Technorati has tracked over 60 million blogs.12 It is estimated that the blogosphere doubles in size every 5 to 7 months (150-220 days).13

At the same time, the influence of blogs has grown.14 In the 2004 United States presidential primaries and election, blogs played a major role in thrusting blogger-candidate Howard Dean to national prominence. Bloggers were invited to cover the national Democratic and Republican party conventions. Also, bloggers sustained several stories that eventually gained mainstream media attention.15 Blogs have also played a significant role in reporting events around the world, from the London bombings to the Iraq war and the December 2004 Tsunami.16 All of this resulted in ‘blog’ being Merriam-Webster’s 2004 ‘word of the year’.17

As expected, adolescents and young adults make up a significant proportion of the blogging community. In 2003, a study by the Perseus Development Corporation found that 92.4 percent of all blogs were

11 Technorati, About Technorati (2006) <http://technorati.com/about/> at 31 November 2006. 12 Ibid. 13 Dave Sifry, State of the Blogosphere, October 2006 (2006) Technorati <http://technorati.com/weblog/2006/11/161.html > at 12 November 2006. 14 See Mark Bahnisch, ‘The Political Uses of Blogs’ in Axel Bruns and Joanne Jacobs (eds), Uses of Blogs (2006) 139, 140-143. 15 Lara C Ducate and Lara L Lomicka, ‘Exploring the Blogosphere: Use of Web Logs in the Foreign Language Classroom’ (2005) 38 Foreign Language Annals 410, 412. 16 Axel Bruns and Joanne Jacobs, ‘Introduction’ in Axel Bruns and Joanne Jacobs (eds), Uses of Blogs (2006) 1. 17 Ibid.


13

created by users aged 30 and under.18 Similarly, the statistics page of Live Journal, one of the most popular dedicated web applications for creating and hosting blogs, reveals that the largest distribution of authors fall below the age of 25. 19 Given the popularity of this technology with young adults, it is important to consider how it can be used to enhance learning.20

C. The Blawg

Given the proliferation of blogs, it is not surprising that there are numerous blogs about the law, sometimes referred to as blawgs. Although the term blawg is not universally accepted by the legal blogging community,21 blawgs can take many forms: academic blogs, blogs by academics, and blogs about law by lawyers, law students and others.22 In the United States, blawgs are also gaining considerable respect from the broader legal community. As of 6 August 2006, blawgs had been cited by United States courts 32 times in 27 different cases,23 including by the Supreme Court in United States v Booker.24 Similarly as of 16 August 2006, blawgs had been cited 489 times in United States law review articles.25

While there has been some debate over the relative merit of blogs and blawgs as a form of academic legal scholarship,26 that debate does little

18 Jeffrey Henning, The Blogging Iceberg: Of 4.12 Million Weblogs, Most Little Seen and Quickly Abandoned (2003). 19 Live Journal, Statistics (2006) <http://www.livejournal.com/stats.bml> at 12 November 2006. 20 Huffaker, above n 3. 21 See Blawg Review, Who You Callin’ Moron (2006) <http://blawgreview.blogspot.com/2006/11/who-you-callin-moron.html> at 28 November 2006. 22 For a directory of blawgs, see Blawg <http://www.blawg.com/> at 10 November 2006. For a good weekly summary of the blawgosphere, see Blawg Review <http://blawgreview.blogspot.com> at 28 November 2006. 23 Ian Best, Cases Citing Legal Blogs – Updated List (2006) 3L Epiphany <http://3lepiphany.typepad.com/3l_epiphany/2006/08/cases_citing_le.html> at 10 November 2006. 24 United States v Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 278 (2005) (Stevens J, dissenting). 25 Ian Best, Law Review Articles Citing Legal Blogs (2006) 3L Epiphany <http://3lepiphany.typepad.com/3l_epiphany/2006/08/law_review_arti.html> at 10 November 2006. 26 Ann Althouse, ‘Why a Narrowly Defined Legal Scholarship Blog is Not What I Want: An Argument in Pseudo-Blog Form’ (Paper presented at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society - Bloggership: How Blogs are

Peter Black 14

to illuminate the role blogs can play in legal education. When evaluating the role of blogs and blawgs in legal education, the focus is not on what the blog / blawg brings to legal scholarship or to the reputation of the author or authors, but instead is properly focused on the educational benefits to students from the use blogs and blawgs in law courses. An academic’s role as an effective teacher is not the same as an academic’s scholarly output and reputation.

III. THE POTENTIAL USES OF BLOGS IN LEGAL EDUCATION

A. Academic Literature on Blogging

There is little refereed published material on the role of blogs in tertiary education,27 and no refereed material on blogs in legal education.28 Much of the literature understandably is still in the explanatory and exploratory stage.29 There are, however, several scholarly contributions to the field that shed considerable light on blogging’s educational benefits. Oravec explains the potential of the blog lies in its role as a tool for promoting deeper learning by encouraging personal reflection, collaboration, and critical analysis.30 Ferdig and Trammell argue that the contextualisation of learning through hypertext links to other materials encourages revisiting and revising of learned concepts, enriching the learning experience.31 They contend that as blogs are conversational, the use of blogs promotes improved student-teacher relationships, active learning, higher order thinking and greater flexibility in teaching and learning. From an Australian perspective, Williams and Jacobs, explore the potential of blogs as learning spaces for students in the higher education sector, concluding that blogs are ‘a truly transformational technology in that they provide students with a

Transforming Legal Scholarship Conference, Boston, Massachusetts, 28 April 2006) <http://ssrn.com/abstract=898171> at 4 August 2006. 27 Jeremy B Williams and Joanne Jacobs, ‘Exploring the use of blogs as learning spaces in the higher education sector’ (2004) 20 Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 232. 28 This observation is based on searches of legal databases LexisNexis AU, Lexis.com (US and Canadian Law Reviews, Combined), Social Science Research Network, and ProQuest Computing, Education Journals, Humanities and Legal. 29 Jean Burgess, ‘Blogging to Learn, Learning to Blog’ in Axel Bruns and Joanne Jacobs (eds), Uses of Blogs (2006) 105, 112. 30 Jo Ann Oravec, ‘Bookmarking the world: Weblog applications in education’ (2002) 45 Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy 616. 31 Richard Ferdig and Kaye Trammell, ‘Content delivery in the 'Blogosphere'’ (2004) 31 Technological Horizons in Education Journal 12.


15

high level of autonomy while simultaneously providing opportunity for greater interaction with peers’.32

As Williams and Jacobs also note, while there is a dearth of scholarly journal articles on the blogging phenomenon, the non-refereed commentary is voluminous.33 There are numerous websites around the globe that contain commentary of the educational uses of blogs,34 as well as hundreds of blogs that provide a range of perspectives and thoughts on blogs as a teaching and learning tool.35 This may reflect the notion that academic bloggers prefer to discuss their experiences in the blogosphere rather than in peer refereed journals. However, given the proliferation of blogs, it seems apt to further investigate the theory underpinning the educational uses of blogs in the tertiary education sector generally, and in legal education more specifically.

B. Educational Uses

There are many potential uses for blogs in legal education. Duffy and Bruns, writing generally about the uses of blogs, identified three broad perspectives that support the use of blogs in tertiary education,36 and it is convenient to use those same three perspectives to outline the potential uses for blogs in the more specific framework of legal education. Although each of these of perspectives envisage a role for blogs as a teaching and learning tool, it is important to acknowledge that blogs are not a tool that will or should replace face-to-face contact or other forms of content delivery. Rather, it is argued that blogs can be an effective and useful aid to learning that complements more traditional teaching methodologies.

1. Personal academic perspective

Within a personal academic perspective a blog can provide a forum for a legal academic to:

32 Williams and Jacobs, above n 27. 33 Ibid. 34 See, eg, Weblogs in Higher Education <http://www.mchron.net/site/edublog.php> at 15 November 2006, and Weblogg-ed <http://www.weblogg-ed.com/> at 15 November 2006. For further links, see Carol Holzberg, ‘Education Weblogs’ (2003) 24(1) Technology and Learning Magazine 52. 35For a very basic resource, see Blogs in Education <http://awd.cl.uh.edu/blog/> at 15 November 2006. 36 Duffy and Bruns, above n 8.

Peter Black 16

reflect on teaching practices and experiences; disseminate resources and methodologies for teaching to

colleagues; illustrate new uses of technology for colleagues; provide personal and informal anecdotes and tips to

colleagues; seek advice from other legal academics on teaching and

learning related issues.

Using a blog in this way is further enriched by enabling the comments facility as this will allow the blog’s author to interact with other legal academics on teaching and learning practices and methodologies. 2. Organisational perspective

Within an organisational perspective, a blog can be a portal for unit-related information such as calendars, events, assessment and resources. This use can be further enhanced by the addition of RSS so that students can be immediately informed of any new content added. This perspective also facilitates the use of a blog as a forum where students can post questions relating to materials and assessment.

3. Pedagogical perspective

This is the most important perspective for teaching and learning and is the focus of the remainder of this article. Within a pedagogical perspective, blogs can be used in two non-exclusive and complementary ways. 37 First, the teacher maintains a unit blog to which students can post comments. This use can support:

updates on unit content when new legislation is passed or a judgment is handed down;

contextualisation of unit content by linking to relevant articles, websites or news stories;

comments based on readings, posts and links; comments that provide students with a personal perspective to

enhance learning; a collaborative space for students to act as reviewers of unit

content; questions from students that can be answered by the student

cohort and/or by the teacher.

37 See examples collected by Michael Madison at his blog Madisonian.net <http://madisonian.net/archives/category/law-school/> at 27 April 2006.


17

Second, the teacher can establish a blog network so that the teacher and all the students each have a blog. In addition to the above, this use can also support:

a space for review of student writing in progress; public written reflections on unit content and the teaching and

learning process, similar to a traditional reflective journal; teacher-encouraged reflection through teacher comments on

their students’ blogs; development of a student portfolio.

Contribution to either the unit blog or the blog network could potentially form part of student assessment.

C. Educational Benefits

Duffy and Bruns summarised the general educational benefits of blogs as including the following:

promotion of critical and analytical thinking; promotion of creative, intuitive and associational thinking

(creative and associational thinking in relation to blogs being used as brainstorming tool and also as a resource for interlinking, commenting on interlinked ideas);

potential for increased access and exposure to quality information;

combination of solitary and social interaction.38

The other general educational benefit of using a blog is that it makes students comfortable with a new communication technology as well as embedding skills that allow students to adopt other new communication technologies more readily. Given the proliferation of blogs and the growth of other communication technologies like wikis and podcasts, this is an important skill beyond the teaching and learning environment.

While it is accepted that these general educational benefits of blogs are similar to those provided by other information technology tools, blogs have additional educational benefits. In addition to the general educational benefits, using a unit blog can lead to other positive educational outcomes. Perhaps most significantly, a unit blog allows the teacher to place the subject matter of the unit in a ‘real world’ context. Posting updates and links to cases, articles and news stories allows the teacher to illustrate how the principles discussed in the

38 Duffy and Bruns, above n 8.

Peter Black 18

classroom are relevant to the practice of law and also to individuals affected by a particular law. As students read these updates and links in between classes, a unit blog reinforces core unit content by continuing learning and engagement with unit content outside the classroom.

By continuing learning and engagement outside the classroom, a unit blog also provides an opportunity for additional debate and discussion. Some students feel uncomfortable speaking in a face-to-face classroom environment and a unit blog gives them time to think and reflect before expressing their views or asking questions. Ducate and Lomicka conclude that self-conscious and ‘[s]hy students may feel more comfortable in the relatively anonymous and equalizing environment of blogs and may therefore be more willing to share comments with classmates.’39 This is particularly true for English as second language students as a unit blog gives them an additional opportunity to participate in debate and discussion without the time and place pressure of classroom discussions.

Discussions on blogs are also not limited to the people in the classroom. A unit blog opens discussion to a significantly broader audience. The result is that the opinions and perspectives of those not enrolled in the unit can provide enrolled students with unique views not otherwise contemplated. Ferdig and Trammell say that ‘[b]y blogging, the classroom … extends from the physical constraints of those who fit in the room … a limitless international audience … thereby extending diversity to include perspectives outside the classroom’.40 Indeed, a teacher could invite members of the profession to occasionally comment on the blog, thereby engaging the profession with students and providing students a valuable ‘real world’ perspective.

A unit blog can also serve as a knowledge archive, creating an institutional history from cohort to cohort. Students can see legal developments over a period time and how the teacher, students and the world at large received those developments. Because of the tagged nature of posts, blogs can be browsed by category as well as chronologically. 41 Search engines like Google also search blog contents. As a result the institutional history of the unit blog is a rich and accessible resource for students.

39 Ducate and Lomicka, above n 15, 419. 40 Ferdig and Trammell, above n 31, 16. 41 Julie M Reinhart, Adrian L Whicker and Tricia Juettemeyer, ‘New Blogs in Distance Education Programs’ (2005) 2(5) Distance Learning 23, 25.


19

Further educational benefits are achieved when the blog network use is adopted. Ferdig and Trammell identified four benefits from student blogging.42 First, students become subject matter experts. This is because posting to a blog involves a three-step process of scouring, filtering and posting,43 thereby exposing the student to a vast array of information before deciding what to post and what to comment on. This filtering process requires students to demonstrate critical thinking as they must decide what information is relevant, important or interesting. Also, as a blog network requires students to have their own blog, they must necessarily ‘take creative risks, and make sophisticated use of language and design elements’ when creating, designing and contributing to their blog. 44 The creative and textual freedom and flexibility provided by a blog is considerably greater than that provided by a traditional assignment.

Second, the use of blogs increases student interest and ownership in learning.45 Maintaining a blog requires students to direct their learning, while still receiving feedback from others (including the teacher) through the comments facility. Furthermore, as it is their blog, students also take ownership of their own learning. Arguably, the mere use of a new technology can be a motivating factor for learning, and ‘[b]logs are novel to students not only because they are a newer technology, but also because students are blogging about topics important to them’.46 Third, the use of blogs gives students a legitimate opportunity to participate. Blogging ‘opens up assignments beyond the teacher-student relationship, allowing the world to grade students and provide encouragement or feedback on their writing’.47 Fourth, as with a unit blog, blogs provide opportunities diverse perspectives, both within and outside the classroom. Bodie envisions this as being part of an open access law school.48

Maintaining a blog throughout an entire law degree or simply for a particular unit also provides an analytical record of a student’s

42 Ferdig and Trammell, above n 31, 13. 43 Rebecca Blood, The Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog (2002). 44 Duffy and Bruns, above n 8. 45 See, also, Reece Lamshed, Marsha Berry and Laurie Armstrong, Blogs: Personal e-learning spaces (2002) 63. 46 Ferdig and Trammell, above n 31, 13. 47 Ibid. 48 See Matthew T Bodie, ‘Open Access in law Teaching: A New Approach to Legal Education’ (2006) 10 Lewis & Clark Law Review 885.

Peter Black 20

learning.49 The posts made to the blog over a period time reflect the student’s learning over that time, allowing the teacher and the student to better chart and analyse the student’s development.

The final benefit from a blog network is that as students read and comment on each others’ blogs, it facilitates student-student learning interactions. There is considerable evidence that such interactions enrich learning outcomes.50 Biggs contends that such interactions result in the following outcomes:

elaboration of known content; deriving standards for judging better and worse

interpretations; meta-cognitive awareness of how one arrives at a given

position; interacting with peers is usually more interesting than

listening to lectures; increased self-concept, communication skills and self-

knowledge.51

These potential benefits indicate that blogs can be a useful tool in the teaching and learning of law students. Blogs cannot and will not replace face-to-face contact or more traditional forms of content delivery, but their use can enrich student learning. Students learn in a multitude of different ways and the flexible nature of blogs, coupled with the way in which they allow students to control and own their own learning, allows them to support many different learning styles.52

D. Criticisms and Potential Weaknesses

Despite the pedagogical justification for the incorporation of blogs into legal education, this must be balanced against several potential problems.

49 Williams and Jacobs, above n 27. 50 See John Biggs, Teaching for Quality Learning at University (2nd ed, 2003) 89, citing KG Collier, The Management of Peer-group Learning: Syndicate Methods in Higher Education (1983); DW Johnson and RT Johnson, Learning Together and Alone: Co-operation, Competition and Individualism (1990); and KJ Topping, ‘The effectiveness of peer tutoring in further and higher education: a typology and review of the literature’ (1996) 32 Higher Education 321. 51 Biggs, above n 51, 90. 52 Erica Brownstein and Robert Klein, ‘Blogs: Applications in Science Education’ (2006) 35 Journal of College Science Teaching 18, 22.


21

One obvious issue is that staff and mature age students may not be familiar with the technology. However, it does not take one long to master the requisite technology. A blog can be set up in as little as five minutes and the only expertise needed is the ability to navigate the internet.53 A related issue is that identified by Krause: ‘just because you give students the opportunity to use a new and exciting technology doesn’t mean they will want to use it’.54 When Krause trialled the use of a blog in his teaching, he found that some students posted repeatedly and others rarely, some posted long, rambling reflections and others posted little more than links to other websites.55 Krause felt the reason for this was obvious: ‘Perhaps the main power of blogs is that nearly anyone with a desire to publish her thoughts for the world to see can do so; but to write in a blog takes a desire to reach an audience in the first place.’56

This problem is not unique to blogs. Some students are always reluctant to contribute to class discussion. The use of blogs, however, may nonetheless encourage more people to engage in discussion as it gives students more time to think and reflect before expressing their view or asking a question. Further, this weakness could be countered by either incorporating blogs into the assessment of the unit, or by identifying for the students clear learning outcomes achieved by using the blog, such as reflection or self expression.

Krause also feels that the collaborative nature of blogs is exaggerated: Although academic blogs are interactive and dynamic in the sense that there is metaphoric discussion and dialogue between bloggers and their texts, it isn’t the same as the literal interaction that takes place via e-mail or in bulletin-board discussions. There are exceptions, of course, but comment spaces on most blogs are blank, and generally, the comments that appear are reactions to the writer’s original post rather than efforts to engage in the sort of conversation that characterizes most e-mail and bulletin-board discussions.57

However this conclusion misunderstands the nature of a blog; which is essentially a social medium where the blogger is publishing to the 53 Ibid. 54 Steven D Krause, ‘Blogs as a Tool for Teaching’ (2005) 51(42) The Chronicle of Higher Education B33. 55 Ibid. 56 Ibid. 57 Ibid.

Peter Black 22

world, rather than attempting to have a conversation with a few select, defined recipients.

Krause’s criticism is perhaps also related to the perception that blogs are simply a trendy or easy option here today and gone tomorrow, and that by including them in legal education we are pandering to young students straight out of school. However, the reality is that blogs have become commonplace on the internet and are being utilised as a communication tool by individuals, businesses and communities.58 The rapid uptake of blogs indicates that they will be a lasting communication technology. This conclusion is strengthened after considering the inherent flexibility of blogs. All of this prompts Farmer to state that ‘it is almost inconceivable that the technology will not have a very significant role to play in the development of the field’.59

A further argument against using blogs in legal education is that may it encourage students to take shortcuts in two ways. First, as the language used on blogs tends to be more informal than that used in traditional means of publishing, there is a valid concern that maintaining a blog could contribute to poor academic writing skills. This concern ignores the reality that students are already exposed to very informal language through emails and instant messaging and yet are able to adopt a formal tone when writing assignments or exam answers. Accordingly, this concern could be addressed by providing clear guidelines as to the appropriate writing tone and style. Second, there is an argument that the use of a blog encourages students to research by Google60 instead of using scholarly research tools. As blogs allow students to easily link to material that is online, blogs have a tendency to reward reliance on purely online material. Related to this is a concern about plagiarism of material as blogs make it very easy for students to cut and paste online material. Again, the teacher can counter this by outlining a clear policy as to what is expected in terms of research and referencing. Checking for plagiarism is also easy to do with online material and so the detection issues that plague hard copy assignments are minimised with blogs. Both of these arguments against the use of blogs ignore the fact that one of the key learning outcomes of using a blog is the reflective process students must adopt when composing posts.

58 Bruns and Jacobs, above n 16, 3. 59 James Farmer, ‘Blogging to Basics: How Blogs Are Bringing Online Education Back from the Brink’ in Axel Bruns and Joanne Jacobs (eds), Uses of Blogs (2006) 90, 101. 60 Google <http://www.google.com> at 10 November 2006.


23

In this respect, the writing style or research tools adopted by the students are secondary to the thinking and learning objective facilitated by the use of a blog.

When a teacher decides to introduce either a unit blog or blog network, that teacher needs to be cognisant of these criticisms and potential weaknesses and ensure that an appropriate blog usage policy is in place to militate against them.

IV. STUDENT EVALUATIONS AND PERCEPTIONS

This portion of the article tests the theory supporting the use of blogs in legal education by summarising two surveys of law students at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). The first survey, of first year law students, looks at whether students feel as though their learning would be enriched by the addition of a unit blog. The second survey, of students in a small Masters unit, looks at whether the students feel their learning was enriched by the addition of a unit blog. As the unit blog was deliberately first trialled in a small Masters unit instead of a large undergraduate unit, the survey size is small. However, it is contended that the results nonetheless suggest that a unit blog can augment student learning.

A. Student Perceptions

To ascertain whether law students would generally support the inclusion of blogs as a teaching and learning tool, a survey was conducted of 58 first year law students studying LWB141 Legal Institutions and Method at the QUT. Students (out of the 490 first year law students at QUT in Semester 1 2006) were selected by randomly surveying three LWB141 tutorial groups.61 This unit does not presently have a unit blog or a blog network. The first series of questions in the survey attempted to gauge the information technology literacy level of first year law students. Tables 2 and 3 summarise student responses.

61 This sample included students with English as a second language, mature age students and students from a variety of backgrounds.

Peter Black 24

Table 2: Information technology uptake of first year law students

Question Yes No

Do you have a broadband internet connection at home?

39.7% 60.3%

Do you download your law lectures and listen to them on your iPod or mp3 player?

63.8% 36.2%

Do you know what a blog is? 87.9% 12.1% Do you own a blog or a MySpace page (or equivalent)?

29.3% 70.7%

Table 3: Frequency of unit website visitation

Question: How regularly did you visit the LWB141 Online Learning and Teaching website? Daily 19% 3 or 4 times a week 36% Twice a week 28% Once a week 14% Once a fortnight 2% Once a month - A few times throughout the semester 2% Never -

Tables 2 and 3 indicate that first year law students have a high degree of information technology literacy and are comfortable with new communication technologies. This means that increasingly law students will be able to effectively engage with blogs as a teaching and learning tool, providing the educational benefits outlined in Part III of this article. This conclusion is further supported by the data in table 4, which shows that students would be prepared to embrace a blog as a teaching and learning tool, with three quarters of students surveyed believing that a unit blog would help their learning.


25

Table 4: A unit blog as an aid to learning

Question: Please respond to this statement. A LWB141 blog focusing on recent developments in the law and interesting legal links that also allows you to post comments would help my learning in this unit. Strongly disagree 2% Disagree - Neutral 24% Agree 45% Strongly agree 29%

B. Student Evaluation

It was decided to trial a unit blog in a small Masters unit at the QUT. Accordingly, in LWN117 Legal Regulation of the Internet the unit coordinators 62 implemented these objectives by introducing a unit blog.63 Given the nature of the subject matter covered in the unit, it was particularly suited to the inclusion of a blog in the teaching and learning methodology. Furthermore, given the potential educational benefits of a blog identified in the literature, 64 it was considered that the development of a unit blog was a pedagogically sound teaching and learning strategy.

The adoption of a blog as a teaching and learning strategy was consistent with QUT’s Teaching and Learning Plan 2003-2007. 65 Objective 2 of that Plan is ‘To build on strengths to develop better learning environments’, with Strategy 2.2 being: 62 The author and John Swinson, Partner, Mallesons Stephen Jaques and Adjunct Professor, Queensland University of Technology. 63 Legal Regulation of the Internet (2005) <http://legalinternet.blogspot.com/> at 10 November 2006. 64 See Part III of this article. 65 Queensland University of Technology, Teaching and Learning Plan 2003-2007 (2003), Contextual Statement 1: While remaining a university which emphasizes the benefits of interaction and feedback between staff and students, the notion of “campus” will evolve in coming years in ways which may be difficult to predict with precision but which will be driven by the diversity of ways in which students can connect with the university, for example from the home or the workplace. QUT will therefore adopt a variety of strategies which improve its capacities for connectedness, using the latest technology where appropriate. The use of technology will be not only to improve educational quality and flexibility, but also to reflect QUT's “real world” orientation and to support QUT's aim of developing information literacy skills in its graduates.

Peter Black 26

Develop an appropriate mix of physical and virtual learning environments. This should involve a focus on student learning and a shift from ‘bolting on’ to traditional approaches. Particular priority will be focused on assessing the quality of online teaching.66

The Faculty of Law’s Strategic Plan 2005-2007 reflects this objective by providing for ‘high quality learning environments and experiences to foster and support effective student learning’, 67 and requiring: ‘Continuing to embed innovation in teaching practices across the Faculty’ and ‘Developing an online presence for teaching innovation’.68

The unit blog was created in semester 1, 2005. The survey was administered in semester 1, 2006 to the second cohort that studied LWN117 Legal Regulation of the Internet with the unit blog.

Throughout semester 1, 2005 and semester 1, 2006, the blog was regularly updated with developments in the law, links to interesting websites (including other blogs), news stories and academic articles. Any registered Blogger69 user was free to post comments and students could supplement their in-class seminar performance mark by contributing to the discussion on the blog. The unit coordinators felt that the unit blog enhanced the level of student engagement with the unit content throughout the semester as the blog allowed them to highlight the connections between the various topics covered in the unit and update students of worldwide developments in a rapidly changing area of law. This improved contextualisation and awareness of the interconnectivity of various topics resulted in more informed class and blog discussion and high quality research papers.

To evaluate the effectiveness of the online teaching and learning strategy, a student evaluation was conducted. As it was a Masters unit, the class size was small, but 10 of the 12 enrolled students completed the evaluation.

The students were asked six questions on the effectiveness of the unit blog. Tables 2 to 5 below present the results of the survey. Table 5: Blog visitation before studying LWN117

66 Ibid 3. 67 Queensland University of Technology, Faculty of Law, Strategic Plan 2005-2007 (2005), Teaching and Learning Plan Objective 1. 68 Ibid, Objective 1, Action 1.7. 69 Blogger, above n 5.


27

Question 1: Before studying LWN117 Legal Regulation of the Internet, did you regularly visit any blogs? Score Percentage

Yes 4 40% No 6 60%

Table 6: Frequency of unit blog visitation

Question 2: How often did you access the Legal Regulation of the Internet blog? Score Percentage

Twice a week 3 30% Once a week 4 40% Once a fortnight 2 20% Once a month - - A few times throughout the semester

1 10%

Never - -

Since Masters students are older than undergraduate students, it is not surprising that most of the class did not regularly visit blogs before studying in the unit. However, it seems clear the majority of students regularly visited the unit blog to keep up-to-date with the unit content. Also, throughout the semester all students commented on the posts to the unit blog. This supports the notion that they were able to master the technology relatively quickly and easily.

Peter Black 28

Table 7: The unit blog as a medium of learning

Question 3: The Legal Regulation of the Internet blog stimulated my interest in the unit. Question 4: The Legal Regulation of the Internet blog helped my learning. Question 5: The Legal Regulation of the Internet blog encouraged me to think about

recent developments in the field. Q3: Interest Q4: Help learning Q5: Developments Score Percentage Score Percentage Score Percentage Strongly disagree - - - - - - Disagree - - - - - - Neutral - - 3 30% - - Agree 6 60% 5 50% 4 40% Strongly agree 4 40% 2 20% 6 60%

Table 8: Evaluation of unit blog

Question 5: Overall, the inclusion of the Legal Regulation of the Internet blog in this unit was: Score Percentage

Very poor - - Poor - - Satisfactory 2 20% Good 4 40% Very good 4 40%

The quantitative data in table 7 and 8 suggests strong support for the continued use of the unit blog. Even though 30 percent of students did not agree that the unit blog helped their learning, all students surveyed felt that the unit blog stimulated their interest in the unit and encouraged them to think about recent developments in the field. Similarly, 80 percent of students believed that overall the inclusion of the unit blog was good or very good. Accordingly, even though the usefulness of the survey is limited by the small class size, students appear to support the use of a blog in the teaching and learning of law.


29

V. CONCLUSION

This article is only an introduction to the potential uses, benefits and opportunities inherent in using blogs in legal education. Although the uses of these technologies, as well as the technologies themselves, are developing rapidly,70 the proclivity and proliferation of blogs today means the blog as a new communication technology is more than a passing internet fad.71 The wide variety of ways in which blogs can be used across all sectors of society, including in the workplace, places a further incentive on educational institutions, including law schools, to incorporate them into their teaching and learning strategies.

The student evaluation and perceptions described above show students to be strongly in favour of the use of blogs in legal education. Furthermore, the high level of information technology literacy among first year law students suggests that they will be willing and able to engage with this new communication technology and its educational benefits.

Blogs as an educational tool promote deep learning and critical, analytical and analogical thinking. The unit blog effectively contextualises content, continues learning outside the classroom and allows students to comment and contribute to class discussion without the time and place pressures of the classroom. In addition, access to the blog network develops individual ownership of the learning process in a collaborative environment. Given all this, blogs are a welcome addition to any teaching and learning strategy for law students.

70 Duffy and Bruns, above n 8. 71 Williams and Jacobs, above n 27.

Documents

USES OF BLOGS IN LEGAL EDUCATION › au › journals › JCULRev › 2006 › 2.txt › cgi... · Uses of Blogs in Legal Education 13 created by users aged 30 and under.18 Similarly,