Teknoids - Caliopolis

CALI Tools For Law Faculty in 15 Minutes from AALS 2009

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:32:17 -0600

Here is the link to a screencast of my presentation at AALS on Wednesday, January 7, 2009 in San Diego. I was participating in the "Redesigning Legal Education" session. I had 15 minutes to cover a lot of ground, so I apologize for my fast-talking.

Here is the Powerpoint file... 2009AALSClassroomTechnology.ppt

Mayer, Lazar, Devenny, Marik, Robinson, Kokosz Families Sing the 12 Days of Christmas

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 01:01:14 -0600

The picture does not capture the participants - unfortunately, no one took pics at this year's Christmas gathering.

Some may say this it is better that no pictures were taken if you listen to the singing in the podcast.

Just saying...

Here is the podcast ... MayerFamily12days2008.mp3

Click to play or right-click to download.

Blogging Hiatus Ends

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:43:11 -0600

I am back to blogging. I had to take some time off to recover from quintuple bypass surgery. Let this be a reminder to get your cholesterol checked - mine was over 330 last April - now it's around 150 thankyouverymuch.

I've been back to work for quite some time now (since May), but I had fallen so far behind that I just didn't know where to pick up the blog. Well, it's a new year and I know what my first blog post of 2009 must be...See the next post.

New Podcast Launched - PLEASE PAY ATTENTION

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 03:22:08 -0500

"Please Pay Attention" is the working title of the new podcast series. We would love to get suggestions from listeners to name this podcast.

Elmer Masters and I talk about legal education-related IT topics several times a week and we have threatened in the past to turn some of those conversations into podcasts because we believe that others might benefit. Alternatively, others might listen and set us straight.

So we have followed up on our threat and recorded the first in a series of podcasts. The general topic area is IT in legal education/law schools. We don't expect to be the only voices on this podcast as we will be inviting "guest speakers" - that is - real IT folks who work at real jobs in real law schools.

But for this first podcast, we decided to keep it between just me and Elmer and talk about Drupal (Elmer attended DrupalCon in Boston last week), Drupal, the massively popular open source content management system and related topics on law school website design, development and administration issues.

Transforming Legal Education - 2008 CALI Conference Theme

Sun, 3 Feb 2008 11:03:05 -0600

We have a theme!!!

"Transforming Legal Educaction" is the theme for the 2008 Conference for Law School Computing.

We'll be posting links for registration and putting out a call for speakers soon. All of these links will be here.

Internet in Africa: Still the Dark Continent in the 21st Century

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:57:33 -0600

Before the interior of sub-Saharan Africa was known, mapmakers would leave it blank or dark and so Africa was known as the "Dark Continent".

This graphic from 2005 shows that Africa is still the Dark Continent in terms of Internet accessibility.

This map shows the reason why ...

Although this map is from 2004, it's illustrative of the problem. Here's a closer look at Nigeria where I am most interested...

Abuja Campus of the Nigerian Law School - The Largest Law Class

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 00:39:30 -0600

My travels took me to the Abuja campus which is the largest of the four campuses of the Nigerian Law School. There are 1600 students enrolled here and the picture above shows just about all of them.

Because the room is so big, I took three pictures and stitched together. If you click on the picture (or here), you can see a larger version.

I can't imagine teaching to such large classes. It's more like a rock concert or a church service and the parallels are not far off in terms of individual interactivity between the teacher and student. This is the problem. To the hapless students sitting in the back row, they can learn just as well from a tape recording of the lecture - perhaps better because they can pause and rewind, listen over and over and choose the time and place to listen.

Not "Casual Day" in a Nigerian Law Classroom

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 23:20:27 -0600

Yesterday, I visited the Kano Campus of the Nigerian Law School. Kano is in the north of Nigeria and is NIgeria's second most populous city after Lagos. The law school is a long way away from the city center and resides on a large and beautiful campus of a former conference center/resort.

My estmeed host, Professor Nasirdeen Usman took me on a thorough tour of the place which is undergoing much renovation (and much needed). We interrupted a class on Evidence that was being taught to the 400 students and since it was Monday, I took a picture to contrast to the "casual day" picture from my last post.

As you can see, the status quo is black suites, white shirts and black ties. Women dress in business black for class. The temperature in the room was around 70 degrees Farenheit - actually cold to the Nigerians. During the rainy season, it can get quite hot and damp. The students were not "kids" either. Most looked to be in the their 30's or 40's and upon questioning I learned that this is true of most law students at the Nigerian Law Schools. Many government officials, policemen and former military go to law school.

"Casual Day" in a Nigerian Law School Course

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 04:48:24 -0600

The picture above was taken during my visit of the Enugu campus of the Nigerian Law School this just past Friday. This was my second stop of four. I am visiting all four campuses of the Nigerian Law School - Lagos, Enugu, Abuja and Kano.

While touring the Enugu campus, we dropped in on a Property class in progress and I was asked to say a few words on the spot.

I looked out over the 1000+ students (which is how they each law in Nigeria) and was dazzled by the colorful clothing. Many students were wearing traditional outfits and so I complimented them on the brightness of their clothing and urged them to mirror that brightness in their studies of law.

Legal Education in Nigeria

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:07:21 -0600

I am off to the airport in a few short hours to travel to Lagos, Nigeria for nine days visiting the four campuses that make up the Nigerian Law School. All lawyers who hope to practice in Nigeria must complete a year or more of study at one of the campuses of the Nigerian Law School.

I have been asked to visit the facilities and provide some advice on ICT-related matters. I have never been to Africa and although I won't have much time for looking around, I am thrilled by this opportunity to expand my horizons.

I hope to blog some of my experiences as well as some of my thinking. It's a tall order to be asked to consult on an entire country's legal education system in any capacity and I feel the weight of that responsibility.

In early discussions with my hosts, I find that they have the same questions and concerns that I have heard over and over from U.S. law schools and law faculty. One of their biggest concerns is how to "interest faculty in technology who are not interested in using technology" ... a very familiar concern to me. This concern about motivating faculty was very comforting to me. I was concerned that I would be going into a situation with no common ground and instead find that the issues may be quite similar to the ones I address every day with CALI.

2008 Conference for Law School Computing - Help Me Pick a Theme

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 00:01:02 -0600

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.

CORRECTION - CALI currently has 208 U.S. Law School Members

Wed, 9 Jan 2008 22:22:59 -0600

CALI's Director of Membership, LaVonne Molde has pointed out that in my talk at AALS and in my slides, I list CALI as having only 206 U.S. law school members when that number should actually be 208!

Click here for the complete list and if you are a student or faculty at a law school that is NOT a member ... please tell me why not.

2008 Annual CALI Members Meeting - Screencast Version

Wed, 9 Jan 2008 13:36:56 -0600

Here is the link to the screencast version of my talk at the 2008 Annual CALI Members Meeting held on Friday, January 5, 2008 in New York during AALS.

I had previously posted the podcast/audio recording and Powerpoint slides.

Podcast of AALS Session: Rethinking Legal Education For The 21st Century

Mon, 7 Jan 2008 18:19:53 -0600

Here ...

AALS2008Carnegie.mp3

... is the recording of the AALS Session: Rethinking Legal Education For The 21st Century. The speakers included...

Moderator: Edward L. Rubin, Vanderbilt University Law School
Speakers: Vicki C. Jackson, Georgetown University Law Center
Robert Mac Crate, Esq., Senior Counsel, Sullivan and Cromwell, New York, New York
Martha L. Minow, Harvard Law School
Suellyn Scarnecchia, University of New Mexico School of Law
William M. Sullivan, Senior Scholar The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Palo Alto, California

CALI 2008 Annual Members Meeting - CALI and Carnegie

Sat, 5 Jan 2008 23:09:50 -0600

Here is the recording of my talk at the 2008 Annual Membership Meeting for CALI during AALS in New York, NY on January 5, 2008 ... AALS2008CALIBreakfast.mp3

Here are the slides ... 2008AALSBreakfast_final.ppt

I will be posting a screencast version soon and posting more information about ELangdell into the future.