Computer-assisted legal instruction: what an idea!
I recently discovered that my school is one of only five ABA-accredited law schools that doesn’t belong to the consortium called CALI. CALI is the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction. Sounded right up my alley, so I looked a bit deeper and ended up feeling… pretty jealous. Thousands of law students – my peers across the country – have access to a steady stream of interactive lessons on many topics. Online, any time of day or night. From following CALI on Twitter I was introduced to more content– this free for anyone: webinars and online articles on seriously relevant topics like “Engaging Laptop Users” (for profs who know students spend more time on Facebook and IMing than on typing notes…) or using MediaNotes (a CALI program for tagging video for evaluation of mock trial, oral argument, etc.). Check out the Spotlights on their homepage for more.
Granted, CALI’s website looks like it was created in 1998 (oh, color scheme!…[though I should talk, since this blog's contrast is only readable on 1/2 of all LCD monitors]), and there seem to be two competing main sites? But what they’re doing and attempting is amazing: leading law schools along the path to adopting and utilizing modern technology in the classroom. Not for the sake of technology (like every PowerPoint presentation I sat through in college in the late 90s), but for the sake of more effectively delivering content and engaging participation with users who are eternally hunched behind their screens. I’m impressed and I hope my school and the other holdouts will see the value ($5,000 per year = <$9/student at my school) and give it try. We’re only about three decades behind the times, since CALI was incorporated in 1982…
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As CALI’s web guy I would like to point out that the current design and color scheme is from 2003. The actual 1998 site, http://tinyurl.com/ccaagl, was even more fun.
Thanks,
Elmer.
Comment by Elmer Masters — April 3, 2009 at 1:40 pm
My school “has” Cali, but no one uses it. Often the answers on their tutorials conflict with what the professor has taught.
Comment by Jansen — April 3, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Dennis,
I would invite you to register at the CALI site and try the Lessons for yourself. There are 452 U of MN students registered and they have run 3117 Lessons (as of April 7, 2009) since the beginning if the fall 08 semester. Yes, sometimes answers for a given question may differ from what your professor is teaching, but we invite feedback on this sort of thing as we strive to make the CALI Lessons as objective as possible.
Thanks,
Elmer.
Comment by Elmer Masters — April 7, 2009 at 8:37 am
[...] 18-20 at Colorado’s law school in Boulder. CALI, known to every law school in the country (save a few, like mine), is a place where law students learn and professors share, using modern internet technologies. [...]
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