LESSONS FROM THE WEB

Lessons | Talkback | Archive
—————————————————————————————
In this monthly column, law professors comment on the many academic opportunities and challenges presented by Web technology.

As with all JURIST columns, you're invited to Talkback. This month...
—————————————————————————————
How Adjuncts Can Do Something Useful While Everyone Else is at a Faculty Meeting

William Martin Sloane, Widener University School of Law
(and Elizabethtown College, and Wilson College)

Part-time faculty like to think of ourselves as highly efficient (this is particularly true for those suffering from Adjunctivitis, a disorder characterized by teaching at several different schools simultaneously). The Internet, if used properly, can extend our reach, increase our efficiency and enrich everyone's educational experience; if overutilized, it can make us techno-dependent and give the students one more thing to complain about on their evaluation forms.

My office is an ‘88 T-bird, so I've come to use the Internet as a combination file cabinet and billboard. Every nonconfidential thing that I need to remember, or that I need to refer others to, is online. No matter where in the world I am--even on someone else's computer without my bookmarks--I can find whatever I need via a homemade start page.

Here are some suggestions for the beginner:

The most important items to "cyberize" are your course syllabi. If the school doesn't provide you with a website, go to any of the commercial services that offer free space. Initially you can take advantage of the user-friendly, fill-in-the-boxes approach, but you'll soon want to write your own HTML tags. There are plenty of online primers; one good way to start is with a free membership in the HTML Writers' Guild. I guarantee that anyone who can pass a bar exam can learn HTML in less than an hour (but those who find it fun should beware of the onset of HTMD, HyperText Markup Disorder, a condition characterized by . . . well, you'll see.)

What should an online syllabus look like? In addition to the JURIST examples, see what's available through the University of Texas's World Lecture Hall and (for Communication Law) the University of Alabama's ScreenSite. (Once your syllabus is online, it would be courteous to reciprocate by linking it to these collegial sites.)

If you teach more than one course, you'll need an index of your syllabus pages (sample). This should be linked to your home page, which can be created almost effortlessly by going to FindLaw, a free service.

Your syllabi and home page can include links that students will find helpful, such as online search and research sites (sample). The key is not to overdo it. The fact that you've decided to spend 40 hours a week on the Internet does not mean that the students share your enthusiasm. Some will, but a sizeable number won't. To them, everything they are required to do online may seem like just one more onerous burden imposed by Prof. S. Legree. For this reason, I still print out important documents and distribute them the old-fashioned way whenever possible.

Many of those who are taught by part-time faculty are themselves part-time students, and this leads to some special considerations. It certainly does not mean that there should be less work--three credits is three credits, whether by sunshine or by moonshine. But it does mean that students have other things to do besides "interacting" all day online; they may not even have Internet access for most of the day, even if the law school provides a computer lab on campus. To give them mandatory exercises that may be completed only online is taxing, and it cannot be justified unless there is a clear educational benefit. We need to drag students into the 21st century without breaking their necks in the process.

This brings us to TWEN, The West Education Network. Some students consider it a useful tool, and others a sadistic weapon. The Aristotelian golden mean, to me, is to create a TWEN site for every course; to encourage the students to register (if nothing else, this creates the capability of group-Emailing them, and of their asking questions between classes); and to try to link up a large number of CALI Lessons and West databases that can be helpful to the students for other courses they're taking, as well as my own (because a majority of my colleagues have not chosen to use TWEN in their courses). And for courses without casebooks, TWEN provides a free and easy way to assemble your own materials. What I have learned is a bad idea is to post a lot of esoterica and then expect the students to read it online, in addition to their hard-copy assignment. This engenders significant resistance and creates the impression that TWEN is simply a trick to get them to do more work.

My current rule of thumb is that all students should do something online for every course (as a painless introduction, I link all of my syllabi to the JURIST Student Lounge and encourage them to click away and see what happens). But students who are already plowing through a thick casebook and supplement shouldn't be forced to spend more than ten minutes per week per course staring at a monitor (even though many will learn better by spending more). I would much rather have them introduced to the Internet as a useful resource--and find out for themselves that it can increase their efficiency as well as mine.

© 2000 by William Martin Sloane. All rights reserved.
—————————————————————————————
 The views expressed in this column are solely those of its author, and do not reflect those of JURIST, its Advisory Board, its staff or its host institutions.
 ———————————————————————
Talkback

Engaged? Enraged? JURIST would like to hear your reactions to this column and the issues it raises...

Your comments:

Your Name:
Organization:
E-Mail Address:
State/Country:

If you would like your comments to remain anonymous, check here: 

———————————————————————
Archive

Previous columns in this series: