Podcasting Law School Courses:The Classcaster Experience

PODCASTING PRESENTATIONCALI 2006 CONFERENCEPROFESSOR GREGORY L. OGDENPodcasting Reflections and Questions for discussion 1. Podcasting and Law Student Reactions I used podcasts in two of my classes in the spring semester 2006, Civil Procedure II, a 2 unit second semester 1L class, with 82 students, and remedies, an upper division class with 95 mostly 3L students. Remedies is a bar subject in California. The reactions of my students to the pod casts was very positive, in both student evaluations and office hour interactions with the students. Some of the students wondered whether or not other professors could be persuaded to provide pod casts of their classes. I am continuing to use podcasts in my summer term class, legal ethics, which has a small enrollment, 13 students. Based no the classcaster statistics, I have added 97 posts total, most of which are blog entries, with mp3 files linked, and I have had 4390 total viewed posts. That suggests to me that a number of my students have been accessing the podcasts. My students have used podcasts in tow situations: 1) to listen to lectures when they have missed class due to illness or other reasons; 2) to listen to lectures when they want to hear some complex material a second time. The auditory learners are particularly receptive to podcasts, but even visual learners can find the lectures to reinforce the information they have studied by reading. I plan to continue podcasting my classes for the indefinite future. Once I learned how to do the podcasts and how to post them on the class caster web site, it became very easy to do. A. What has been the reaction of your law students, if you have done podcasting? B. What would be the reaction of your students, if you started to do podcasts in the future? C. What concerns do you have about student involvement and student learning in your classes, if you were to start podcasting? 2. Podcasting and other law faculty My colleagues at Pepperdine have varying levels of familiarity and comfort with technology in the classroom, and with CALI lessons, and podcasting. Some of my colleagues are interested in using podcasts, but more will use this technology if it is easy to do so. I have been speaking with our IT director, Phil Bohl, about setting up a system in which professors can show up in class, push a button to activate podcasting, and then start their class. If it is that easy, many more faculty will use this technology. The main concern expressed by my colleagues about podcasting is the fear that law students will not come to class if they can listen to the podcast. I do not have this problem as I take attendance in every class, and tell the students missing class is unprofessional, and they should not miss class unless there is a very good reason. Podcasting has not have an appreciable affect on attendance in my classes. This does not surprise me because law students are in graduate school, in a field that they have chosen, so they are as a group much more highly motivated than a group of college freshman taking a required course outside of their major. A. What benefits have seen from podcasting, if you have used this technology in your classes? B. What benefits might you anticipate in your classes if you started doing podcasting?C. What costs, or downsides, do you see from using podcasting technology, and from posting podcasts of your classes on the classcaster web site? 3. Podcasting and Distance Education The questions listed below are designed for discussion at the conference. My reflections on podcasting and distance education are based on a number of factors: the experiences of undergraduate institutions that use distance learning technology undergraduate courses, the experiences of other schools at Pepperdine that use distance education for working adult student courses, principally our business school and education school, and the experiences of teaching my 1L students this year, who are Gen Y, or millennial students, and who are very tech savvy. An e-mail I sent to John Mayer about this subject Gen Y 1L students is excerpted here: My 1L students are way ahead of me. I was speaking with one of them today, and they told the following: 1) one class member was an audio engineer in his former life. He also records class lectures, for all students who want copies for each of the six 1L classes our students have to take. He cleans up the recordings, using sound software, and then burns CD’s for other students who want class recordings. This goes well beyond what I have tried to do. He is going to give me an enhanced recording of my 1L lectures in a CD format at the end of the semester. Another student, using IM technology, is able to transmit in real time class lectures to students at home. This student told me that she did this when we had bad weather, and some students were not able to make it to class. So some students could access real time lectures through easily available IM software. This is a form of distance learning. Another 1L student has set up a template that makes it much easier for students to take notes in a format that translates into an outline for each class. This student has developed a template which he has shared with other class members, that keys outline topics to the class syllabus, and the casebook table of contents. This makes outlining quicker and more efficient. It also enhances students organizational abilities. My 1L students share notes with each other very willingly, and are very cooperative with each other. I have wondered if our law students today are a new generation, ie, Gen Y, described in the new book "Millennials Rising." Our students are very tech savvy, and way ahead of us at my law school. Greg QUESTIONS A. What are the benefits of the classroom live lecture or discussion class experience for our students, and are we gradually disaggregating the law school teaching system by providing other ways to learn and experience law school classes? B. Podcasting is rapidly spreading throughout our culture. Is this the wave of the future for higher education? Is the live class soon to be an anachronism? C. Are there other benefits for live classroom interaction in professional schools, in which students are taught the professional norms, culture, vocabulary and values of their area of professional study, and have the opportunity to interact with and learn from fellow students? D. Could some or all of these goals or benefits of graduate and professional education by provided through online learning, or various substitutes for a live class? E. Does distance education, in the form of podcasting or other online technologies have differential impacts depending on the student population. Such as part time working adult students, or full time law and other graduate students, or freshman at a major university?4. Podcasting and ITUNES A number of bloggers post podcasts on ITUNES, eg, Glenn Reynolds, law professor and host of instapundit.com. There is also an Apple University section of ITUNES in which the faculty of selected colleges post podcasts of their class lectures on the ITUNEs web site. You can find academic podcasts on ITUNES now. My summer research assistant pointed this out to me, and said more students would access and use podcats, if they were available on ITUNES, as many law students have ipods, and already buy music that way. We could use that familiarity of our students with ITUNES to expand access to and ease of use by students for our classroom podcasts. I am not familiaer enough with ITUNES to know whether there are legal or tech barriers that might make this more complicated, or unworkable.