‘The machine is us’: wiki-based collaborative research and writing in legal education

Professor Paul MahargGlasgow Graduate School of Law

LILAC, 2008 2

overview

1. Summary of chapters & themes of Transforming Legal Education

2. Wiki writing3. Wiki writing and the Transforming Initiative

LILAC, 2008 3

book outline

Part 1: In(ter)disciplines

1. Trading Zones

2. The Empty Quarter: Interdisciplinary Research and Practice

Part 1 Conclusion: Elasticity and Obstacle

LILAC, 2008 4

book outline

Part 2: Laminations

3. The Road not Taken: Realists and the Curriculum

4. ‘By the End of This Module …’: The Intimate Dimensions of Ethical Education

5. Codex to Codecs: The Medieval Web Redivivus

Part 2 Conclusion: Adjacencies

LILAC, 2008 5

book outline

Part 3: Metaverse

6. Simulations and the Metaverse7. Transactional Learning in Action8. Relational Objects: Transactions, Professionalism, E-

mergence9. Multimedia and the Docuverse of Law: Learning and

the Representation of KnowledgePart 3 Conclusion: Simulation and Transformation

Afterword: Elective Affinities: Experience, Ethics, Technology, Collaboration

LILAC, 2008 6

some of the book’s themes

Transformation Transactional learning: Dewey, Stenhouse, Garrison,

constructivists, situated learning, etc Rhetoric and communications theory Legal educational history: meditations on failure,

difference and the survival & migration of forms of education

Technology as saturated learning environment Technology and control Imagining the future

LILAC, 2008 7

four key themes

LILAC, 2008 8

John Dewey

E.L. Thorndike

LILAC, 2008 9

John Dewey E.L. Thorndike

1. Philosopher & educationalist Educational psychologist

2. Theoretician and practical implementer

Theoretician & experimentalist

3. Interested in the arc between experience & the world

Explored the dyadic relationship between mind & the world

4. Pragmatist approach to learning: prior experience, ways of contextual knowing

Adopted as precursor of a behaviourist approach to learning: assessment-led; laws of effect, recency, repetition

5. Emphasised learning ecologies Emphasised teaching strategies

6. Followed by: Bruner, Kilpatrick, standards movement, Constructivist tradition

Followed by: Watson, Skinner, Gagné, outcomes movement,

LILAC, 2008 10

Practical implementations? See Part 3...SIMPLE: simulations in legal learning…

Are close to the world of practice, but safe from the (possible) realities of malpractice and negligent representation.

Enable students to practise legal transactions, discuss the transactions with other tutors, students, and use a variety of instruments or tools, online or textual, to help them understand the nature and consequences of their actions

Facilitate a wide variety of assessment, from high-stakes assignments with automatic fail points, to coursework that can double as a learning zone and an assessment assignment

Encourage collaborative learning. The guilds and groups of hunters in multi-player online games can be replicated for very different purposes in legal education.

Students begin to see the potential for the C in ICT; and that technology is not merely a matter of word-processed essays & quizzes, but a form of learning that changes quite fundamentally what and how they learn.

LILAC, 2008 11

We need: Clear research evidence sim environments will enable

successful alternative approaches to knowledge, collaboration, professionalism, ethics... at reasonable cost.

Career-long assessment environments To address our successes and concerns directly those to

those with financial & decision-making powers, eg: institutional management regulatory bodies policy-makers

SIMPLE: evidence-based alternative

LILAC, 2008 12

SIMPLE: community of practice

Aims – Be collaborative: staff, students, different institutions,

different professions Be international – in our increasingly globalized

jurisdictions we need to enable our students to work with others

Liaise with institutions & students in developing countries Integrate with other forms of simulation, eg standardized

clients Form of a Foundation

LILAC, 2008 13

Will all this work to transform legal (or any other) education...?

No. Not on its own...

We need to change the signature pedagogies of legal education...

LILAC, 2008 14

signature pedagogies

Sullivan, W.M., Colby, A., Wegner, J.W., Bond, L., Shulman, L.S. (2007) Educating Lawyers. Preparation for the Profession of Law, Jossey-Bass, p. 24

LILAC, 2008 15

four key themes of Transforming…

LILAC, 2008 16

transforming the signature pedagogy...

LILAC, 2008 17

what part can technology play in this?

Take the example of social software, which emphasises: networks of meaning Distributed learning across the internet and other forms of

knowledge representation Collaborative learning at all levels

LILAC, 2008 18

intermediate online education, 2006

Still focused on: 1. Organisations, ie LMSs, silos of knowledge2. Products, ie handbooks, CDs, closely-guarded downloads3. Content, ie modules, lock-step instruction4. Snapshot assessment of taught content

LILAC, 2008 19

social learning > 2010+

Focus shifts to:1. Organisation has weak boundaries, strong presence

through resource-based, integrated learning networks, with open access, eg MIT & OU open courseware

2. Focus not on static content but on web-based, aggregated content

3. E-learning as understanding & conversation, just-in-time learning

4. Assessment of situated learning

LILAC, 2008 20

Web 2.0

Michael Wesch,The Web is Us/ing Us

LILAC, 2008 21

wikis…?

Think of an online, dynamic encyclopaedia – Wikipedia, eg, or a developing set of definitions & documents

Useful for developing projects, developing knowledge, sharing knowledge

Can be edited, shared among a community of readers / clients -- private or public

LILAC, 2008 22

Wikipedia

LILAC, 2008 23

Jurispedia

LILAC, 2008 24

LILAC, 2008 25

practical examples of wiki texts...

Planning a conference:http://careo.elearning.ubc.ca/wiki?Technoculture

Taking collaborative notes:http://careo.elearning.ubc.ca/wiki?CS430

Staff collaborative writing:http://careo.elearning.ubc.ca/wiki?CS430/Chapt12

Collaborate on an entire book:http://www.eu.socialtext.net/codev2/index.cgi

LILAC, 2008 26

how to edit a wiki?

Lee Lefever, Wikis in Plain English

LILAC, 2008 27

0ther uses... e-portfolios + wikis

Personal digital collection of information, reflection on learning and future plans

Records and demonstrates a person's learning, career, experience and achievements.

Belong to the learner - not the organisation Populated by learner Primarily concerned with supporting learning Lifelong and lifewide learning Wiki can enable collaborative writing on the e-

portfolio

LILAC, 2008 28

other uses... Wiki + blogs + RSS…?

Where... Wiki is central text, blog comments on &

advertises wiki-text, RSS pulls in information to blog or wiki

Blog is central text, wiki drafts are tangential, RSS feeds into wiki

LILAC, 2008 29

Other uses... video in a wiki

LILAC, 2008 30

ALIAS...

ALIAS – ArdcallochLegal Information & Advice Service

LILAC, 2008 31

... and collaborative writing

Professional skills: legal writing Simulation of professional writing contexts Creation of wikis within ALIAS – Ardcalloch Legal

Information and Advice Service Students will:

See each other’s drafts Amend drafts

Staff will: See student drafts Comment on drafts

Staff will include professional legal writers as well as GGSL staff

LILAC, 2008 32

Transforming wiki

LILAC, 2008 33

Syndicated blog postings...

LILAC, 2008 34

LILAC, 2008 35

Transforming wiki

LILAC, 2008 36

Transforming wiki

LILAC, 2008 37

LILAC, 2008 38

the transforming initiative

What are your ideas about how law should be learned, taught, assessed in the future?  What are your practical suggestions, techniques, case-studies, examples of good practice, successful implementations, that might help to transform legal education?  It might be a big initiative, it might be the merest change to classroom technique – it doesn’t matter.  All ideas are welcome.www.transforming.org.uk  

LILAC, 2008 39

contact details

Email: paul.maharg@strath.ac.uk

Blog: http://zeugma.typepad.com

Book: www.transforming.org.uk

These slides at: www.slideshare.net/paulmaharg

Address: Glasgow Graduate School of LawLord Hope BuildingUniversity of Strathclyde141 St James’ RoadGlasgow G4 0LU