Powering up: Architects 1, drill sergeants 0

  

Laptops in the classroom? Sure, why not? Nearly everything pertinent to law school has jumped the electronic barrier: lectures and presentations, cases rendered as audio recordings, and pooled student wisdom. Little wonder that some schools require laptops, perhaps as part of a comprehensive commitment to the electronic classroom. Gene Koo of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society demonstrates both wisdom and clairvoyance:

I propose that a law professor (and all teachers in general) cannot erect infinitely high seawalls against a rising tide of information and opinions -- indeed, given the reality that law students will step into as practitioners, such an approach may even be harmful. Rather, perhaps professors are increasingly being called on to serve as architects of an educational space that students create together and not just as drill sergeants of knowledge.

Gene reports Harvard's forum on this subject. The Jurisdynamics Network's warehouse of multimedia tools brings you this webcast of a discussion at Harvard's forum: