Not the evil TWEN: how online course management software supports non-linear learning in law schools.

• Author: Newman, Marie Stefanini

1. INTRODUCTION

   The students entering law school today grew up using computers and are comfortable with technology of all kinds. As Professor William Anderson, then President of CALI, (1) said in 1995, "'There is a generational thing here. Some of these students have been working with computers since kindergarten, and they know how to extract information from these machines."" (2) The situation has only intensified since Professor Anderson made that statement because the move to Internet-accessible classrooms has accelerated, and most students are computer literate and comfortable with online information. (3) By 1995, the majority of public elementary and secondary schools in the United States had Internet access. (4) By 1998, the majority of instructional rooms (i.e., classrooms and libraries or media centers) were connected to the Internet. (5) According to a study done by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, (6) except for schools in very poor districts, almost every school in the United States today has access to the Internet. (7) Simultaneously, the number of homes with access to the Internet has increased, (8) and the residential use of broadband service is expanding. (9) In addition, "[m]embers of Gen Y (those ages 18-27) are ... the most likely to have used wireless devices." (10) Because of this national expansion of Internet access, approximately 20% of today's college students began using computers between the ages of five and eight, and by the time they got to college, 86% of them had "gone online." (11)

   Due to their early introduction to the computer, today's students may learn most effectively when they receive information through an electronic medium, assuming it is done well, because that format actively engages them. (12) For this reason, "it would behoove law schools to integrate ... technology ... in a pedagogically sound way." (13) Most experts on legal education (14) do not propose that electronic technology be substituted for the law school classroom experience, (15) but rather that it be used to enhance and extend it. In fact, the "affordability and ubiquitous nature of computers, coupled with the growth of the Internet, has encouraged many law faculty to use technology in teaching their traditional physical classes, or to supplement those classes with a virtual, or online, component." (16)

   Some law professors even consider it their professional responsibility to help students "make the transition into today's professional world, which already depends on tomorrow's technology." (17) One professor feels that "demonstrating the capabilities of various media can help prepare students for the practice of law." (18) This professor points to the common use of "visual images to explain facts to judges and juries," (19) including diagrams in automobile accident cases and anatomical illustrations in medical malpractice cases. (20) As high technology makes its way to court rooms, attorneys will need to know how to make the best use of it; an "advantage of utilizing computer technology is that it promotes students' familiarity with resources that inevitably will be integral to their practice." (21) Furthermore, some corporations now insist on paperless work environments and rely increasingly on technology for both internal and external communications; they expect the attorneys with whom they interact to be digitally literate. A relatively easy way to begin to integrate electronic technology into legal education is by establishing course Web sites. (22)

   In this article, I will discuss both how today's law students learn through technology, and also theories of personality types and learning styles. I will first review the few existing empirical studies on the subject. Next, I will discuss course Web sites and how they can support, not replace, what happens in the traditional law school classroom. (23) Then, I will discuss how my law school implemented TWEN (24) course Web pages, and discuss the results of a survey of TWEN usage by faculty members at Pace University School of Law. The survey indicates that although TWEN course Web sites have improved communication between students and professors and facilitated course administration, it is not yet certain that course Web sites influence how well professors teach and how well law students learn. I will conclude with a series of recommendations for implementing course management software at law schools.

2. HOW TODAY'S LAW STUDENTS LEARN (25)

   1. The Hypertext (26) Revolution

      Students entering law school in the early years of the twenty-first century grew up using computers in the classroom, playing handheld video games, building Web sites for school projects, (27) downloading music from the Internet, (28) preparing PowerPoint presentations, communicating by instant messaging, (29) and performing searches on the Internet, (30) where they became accustomed to navigating a hypertext environment. Hypertext is part of the revolution ignited by the growth of digital information in the last decades of the twentieth century. According to Alan Purves, an expert on technology and literacy,

      There have been over the centuries three massive revolutions in the palpable shape of text, in the nature of the reader, and in the center of learning. The first came with the use of alphabetic print and the development of papyrus, the second came with the printing press and paper, and the third was the development of digital information. (31) Hypertext differs dramatically from the traditional printed word, which is linear and two dimensional, and usually consists of words printed on paper or some other fixed or permanent medium; it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. (32) However, not all printed texts are meant to be accessed in a linear manner; most reference materials are not "linear narratives: travel guides, textbooks, The World Almanac, encyclopedias, dictionaries," (33) and are usually not read from beginning to end. Nonetheless, these works do not approach the level of complexity of hypertext documents displayed on a computer screen:

      [P]rimary and secondary materials ... interact more powerfully than before, as both are online side by side. Scholarly discussions ... quote the original by pointing to it, and leave the reader to explore the original context, not just the few words or sentences most apposite ... texts will acquire structured commentaries not by single hands but organized out of the work of many. (34) Hypertext is nonlinear; it permits the reader to start and stop at different points by choosing links on a computer screen. "[E]ach reader can take a variety of different paths and ignore, reorder, change, delete, and supplement spaces and paths. [H]ypertext differs from traditional text in being not nonlinear, but multilinear." (35) Printed text is inherently hierarchical; the "writer controls the text, the text controls the reader ... ." (36) Hypertext, however, is nonhierarchical vis-a-vis the reader in that the reader chooses in what order (or whether) to access all the information available; hypertext is revolutionary because it allows the reader to create his own text--the text is no longer fixed or controlled by the writer. Each reader's text may be unique. (37) "[N]o two readers move through the Web in the same way, and even a single reader is hard put to retrace his or her journey." (38) Hypertext is multidimensional, allowing for multilayered, dynamic relationships between linked materials as well as between reader and text. It also speeds research and allows for better support of textual assertions; whereas in a linear environment, scholars supported assertions with citations, in a hypertext environment, we can support them with a link to the primary source.

      Not only has hypertext changed the role of the reader; it has also changed the role of the author. This is due to the fact that in the "world of hypertext, there are a number of authors:

      (a) the program[mers] ... , (b) the writer of the original text, (c) the writers in the program (e.g., the sorters, spelling checkers ...), (d) the networked authors, and (e) the readers who redact the text as they read." (39) The notion of authorial "control" over text may be an artifact of the print world.

   2. Learner-Centered Teaching, Learning Styles, and the Use of Technology in Law Schools

      1. Learner-Centered Education

         Most law professors teaching today graduated from law school before computers were commonplace in the classroom, (40) and "for the most part still operate under the same format for teaching in the classroom that existed in the time of Harvard Law School Dean Christopher Langdell." (41) Law professors should remember, however, that many students have grown up in a different type of classroom environment, (42) and "are far ahead of their teachers in computer literacy." (43) "This 'digital disconnect' is a major cause of frustration among today's students." (44)

         Law schools must consider how the current communication revolution is transforming how 21st century students learn... . Entering law students learn better when they receive information through a medium that is more dynamic, interactive, and creative, than printed text... . If entering law students learn more efficiently when they receive information electronically, it would behoove law schools to integrate that technology to assist students' transition to the linear, printed-text based legal profession. In order to achieve the goals of legal education, however, it is essential to integrate electronic technology in a pedagogically sound way or we will accomplish little more than technologizing unsound teaching. (45) The growth in the use of hypertext on the Internet and the control it gives to readers corresponds roughly with the expansion of learner-centered education. (46) "The innovation of hypertext technology is ... beneficial in view of the research which shows that improved learning occurs where students are...