Enriching Globalization Studies With Low Cost Tech & Social Media:Serving More Than 1 Goal at a Time

Michele DeStefanoProfessor, University of Miami School of Law

Founder, LawWithoutWallsAALS 2014

Road Map

U.S. Law Market

U.S. Legal Education

“Certain things. They should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to

stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone.”

- JD Salinger, Catcher in the Rye

36 Year Old Twinkie

Rising Costs

Enrollment Plummets

2010-2013: From 50,000 to 38,000

But not at Harvard Law School . . .

• Seton Hall Down 43%• Hamline Down 55%• Applications down 38% 2010-2013• AND even Harvard Law School has

fewer applications– Harvard accepted 16% of applicants for

2015 vs. 11% year prior

Predicting Law School Closings

Law School Market

Globalization

+

Everyone is Affected by Globalization

Law School Market

Globalization

+

+

Innovation

Multi-Disciplinary Open Collaboration is the Key to Innovation

So Many Reasons To Use Technology

“The sign of a good decision is the multiplicity of reasons for it. If more

than one goal is served, then a decision is more likely to be wise.”

- Russel, Children of God

Good & Bad Uses of TechTime, Space, Place

So Many Options (Not All Good)

Asynchronous

On-Line Education: MOOCs

2012 “Year of MOOC”

For Profit• Coursera: – More than 2 Million Registrants– Some classes more than 100,000 students– Over 370 courses– Partnerships with over 30 institutions including

Brown, Princeton, and Columbia

• Udacity 25 coursesNonProfit– Harvard and MIT EdX Non-profit $30 million and

35courses

Free of Charge but not for Long

Sell Names to Employers, Credit, Certificates

Mostly Computer Science & Math

But Also Legal EducationNon-Credit• Case Western Professor Michael

Scharf MOOC international criminal law (Coursera)

• UCL Dame Hazel MOOC English common law, (Coursera)

• Harvard‘s Professor William Fisher MOOC copyright law EdX)

• Yale‘s Professor Akhil Amar MOOC constitutional law (Coursera 2014)

But Also Legal EducationFor Credit• University of Akron School of Law

MOOC Commercial Paper for course• On Line LLM Degrees e.g.,

Washington University

And Around the World

Some Upsides & Downsides

Potential Upsides• Cost/Efficiency• Size• Fast & peer feedback• Global• Talent• Convenience

Potential Downsides• Testing/Grading (peer assessment)• Cheating• Quality• ABA Rules– 12 credits max for distance learning

courses– 4 credits max of distance learning in any

semester– No distance learning course for credit

during first year of law school

Pressure on the ABA

Synchronous

Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing

Depends on the Real Thing

Synchronous May Be More Up Close & Personal

Synchronous: Your Class

Blackboard, Google Drive, Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, One on-line class

Synchronous: Multi-University

LWOW X

Adobe Connect

The Future: Blended

MICHELE DESTEFANOFOUNDER, LAWWITHOUTWALLS

PROFESSOR OF LAW

Part-virtual collaboratory

Develops 21st century lawyering skills

Law + Business + Technology + Innovation

26 Law & Business Schools 45+ Students

Bifröst University (Iceland) Stanford Law School

Fordham Law School Tel Aviv University (Israel)

Harvard Law School University College London (UK)

IE Business School (Spain) University of Miami Law

IE Law School (Spain) University of Montreal Law

Indiana University Law University of São Paulo (Brazil)

National Law School of India University of St. Gallen (Switzerland)

New York Law School University of Sydney Law (Australia)

Peking University STL (China) Wharton School of Business

Pontifical Catholic U (Chile) York University School of Business

Sciences Po Business (France) York University School of Law

Sciences Po Law (France) Witwatersrand Law (South Africa)

1. KickOff in person

2. Virtual Dynamic Teaming & weekly Virtual Sessions

3. ConPosium in person

Three Parts to LawWithoutWalls

DOCCs

DOCCs – Central Video

DOCCs - No Single Best Way

DOCCs- More than 1 Talking Head

Professor Michele DeStefano:Innovation Tech & the Law Course• In Person Component: • One hour in-person class sessions that

include a mix of teaming and skills-based exercises along with explorative sessions on entrepreneurial ventures and innovations in the law

• On-Line Component: • Assigned, pre-recorded 2-hour Virtual

Thought Leader Session (VTLS) from LawWithoutWalls.

• Assigned relevant reading materials on the weekly topics addressed by these sessions.

Professor Michele DeStefano:Innovation Tech & the Law Course

Semester Work: Students write weekly response papers that package their learnings from the readings, the research they conducted, and the VTLS into a provoking 1-2 page thought-piece.

Final Projects: Student teams develop a 6-7 minute ignite-style presentation on any topic, idea, or business solution that is a technological innovation in the law involving

Class Cloud: All course materials, WRPs, and assignments will be ]in a folders on Google Drive

The Future . . . Can’t Be Just on Cost

Tech: A Tool to Add Value

A Path: Not An End in Itself