• PowerPoint presentation
• Event video
• Chat log

The challenge of a presentation like this — and indeed, the study itself — is that my topic is broad and the research shallow. Thus, the questions that people raised at the beginning and end spanned quite a few disparate and unconnected points, with quite a few scattered around uses of specific technologies. The format of a crowded lunch talk didn’t quite lend itself to a participatory conversation as I would have liked — there was so much knowledge and wisdom in the room that I felt it a shame to have answered so many of the questions myself (inadequately, I felt).

We did emerge with one possible next step: establishing a commons of resources (probably multimedia) that professors and instructors can use to animate (perhaps literally) their teaching. It’s the kind of project I could imagine CALI taking on.

Speaking of which, I will be presenting a more focused version of this same talk at the 2007 CALI Conference for Law School Computing.

Here’s a letter I sent to the Globe responding to this excellent and timely piece:

Joseph Martin raises the same concerns that lawyers have about the growing role of computers in our work (“Digital Doctoring,” Op-Ed, March 29). “Rip it out” is how many law professors react to laptops in the classroom. No surprise, then, that a recent study I authored found that law students and lawyers have scarce opportunity to learn new skills like how to manage complex global teams using technology.

As in medicine, the cost of ignoring technology is high. In a nation where fewer than 4 in 10 middle-class Americans facing legal problems have access to an attorney (3 in 10 for low-income individuals), technology can enable lawyers to meet the need by working smarter. For example, software developed at Chicago-Kent Law School helps clients fill out paperwork by translating legalese into plain English. Attorneys need more tools like this – and the skill to use them.

It’s easy to assume that “digital natives” will figure it all out with time. But best practice emerges when someone bothers to study what works – a role that medical schools have long played for doctors. Law schools today have a similar opportunity to partner with practicing attorneys to discover digital responses to the ancient call of justice.

As always, the challenge of keeping under 200 words pushes the question of what’s really at stake. To me it really is about addressing unmet legal needs through better leverage of scarce resources (aka lawyers).