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52 Law Libr. Lights 1 (2008-2009)

handle is hein.journals/lll52 and id is 1 raw text is: Taki~ng azStep Outside: A Review of the 2008 Leg a Witng hstiute CG tence Christine Ciambella, Access & Research Services Librarian, George Mason University Law Library, cciambel@gmu.edu At the George Mason Law School, the Legal Prsearch Writing and Analysis course covers four semesters. Over the past year, my role in teaching legal research at Mason has expanded and I continue to seek opportunities to learn more about teaching techniques and peda- gogy. To this end, I joined the Legal Writing Institute (LWI)-a group of professors who teach legal writing, analysis, and research- and I regularly review the LWI listserv and publications. This past July, the LWI hosted its 13th Biennial Conference at the Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis. Intrigued by the opportunity to attend a conference devoted to teaching legal writing and research, I headed to the Hoosier State instead of Portland, Oregon, where, at the same time, the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Annual Meeting was taking place. As with AALL, the LWI conference offered multiple sessions simultaneously, making it impossible to attend all of the interesting and informative programs available. As with AALL, some LWI programs were better than others, and some did not match their descriptions. That being said, most of the programs proved enlightening and entertaining. For me, the most compelling programs covered ways to leverage technology to maximize learning. At Mason, the law librarians have a limited number of hours in which to teach legal research. Hence, teaching tools discussed at the LWI conference, such as podcasts, blogs, and online tutorials, offered me potentially fruitful methods to supplement my instruction without taking up valuable class time. On-Line lnstruction Several instructors at the conference explained how they make use of podcasting to increase their students' access to materials and to help them learn new skills. Accessible and portable, podcasts may be reviewed anywhere at any time. Kathleen Elliott Vinson, Director of the Legal Practice Skills Program and Professor of Legal Writing at Suffolk University Law School, demonstrated her method of a read along for cases. She records herself reading an opinion referenced in class. Adding commentary as she reads, Professor Vinson shares her thought process with the student listener. Thus, the student listener learns how an attorney reads and integrates a case with other information. This helps the student to develop an ability to interact with texts-reading actively and not passively. Other professors record in-class assignment instructions. These can be can be quite detailed and given well in advance of the assignment due date. The student listener can then review the instructions as often as necessary as he or she works away on the assignment. The use of podcasting here offers an additional benefit: it reduces the number of routine questions, saving time for both the professor and the students. Several professors also post sample research memos (both good and bad) on the course continued on page 3 A' ~N~9R I~br~9oir ~~V4 g of touts i~ wivch tei~ch WgaI reiew'th Hen~e4 4atxh~ng Ioo!j d~sctmed ~t lb. IWI ~gnferen~t, ~ti bkqs, and o~dirw tuI~r~aIs, offered me potentially frjitfu! mothc.ds to &upp~ernent my instnj4aon without ta~d% up valuablo doss time. ''rirrI.'r- ro .'I

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