Today's edition of Inside Higher Education reports on a study of peer instruction and concludes that students learn more when they have an opportunity to discuss concepts with their classmates. The study was able to differentiate between just mimicking answers from smarter classmates and actually learning information that could be applied to different questions and hypotheticals, and researchers found that actual learning increased when students talked about new material together. While the study dealt exclusively with in-class learning, there's nothing to suggest that the same wouldn't be true of out-of-class collaboration like study groups.
Preliminary results of a follow-up study suggests that the best formula for learning is a combination of instructor-led and peer-led discussions.
1.05.2009
12.31.2008
Need a Computer But Think You Can't Afford One?
Have you considered a netbook? These smaller, less powerful laptop computers have everything you need for law school: plenty of power for the Internet and Microsoft Word along with the Windows compatibility you need to sign up for computer exams. And at $300-400, they have a price tag that most law students can afford!
12.26.2008
Certificate in Animals, Community, and the Law: Starts Jan. 20
Lawyers In Defense of Animals, Inc. (LIDA) is pleased to announce that Rutgers School of Public Affairs and Administration is offering a Certificate in Animals, Community and the Law.
Taught by LIDA board members, the Certificate will require the completion of 3 online courses and a practicum and can be completed within one year. Courses which will cover topics ranging from limit laws and hoarding to cruelty and disaster planning may be taken on a non credit basis or for credit, with each course being 3 graduate credits. To review course descriptions and enroll please visit www.ncpp.us/certcourses.php and click on the Animals,Community and the Law Certificate option. Additional information is available by contacting Isabelle Strauss at anrtesq@aol.com, 732-255-4696 or Dean Kirchoff at jkirchho@newark.rutgers.edu, 973-353-1351
The first course, Animals, Disaster, Estate Planning and Litigation starts January 20, 2009 so please enroll early.
Taught by LIDA board members, the Certificate will require the completion of 3 online courses and a practicum and can be completed within one year. Courses which will cover topics ranging from limit laws and hoarding to cruelty and disaster planning may be taken on a non credit basis or for credit, with each course being 3 graduate credits. To review course descriptions and enroll please visit www.ncpp.us/certcourses.php and click on the Animals,Community and the Law Certificate option. Additional information is available by contacting Isabelle Strauss at anrtesq@aol.com, 732-255-4696 or Dean Kirchoff at jkirchho@newark.rutgers.edu, 973-353-1351
The first course, Animals, Disaster, Estate Planning and Litigation starts January 20, 2009 so please enroll early.
12.12.2008
Writing Competition: Domestic Violence
Law students are invited to submit articles addressing domestic violence and the law from a national or international perspective.
The winner’s paper will be published in the American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law
All winners’ names and papers will also appear on the ABA Commission on Domestic Violence website.
The deadline is May 31, 2009, 5:00 p.m. EST via email at runger@staff.abanet.org. No exceptions. Winners will be notified in August 2009.
Submissions must further the legal needs of victims of domestic violence or domestic violence victims and their children, or advance efforts to address the incidence, causes and effects of intimate partner violence.
Submissions may be no longer than 7500 words (typically 20-25 pages), including footnotes and other text but excluding author identifying information, and must be double-spaced with one-inch margins. Any paper exceeding the 7500 word limit WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED. Students are free to submit papers of shorter length as we are most concerned with quality and originality.
Authors must be enrolled in an ABA-accredited law school at the date of their submission or must have graduated in December 2008 or later.
Submissions may not have been previously accepted for publication and, if they have been submitted elsewhere for publication, the first place winner must certify that the first publication of the article will be in the Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law.
The winner’s paper will be published in the American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law
All winners’ names and papers will also appear on the ABA Commission on Domestic Violence website.
The deadline is May 31, 2009, 5:00 p.m. EST via email at runger@staff.abanet.org. No exceptions. Winners will be notified in August 2009.
Submissions must further the legal needs of victims of domestic violence or domestic violence victims and their children, or advance efforts to address the incidence, causes and effects of intimate partner violence.
Submissions may be no longer than 7500 words (typically 20-25 pages), including footnotes and other text but excluding author identifying information, and must be double-spaced with one-inch margins. Any paper exceeding the 7500 word limit WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED. Students are free to submit papers of shorter length as we are most concerned with quality and originality.
Authors must be enrolled in an ABA-accredited law school at the date of their submission or must have graduated in December 2008 or later.
Submissions may not have been previously accepted for publication and, if they have been submitted elsewhere for publication, the first place winner must certify that the first publication of the article will be in the Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law.
12.11.2008
Writing Competition: Redefining Critical Race Theory
Re-defining Critical Race Theory:
The Future of the Movement
The year 2009 marks the twentieth anniversary of the first Critical Race Theory (CRT) workshop. Twenty years ago, the founders of CRT met at a convent in Wisconsin to consider race and ethnicity and the manner in which these categories permeate every aspect of law and society. Although early CRT scholars were subjected to considerable skepticism, they bravely continued to write and speak about race, confident that their scholarship reflected an unacknowledged reality. Their scholarship entered the discourse of civil rights and constitutional law in the United States, but also influenced other doctrines, including criminal law, family law, and immigration law. CRT gave birth to other progressive, anti-subordination movements such as Latina/o Critical Theory, OutCrits, and ClassCrits. The academy has been enriched by the important contributions of CRT scholars.
On April 2-5, 2009, the University of Iowa College of Law will host a conference honoring the twentieth anniversary of the first Critical Race Theory Workshop. The conference, which is also co-sponsored by a consortium of schools,[1] will reflect on CRT’s earliest contributions, explore CRT’s influence on the law and the legal academy, and consider its future evolution and development. To this end, one of the conference panels will be organized around the theme, “Re-defining Critical Race Theory: The Future of the Movement.”
As part of this panel, two co-sponsors of the conference – the University of California, Berkeley School of Law and Southern Methodist University (SMU) Dedman School of Law – are organizing a national law student writing competition. Students are invited to submit a paper reflecting upon the panel’s theme or engaging more general questions pertaining to critical race theory. The winner of the competition will be awarded the “Angela Harris Award for Outstanding Student Writing” in honor of Professor Harris’s contribution to CRT and her support of law students at Berkeley and throughout the academy. The winner of the Harris Prize also will receive $750.00. Honorable mention prizes of $500.00 will be awarded to two other papers. Authors of winning papers will be invited to attend the conference, and the reasonable costs (free conference registration, three nights lodging, and up to $600 airfare) of their registration and travel will be covered by the conference organizers. Finally, the winning paper will be published in the Berkeley Journal of African-American Law & Policy along with essays from a panel at the conference entitled “Reflections on CRT.” Confirmed speakers for this panel include Professors Robert Chang (Seattle University School of Law), Frank Rudy Cooper (Suffolk University Law School), Adrienne Davis (Washington University-St. Louis School of Law), Emily Houh (University of Cincinnati College of Law), Robin Lenhardt (Fordham University School of Law), and Adrien Wing (University of Iowa College of Law). Winning authors will also be invited to present their papers as part of a student panel during the conference.
Eligibility & Submission
Students who wish to submit an entry must be considered a student in good standing during the 2008-09 academic year at an accredited law degree program in the Americas and the Caribbean. All entries must be submitted in English.
The Selection Committee will consider all papers meeting the eligibility criteria and submitted by the deadline.
Papers must be submitted electronically to Professor D. Aaron Lacy, SMU Dedman School of Law, at dalacy@smu.edu.
Students must format their papers in Microsoft Word. The main text should be in 12-point font and double-spaced with 1-inch margins on all sides of each page. The paper should have footnotes, not endnotes, and the footnotes should be no smaller than 9-point font. Papers should be limited to no more than 15,000 words. Papers of a length not greater than 40 pages are preferred.
Only one paper per entrant will be considered.
Deadline & Review
Each entry will be reviewed by a group of legal scholars well-versed in CRT. To be considered, entries must be submitted by January 15, 2009. We anticipate that participants will be notified of the winning selection no later than February 16, 2009.
The Future of the Movement
The year 2009 marks the twentieth anniversary of the first Critical Race Theory (CRT) workshop. Twenty years ago, the founders of CRT met at a convent in Wisconsin to consider race and ethnicity and the manner in which these categories permeate every aspect of law and society. Although early CRT scholars were subjected to considerable skepticism, they bravely continued to write and speak about race, confident that their scholarship reflected an unacknowledged reality. Their scholarship entered the discourse of civil rights and constitutional law in the United States, but also influenced other doctrines, including criminal law, family law, and immigration law. CRT gave birth to other progressive, anti-subordination movements such as Latina/o Critical Theory, OutCrits, and ClassCrits. The academy has been enriched by the important contributions of CRT scholars.
On April 2-5, 2009, the University of Iowa College of Law will host a conference honoring the twentieth anniversary of the first Critical Race Theory Workshop. The conference, which is also co-sponsored by a consortium of schools,[1] will reflect on CRT’s earliest contributions, explore CRT’s influence on the law and the legal academy, and consider its future evolution and development. To this end, one of the conference panels will be organized around the theme, “Re-defining Critical Race Theory: The Future of the Movement.”
As part of this panel, two co-sponsors of the conference – the University of California, Berkeley School of Law and Southern Methodist University (SMU) Dedman School of Law – are organizing a national law student writing competition. Students are invited to submit a paper reflecting upon the panel’s theme or engaging more general questions pertaining to critical race theory. The winner of the competition will be awarded the “Angela Harris Award for Outstanding Student Writing” in honor of Professor Harris’s contribution to CRT and her support of law students at Berkeley and throughout the academy. The winner of the Harris Prize also will receive $750.00. Honorable mention prizes of $500.00 will be awarded to two other papers. Authors of winning papers will be invited to attend the conference, and the reasonable costs (free conference registration, three nights lodging, and up to $600 airfare) of their registration and travel will be covered by the conference organizers. Finally, the winning paper will be published in the Berkeley Journal of African-American Law & Policy along with essays from a panel at the conference entitled “Reflections on CRT.” Confirmed speakers for this panel include Professors Robert Chang (Seattle University School of Law), Frank Rudy Cooper (Suffolk University Law School), Adrienne Davis (Washington University-St. Louis School of Law), Emily Houh (University of Cincinnati College of Law), Robin Lenhardt (Fordham University School of Law), and Adrien Wing (University of Iowa College of Law). Winning authors will also be invited to present their papers as part of a student panel during the conference.
Eligibility & Submission
Students who wish to submit an entry must be considered a student in good standing during the 2008-09 academic year at an accredited law degree program in the Americas and the Caribbean. All entries must be submitted in English.
The Selection Committee will consider all papers meeting the eligibility criteria and submitted by the deadline.
Papers must be submitted electronically to Professor D. Aaron Lacy, SMU Dedman School of Law, at dalacy@smu.edu.
Students must format their papers in Microsoft Word. The main text should be in 12-point font and double-spaced with 1-inch margins on all sides of each page. The paper should have footnotes, not endnotes, and the footnotes should be no smaller than 9-point font. Papers should be limited to no more than 15,000 words. Papers of a length not greater than 40 pages are preferred.
Only one paper per entrant will be considered.
Deadline & Review
Each entry will be reviewed by a group of legal scholars well-versed in CRT. To be considered, entries must be submitted by January 15, 2009. We anticipate that participants will be notified of the winning selection no later than February 16, 2009.
11.28.2008
Cool Internet Research Tool
cross-posted from Millennial Law Prof
TechLearning reports on a really handy Internet research tool. Use have to use Firefox a the browser to use this, but it's well worth it. For researchers, I dare say that Firefox is a far superior web browser to Internet Explorer. It's worth downloading Firefox and using it when you research on the web.
In a nutshell, Zotero looks like it does what the comment function in Microsoft Word does, i.e., allow you to put little comment bubbles beside the text it relates to. But then it can export all those bubbles as a report. This looks great for briefing cases and writing articles.
Here's a brief excerpt from an article discussing Zotero:
TechLearning reports on a really handy Internet research tool. Use have to use Firefox a the browser to use this, but it's well worth it. For researchers, I dare say that Firefox is a far superior web browser to Internet Explorer. It's worth downloading Firefox and using it when you research on the web.
In a nutshell, Zotero looks like it does what the comment function in Microsoft Word does, i.e., allow you to put little comment bubbles beside the text it relates to. But then it can export all those bubbles as a report. This looks great for briefing cases and writing articles.
Here's a brief excerpt from an article discussing Zotero:
Zotero (zotero.org) is a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. It lives right where you do your work - in the web browser itself. Zotero integrates these tools, bringing you the benefits of an online tool and the security of storing all of your information locally for access at anytime. I have been looking for a research tool where I could keep my notes, attachments, and links right in the browser.
11.26.2008
Consumer Bankruptcy Law Writing Contest
The National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees has established an annual student writing competition to encourage and reward original law student writing on issues concerning consumer bankruptcy and the law. The rules for the competition are as follows.
Topic
Entrants should submit an essay, article, or comment on an issue concerning Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code.
Eligibility
Essays will be accepted from students enrolled at any law school during the 2008-09 school year. The essays must be the law student author's own work and must not have been submitted for publication elsewhere. Notwithstanding the foregoing, students may incorporate feedback as part of a course requirement or a supervised writing project.
Format
Essays must be typed on 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper, double-spaced in 12-point font, and Times New Roman font type. All margins must be at least one inch. Entries must not exceed fifteen (15) pages of text, excluding notes, with footnotes placed as endnotes. Citation style should conform to the 18th edition of The Bluebook - A Uniform System of Citation. Essays longer than 15 pages of text, excluding notes, or which are not in the required format will not be read.
Judging
The NACTT will judge the competition. Essays will be judged based upon content, exhaustiveness of research, originality, writing style, and timeliness.
Questions
Questions regarding the competition should be addressed to the chair of the Writing Competition at the address that appears below.
Submission and Deadline
Entries must be received by April 30, 2009. Entries received after the deadline will be considered only at the discretion of the NACTT. Entries may be submitted in two format: (1) e0mail an electronic version (in Microsoft Word or PDF format) to Trustee@Ch13austin.com, and (2)mail, with a postmark dated by April 30, 2009, four paper copies of the essay to:
NACTT Law Student Writing Competition
National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees
c/o Debbie Langehennig, Ch. 13 Trustee
3803 Capital of Texas Hwy. South, Suite 320
Austin, TX 78704
Award
The author of the first-place essay will receive a prize. The winning essay will be published in the NACTT Quarterly: The Quarterly Journal of the National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees. The winner will receive free registration for the NACTT annual seminar to be held in Boston on July 1-4, 2009.
Topic
Entrants should submit an essay, article, or comment on an issue concerning Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code.
Eligibility
Essays will be accepted from students enrolled at any law school during the 2008-09 school year. The essays must be the law student author's own work and must not have been submitted for publication elsewhere. Notwithstanding the foregoing, students may incorporate feedback as part of a course requirement or a supervised writing project.
Format
Essays must be typed on 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper, double-spaced in 12-point font, and Times New Roman font type. All margins must be at least one inch. Entries must not exceed fifteen (15) pages of text, excluding notes, with footnotes placed as endnotes. Citation style should conform to the 18th edition of The Bluebook - A Uniform System of Citation. Essays longer than 15 pages of text, excluding notes, or which are not in the required format will not be read.
Judging
The NACTT will judge the competition. Essays will be judged based upon content, exhaustiveness of research, originality, writing style, and timeliness.
Questions
Questions regarding the competition should be addressed to the chair of the Writing Competition at the address that appears below.
Submission and Deadline
Entries must be received by April 30, 2009. Entries received after the deadline will be considered only at the discretion of the NACTT. Entries may be submitted in two format: (1) e0mail an electronic version (in Microsoft Word or PDF format) to Trustee@Ch13austin.com, and (2)mail, with a postmark dated by April 30, 2009, four paper copies of the essay to:
NACTT Law Student Writing Competition
National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees
c/o Debbie Langehennig, Ch. 13 Trustee
3803 Capital of Texas Hwy. South, Suite 320
Austin, TX 78704
Award
The author of the first-place essay will receive a prize. The winning essay will be published in the NACTT Quarterly: The Quarterly Journal of the National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees. The winner will receive free registration for the NACTT annual seminar to be held in Boston on July 1-4, 2009.
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