Dan Jackson, Northeastern University School of Law: “Designing Lawyers: Leading an Experiential Law School Design Lab”
Dan Jackson is the director of the NuLawLab at Northeastern University School of Law. His talk, “Designing Lawyers: Leading an Experiential Law School Design Lab,” focuses on the NuLawLab and was presented with the Teaching for the 21st Century Pod at the 2014 Igniting Law Teaching conference. His presentation shares what the NuLawLab learned leading a novel project-based independent study focused on the intersection of art, law, and advocacy. The design studio provided his students with the opportunity to explore applied design thinking in an interdisciplinary collaboration with local domestic workers and students from MIT’s Center for Civic Media. He highlights how his students ultimately discovered, and developed confidence in, their personal creative voices.
This video is part of a video collection from the Igniting Law Teaching, hosted by LegalED at American University Washington College of Law. Responding to the calls for legal education reform, the conference -- the first of its kind -- created a forum for professors experimenting with cutting edge technologies and techniques in law teaching with the goal of spreading their ideas to the broader community. The talks were modeled on TEDx Talks, with each speaker on stage alone, giving a well scripted and performed talk about an aspect of law school pedagogy. The goal of LegalED is to curate a growing collection of short, 10-minute videos on law school-related pedagogy that will inspire innovation and experimentation by law professors to bring more active learning and practical skills training into the law school curriculum. This videos, and others like it, are available on LegalED, a website developed by a community of law professors interested in using online technologies to facilitate more active, problem-based learning in the classroom, in addition to more assessment and feedback.
Dan Jackson is a 1997 graduate of Northeastern Law, where he now directs the NuLawLab. Following a federal appellate clerkship, Dani joined the law firm of Bingham McCutchen, ultimately serving as the firm’s director of attorney development and director of training. Prior to law school, Dan worked as a designer for theater. He continues to play in that space, most recently with the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival and The Provincetown Theater.
LegalED aims to harness the power of the internet for legal educations. It facilitates blended or flipped learning – by migrating lectures to the web, LegalED frees up classtime for active learning that challenges students to learn the essential lawyering competencies while they are in law school. Professors may assign the videos in any combination for students to view outside of the classroom for active learning that challenges students to learn the essential lawyering competencies while they are in law school. LegalED seeks to develop and maintain a vibrant online community of teachers and students of the law, creating a central hub for the community. Through the video collection, teachers can be inspired to borrow, adapt, and bring great teaching moments into their own courses. With an internet platform, LegalED opens up formerly isolated classrooms by sharing showcasing, celebrating and inspiring innovative teaching. Simply put, the vision of LegalED is to inspire innovation in legal education. Join the movement!
The LegalED 2015 Igniting Law Teaching conference will take place on Friday, March 20th, from 9am to 6pm. Register to attend in person or live stream the event.