Jill Smith, Georgetown University Law Center: “Going Hollywood on Your Desktop”
Jill Smith is an Instructional Technology Librarian at Georgetown University Law Center; she presented her talk, “Going Hollywood on Your Desktop,” at the 2014 Igniting Law Conference with the Craft of Law Teaching Pod. In her presentation, she explains that flipped classrooms frequently use online video and screen-casting as essential tools, but all too often these are either lackluster or overly fussy. This presentation will highlight the habits of thought and planning which can take online video from poor to good and from good to great.
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.
Before she joined the staff at Georgetown, Smith was an Instruction Technology Librarian at The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, where she also taught Legal Research. Prior to her academic career, Jill spent two years at BNA and twelve years working in capital markets and investor relations. In addition to the usual academic credentials (J.D., University of Maine School of Law and M.L.S., University of Maryland), Jill is a graduate of the Syracuse University Theatre program.
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.