Wes Reber Porter, Golden Gate University School of Law: “A Better Class to Class Process to Accompany Flipping”
Wes Reber Porter, professor at Golden Gate University School of Law and director of the Litigation Center, spoke as part of the 2014 Igniting Law Teaching conference’s Flipping Law School Course Pod. Porter's talk, "A Better Class to Class Process to Accompany Flipping,” focuses on, as a compliment to a flipped classroom, the much needed changes to class-to-class process of the typical law school course. Porter speaks that professors should flip only the foundational instruction for a course’s key topics, focus the class discussion on analysis, and facilitate the students’ development of critical lawyering skills. Students not only will benefit from the flipped classroom but they will continually apply the rules, write more, and better organize the material.
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.
LegalED was thrilled to have someone of Porter's caliber participate in the conference. Professor Porter was named as a Fellow of Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers and created 1stSTEP, recognized as a top innovation in legal education. One example of his innovation was his trial advocacy work with law students. Wes contributed video content to the LegalED Trial Advocacy collection that can be found here. (http://legaledweb.com/trial-advocacy/)
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.