Faculty Spotlight
August - September 2000
 |
Teaching Law with Technology
|
While the use of technology in the classroom offers numerous rewards for both students and instructors, designing and implementing effective technologies is not always a simple process. When the demands of teaching, research and supervision threaten to derail the technology train, planning and collaboration become the keys to survival.
UT's College of Law Dean, Thomas Galligan, knows what it takes to survive in the ever-changing higher education environment. Formerly, Professor of Law at the Paul Herbert Law Center at LSU, he came to UT in July 1998. Writer, teacher, and scholar, Galligan has taken his love for the law and commitment to student learning to the next level, adding something new to his already varied repertoire - teaching with technology.
"When I was at LSU I never used technology, other than photocopy machines and email, but when I came here and when I became Dean of the College of Law, I started to learn more about technology. I really felt compelled to try to understand the things that I could do with technology in the classroom, in order to have a better idea of what my colleagues were talking about and thinking about when they used technology.
"I first began using technology in my Torts One class in the Fall of 1999 when I used CourseInfo as basically an electronic bulletin board where I posted my syllabus and announcements and problems. I also used clips from the Titanic in my class to dramatically display various personal injury concepts. I participated in the Faculty First program through the ITC. The course that was selected as the Faculty First course was my Torts Two class which meets in the Spring. I went and took the whole series of CourseInfo courses in the Summer of 1999 and it was during that process that I thought I should use CourseInfo in the Fall to prepare myself for the Spring experience.
"Part of the Faculty First program was to give the College of Law a technology cart. The projector included with the cart is an amazing machine that does everything you would ever want a projector to do. It's an Elmo, it will project the VCR and movies, it will project from the Internet. It's also a Proxima and will project from your own computer in case you wanted to do something like a PowerPoint presentation. I started using that projection device as a substitute for the traditional whiteboard as well. I would do my diagrams right there at the table and project them. Did that add anything? I don't know, but it made me more familiar with the equipment and the equipment's capabilities.
1 of 3 -->