Teaching law students to blog
Blogging is a lawyer’s jogging. Just look at a website like Real Lawyers Have Blogs. Writing a blog keeps the legal brain sharp, expands one’s network and stimulates inventiveness.
Yesterday however, I read an interview with Dr. Hodges Silverstein. She teaches legal students to blog. In the interview she explains why she lets her legal students blog. By writing blogs, according to Ms Silverstein, students deepen understanding and improve:
- writing brief and interesting
- read background material
- thinking critically
I can only agree. I would also add to have students provide feedback to each other’s blogs. This stimulates reflective activities and activates filtering for useful information. Providing and receiving feedback from peers also teaches to consider the other person’s viewpoint and to think and react with intelligence to others’ views.
All these features facilitate integration of the new information with existing knowledge and as such deepens the learning.