Professor William Slomanson will be presenting at the inaugural LegalED conference titled Igniting Law Teaching (ILT) on Friday, April 4, 2014 at American University, Washington College of Law, in Washington DC. Professor Slomanson's topic is "Blended Learning: A Flipped Class Experiment." It will focus on his Fall 2013 class where he flipped his federal civil procedure class. Click here to view a summary of Professor Slomanson's experiment.
The goal of the conference is to create a forum for professors who are experimenting with cutting edge technologies and techniques in law teaching---with the related goal of spreading their ideas to the broader community. The conference organizer's invitation to Professor Slomanson describes this experience as "a way to showcase you as a leader in teaching innovation and to inspire innovation by others as well."
The conference goal is to create a collection of short videos, on law school-related pedagogy that will inspire innovation and experimentation by law professors around the country, and the world, to bring more active learning and practical skills training into the law school curriculum. The videos will be available for viewing by the larger academic community 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.
This is the description of the conference according to the American University Washington College of Law website: "Given the current market conditions impacting legal education, law school administrators and faculty are being asked to do more with less resources, teach more practical skills, establish learning outcomes, provide students with formative assessment, and graduate practice-ready lawyers. Many of these requests ask the academy to stretch beyond its typical ways of teaching. This conference will gather leading law school educators together for a conference about law school pedagogy. Done in the style of TEDx conferences, each eight to ten minute presentation will be videotaped and uploaded ontoLegalED web.com for professors around the country and world to watch at their own pace.
Professor Slomanson is excited about this opportunity to showcase TJSL, given its penchant for teaching innovation. As he puts it: "I am incredibly honored by this opportunity to assist TJSL via sharing our pedagogy and innovative impact on 21st century legal education."
Professor Slomanson is currently engaged in an ambitious sabbatical: three books, an article, this presentation and yet another invitation to speak in Tehren, Iran, on the topic of "Sexual Orientation in International Law."
