Monday, March 26, 2012
In the last session on Friday, Samantha Moppet (Suffolk) presented on "Control-Alt-Incomplete? Using Technology to Effectively Assess 'Digital Natives.'" She pointed out that all of us teachers are digital immigrants, teaching digital natives who have likely never used a film camera and can't imagine life without cable, cell phones, and social networking. She argued that we should use technology to assess them, giving examples of how they will use technology in modern legal practice (such as blogging), how technology can offer less onerous assessment opportunities, and how text annotation systems and digital video annotation software can enhance commenting on written and performance-based work. As the photo shows, her digital-immigrant audience was quite attentive!
During the same hour, Natalie Mack (Colorado) presented on "Punctuation Perils: The Comma that Cost Two Million Dollars." She first set out the well-known Canadian case that turned on the presence/absence of a comma, then talked about the major comma lessons she focuses on, with examples of how she teaches each one. Her punctuation-proficient audience seemed eager to start a discussion of whether they agreed with the court's analysis of that comma!