Today's Tech: How A Law Professor Uses YouTube In His Classroom
This law professor is using technology in the classroom in a unique and innovative way.
Every so often, I learn about law professors who are using technology in their classrooms in unique and innovative ways. And when I do, I go out of my way to feature them in this column because I want to support legal educators who are bucking the trend and looking forward instead of backward. William Birdthistle is perfect example of this type of law professor.
He joined the faculty of Chicago-Kent College of Law in 2006, where he teaches business organizations, securities regulation, corporate finance, investment funds, and international business transactions. As part of his curriculum, he incorporates YouTube videos as a way to amplify his students’ understanding of the issues they’re studying.
According to Professor Birdthistle, using YouTube videos helps to increase his students comprehension: “In the classroom, I generally subscribe to the notion that students must be awake and interested to learn anything. And in an era in which students have computers in the classroom, teachers must find new ways to capture their attention. So I use YouTube to illustrate in more dramatic and dynamic ways some of the concepts we discuss.”
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He uses YouTube videos both inside and outside of the classroom. In class, he uses clips from movies and TV shows to exemplify and flesh out topics they’re covering in the course. So, for instance, in his Business Organizations class, when discussing agency law and the central idea that principals and agents have different, conflicting preferences, he uses a movie clip to illustrate that concept: “I show a clip from Boiler Room in which Vin Diesel closes a stock sale with a slightly clueless doctor: then I ask what the principal’s interests were (finding a good investment), and what the agent’s were (churning a lot of buying and selling).”
He uses other video clips in his business organizations class and classes on investment funds. “In my BusOrg class, we discuss a lot of things that go wrong at gas stations, some of which may seem silly or unlikely to students, such as cars rolling away or people starting fires at the pump with cigarettes: happily, YouTube has video clips of precisely these kinds of mishaps.” He continues, “And then, in my class on investment funds, I present some investing advice from Kendrick Lamar in the video for YOLO with Lonely Island: he raps out 401k and home mortgage advice, which we then are able to discuss. Students would much rather watch those clips than hear me or another student recite dry case facts.”
He also has a YouTube channel and produces videos for his students to watch outside of the classroom as part of a homework assignment: “Outside of the classroom, I have prepared a series of YouTube videos explaining some basic financial literacy concepts. I’ve found that students in my business courses sometimes struggle as much with the facts of a case (what is an LBO or reverse triangular merger, anyway) as with the law. So rather than taking up a lot of class time just to get through those facts, I prepared what I hope is a pithy, watchable series of clips they can view in the privacy of their own browser — you can find that series here.”
According to Professor Birdthistle, his attempts to “teach outside the box” have generally been well-received: “Of course, my students are perfectly polite to me about it, and will sometimes mention the videos positively in course evaluations (and have yet to say anything negative about them). So, I think they are receptive — just like with filmstrips in second grade, there’s always a little frisson of interest when I turn the lights down before a video clip.”
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For videos that will be used in the classroom he offers the following tips: “Inside the classroom, practice a few times before the students arrive, on the computers, projectors, speakers, and websites you plan to use. I typically email myself all the links I plan to use, then I show up in class early to launch them, to test the audio, and to cue the videos up. That can take a little bit of extra time before class, but it can be worth it for the right videos.
For the videos that students will watch on their own time, he advises that you take your time, and practice, practice, practice! “Outside the classroom, try shooting and editing a short video before committing to a longer series — editing, in particular, can be far more taxing that it might seem in the abstract. Even with a simple program like iMovie, which I’ve used.”
His advice for other professors interested in expanding their (and their students’) horizons? Give it a try and step outside your comfort zone — it’ll pay off in the long run. “Try it. I also tweet and have occasionally blogged and each new form requires me to improve my own knowledge of the material,” he says. “Plus, students can easily obtain outlines for your course from previous students, so anything a professor can do to make the classroom experience fresh and dynamic will make things more enjoyable for both students and the professor.”
And, as always, if you or an attorney you know is using technology in a creative or unusual way in your law firm, drop me an email at niki.black@mycase.com. I’m always looking for new attorneys, law professors, or judges to feature in this column.
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Nicole Black is a Rochester, New York attorney and the Legal Technology Evangelist at MyCase, web-based law practice management software. She’s been blogging since 2005, has written a weekly column for the Daily Record since 2007, is the author of Cloud Computing for Lawyers, co-authors Social Media for Lawyers: the Next Frontier, and co-authors Criminal Law in New York. She’s easily distracted by the potential of bright and shiny tech gadgets, along with good food and wine. You can follow her on Twitter at@nikiblack and she can be reached at niki.black@mycase.com.
