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by Robert (Bob) Brain, Loyola Law School (Los Angeles), and Selina Farrell, Pepperdine University School of Law Presented at 2010 LWI Conference at Marco Island, FL
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From Tedium to Terrific: Practical, Effective, and Entertaining Ways
to Teach Legal Citation
Bob Brain, Loyola Law School Los [email protected]
Selina Farrell, Pepperdine School of [email protected]
REASONS GIVEN FOR TEACHING BY GAMING
• Students are active participants, not passive listeners• Instructor receives feedback as to what’s learned• Familiar format – Gen. X and Y avg. 10,000 hours of video games before
college
• If teams, there is collaborative learning– Gen Y especially favor collaborative learning: in one
study, 5% retention by lecture vs. 50% by gaming– Professor is moderator vs. instructor; changes hierarchy
• Breaks routine• Almost surely will lead to higher student evaluations
REASONS GIVEN FOR TEACHING BY GAMING
• Fun• Students more engaged– Body language better
• More engagement means students more motivated• More motivated students make professors more
enthusiastic• But . . .• . . . is there motivation just to play the game, or
learn the material? (Oregon Trail)• The Ultimate Question: Do students learn citation
better via game play vs. “chalk and talk”?
RESEARCH FROM EDUCATION LITERATURE
• “Lack of quantifiable metrics to validate use of gaming technology as an effective media for various training solutions has relegated decisions of the same to being ‘leaps of faith.’”
• Of 63 studies where there was some attempt to measure learning by game play vs. lecture:– 38 showed no difference – 22 favored game play– 3 favored “traditional”
• Edu-tainment vs. Entertainment – “Primary objective of computer game or game show is to
keep the viewer engaged and want to play the game, but that is not the primary goal of the educator”
ATTRIBUTES OF SUCCESSFUL ACADEMIC GAMES
• Must start by identifying educational objective:– Memorization of ALWD/Bluebook rules– Learn to be nimble with the ALWD/Bluebook and look up
cites whenever there is something unusual– Citation as persuasion/weight of authority – Kris Franklin
• Best use is as an application of previously-learned information or rules, and not as a means to introduce new substantive information
• Should explain why using game – many adult learners expressed dissatisfaction with “just playing”
• If possible, have a means for there to be multiple winners.– For example, prizes to everybody who attains a certain level
ATTRIBUTES OF SUCCESSFUL ACADEMIC GAMES
• Should be easy to learn and hard to master– Easy Rules– Levels– Timing (Competition can’t become an end in and of itself – it
must be part of academic goal; but some timing for a “game”)• More than one session per semester• Immediate feedback• Humor/Fantasy (but not more interesting displays for
wrong answers)• Winning must be based on competence and not random
chance – no “wild cards” or “devils”• No situation where lose points• Medium unimportant
BIBLIOGRAPHY• Karen L. Baranich & Cynthia C. Currie, Come Play! Using Games to
Teach, Motivate, and Engage, INTERCOM, Sept. 10, 2004, at 6, http://www.stc.org/intercom/PDFs/2004/20040910_06-09.pdf.
• KATHY DIVEBLISS & LYNNE AMES, WINTER INST.: THE POWER OF ADULT EDUC., Using Games or Math Starters in the GED Classroom19 (2007), http://www.ciesc.k12.in.us/adulted/winterinstitute2007 (follow “Using Games or Math Starters.pdf” hyperlink).
• Kris Franklin, “. . . See Erie.”: Critical Study of Legal Authority, 31
U. ARK. LITTLE ROCK L. REV. 109 (2008).
• Steven J. Friedland, How We Teach: A Survey of Teaching Techniques in American Law Schools, 20 SEATTLE U. L. REV. 1 (1996).
BIBLIOGRAPHY• Margaret E. Gredler, Games and Simulations and Their
Relationships to Learning, in ASS’N FOR EDUC. COMM’CNS AND TECH., HANDBOOK OF RESEARCH FOR EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY 571 (D. Jonassen ed., 2003).
• ROBERT T. HAYS, NAVAL AIR WARFARE CTR. TRAINING SYS. DIV., THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INSTRUCTIONAL GAMES: A LITERATURE REVIEW AND DISCUSSION (2005), http://www.stormingmedia.us/53/5391/A539144.pdf.
• Rita Kumar & Robin Lightner, Games as an Interactive Classroom Technique: Perceptions of Corporate Trainers, College Instructors and Students, 19 INT’L J. TEACHING & LEARNING HIGHER EDUC. 53 (2007), http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/pdf/IJTLHE157.pdf.
BIBLIOGRAPHY• Tracy L. McGaugh, Generation X in Law School: The Dying of the
Light or the Dawn of a New Day?, 9 J. LEGAL WRITING INST. 119 (2003).
• Karen Mika, Games in the Law School Classroom: Enhancing the Learning Experience, 18 PERSP. 1 (2009).
• DIANA MUNGAI, DIANNE JONES & LORNA WONG, 18TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON DISTANCE TEACHING AND LEARNING, GAMES TO TEACH BY (2005), http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/Resource_library/proceedings/02_47.pdf.
BIBLIOGRAPHY• Julie A. Oseid, Take Me Out to the Ball Game: Using the Seventh-
Inning Stretch to Teach Law Students, 82 N.D. L. REV. 465 (2006).
• R. Rex Parris & James Wren, Reach Jurors Across the Generations: Recognizing the Effects of Life Experiences Will Help You Segment a Jury Pool into Groups Whose Values and Prejudices You Can Accommodate, 44 TRIAL 19 (2008).
• Marc Prensky, The Motivation of Gameplay: The Real 21st Century Learning Revolution, 10 ON HORIZON 5 (2002), http://serc.carleton.edu/resources/1613.html.
• JON W. RAMSEY & M. CRAIG EDWARDS, MOTIVATIONAL GAMES: AN INTERACTIVE APPROACH TO IMPROVING STUDENT LEARNING (2003), http://www.agedweb.org/WRAEC/2003/poster/ramsey,edwards.pdf.
BIBLIOGRAPHY• J.M. Randell et al., The Effectiveness of Games for Educational
Purposes: A Review of Recent Research, 23 SIMULATION & GAMING 261 (1992).
• Maritza Maribel Martinez Sanchez & Armando Perez Morfin, Interactive Games in the Teaching-Learning Process of a Foreign Language, 4 TEORIA Y PRAXIS 47 (2007), http://www.teoriaypraxis.uqroo.mx/doctos/Numero4/Martinez-Perez-Portillo.pdf.
• Felicia A. Smith, Games for Teaching Information Literacy Skills, LIBR. PHIL. & PRAC., Dec. 2007, at 1, http://unllib.unl.edu/LPP/f-smith.pdf.
BIBLIOGRAPHY• Marci L. Smith & Naomi Harlin Goodno, Bluebook Madness: How to
Have Fun Teaching Citation, 16 PERSP. 40 (2007).
• Panagiotis Tsigaris, Is there a Double Dividend from Classroom Experimental Games?, 1 AM. J. BUS. EDUC. 23 (2008), http://www.cluteinstitute-onlinejournals.com/PDFs/1058.pdf.
