Students walk into law school as digital natives, loaded up with cell phones, laptops, iPods and digital cameras (and more). Research shows that students are replacing face-to-face more and more with technologies, using text messaging, email and social networking. For law students, these technologies often add to the flood in information that comes their way every day. Deadlines are missed, meetings are forgotten. And very often a student is heard lamenting, "No one told me about it," when actually the information was delivered to him in a variety of ways. The question is, how do we get this information to them in a timely manner, fully providing all the information, without overwhelming the students? How do we use their technology to communicate our messages? How do they want us to communicate with them?
In an effort to answer these questions, we have been surveying our 1 and 2Ls each spring at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. With 3 years in our pockets, we're seeing some predictable outcomes, as well as some surprising ones.
