Critics warn that AI will undermine the value of education, eroding students’ critical thinking and writing skills. They might be right – if faculty ignore AI. You could respond to these warnings by not adopting an AI policy or simply prohibiting students from using it. If so, critics’ predictions are likely to become self-fulfilling prophecies. … Continue reading AI Critics Might Be Right – If Faculty Do Nothing
In the next few weeks, many faculty will finalize fall syllabi. I’ve been writing a series of short articles to help deal with the elephant in the room – AI. I just posted Using AI to Promote Student Learning Through Preparation for and Reflection about Simulations. It includes language for a model assignment that you … Continue reading Using AI to Help Students Learn from Simulations
Law faculty often hesitate to revise their syllabi. If it worked last year, why change it now? But legal practice and education are changing fast – and if our courses don’t evolve with them, students may miss out. That’s the message behind two short new articles – to make useful course changes feel possible, manageable, … Continue reading Two Practical Articles to Help You Improve Your Courses (Without Starting from Scratch)
These days, some faculty worry that students use AI to write papers without putting in much thought. It’s not always easy to tell. Some students write as if they were bargain-basement bots. Here’s one way to know for sure if students are using AI. Require them to chat with an AI tool and submit their … Continue reading AI Can Help Students Learn. You Get Better Papers. And You Know It’s Theirs.
The academic year is coming to a close, which means that it’s everyone’s favorite time of year. Summer break? Nah. Grading. Just kidding. A colleague once said he teaches for free – they pay him to grade. Grading is where the joy of teaching goes to die. This post is about how you might make … Continue reading How You Can Survive Grading Season (with a Little Help from Your Friend, RPS Coach)
I was thrilled that my recent post, Focus on Party Decision-Making, prompted a stimulating conversation on the DRLE listserv, including thoughtful comments by Mary Bedikian, Doug Frenkel, Dwight Golann, Deborah Hensler, Charlie Irvine, Andrew Mamo, Cash Nickerson, Peter Philips, Jim Stark, Jean Sternlight, Nancy Welsh, and Roselle Wissler. This post discusses some issues in the … Continue reading Teaching Students to Focus on Party Decision-Making
I developed a variety of assignments that faculty can use to help students better understand mediation, advocacy in mediation, negotiation, or other regular procedures. The assignments grow out of my article, Real Mediation Systems to Help Parties and Mediators Achieve Their Goals in the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution. You might assign students to read … Continue reading More Ways to Help Students Understand Dispute Resolution Practice
This post describes how faculty can use ideas and materials from the Real Practice Systems Project to help students get realistic understandings of practice. I initially focused on mediation systems, which are the combination of factors affecting what mediators do before, during, and after mediation sessions. These systems include their routine procedures and strategies for … Continue reading Resources for Using Real Practice Systems Materials in Teaching
People often say that dispute resolution processes aren’t “one size fits all.” When practitioners are asked to opine about hypothetical problems, they often say “it depends” and they make “case by case” decisions. They are telling the truth. Lawyers make complex decisions as negotiators, litigation advocates, and mediators based on a lot of factors, so … Continue reading Teaching Students to Think Like Practitioners
Imagine that you just stared into the neuralyzer in Men in Black. It wiped out all your memory of the traditional bundled of models of mediation and negotiation. You know – facilitative and evaluative mediation, interest-based and positional negotiation, etc. etc. The neuralyzer also vaporized all references to them in texts and teaching materials. You’re … Continue reading Merging Mediation Models – And Other Lessons
