The rapidly increasing use among law students of social media like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter has left many law school administrators uncertain of how to approach their students' use.
Our colleague, Gene Koo, points out:
A few examples of bad online behavior has made some schools understandably wary of technologies that might expose their students in an unflattering (and unemployable) light. Yet social media are growing in importance as networking tools that can connect lawyers with potential employers and clients in positive ways.
So CALI is hosting a Social Media Best Practices Workshop at the CALI Conference to help law schools develop a better understanding of these technologies, as well as suggested guidelines for law schools regarding the use of social media.
With the help of keynote speaker John Palfrey and a panel that includes University of Iowa law student Laura Bergus, her Career Services Dean Steve Langerud, and other panelists to be announced, we hope to leave the workshop with a suggested social media best practices for law schools.
Gene has more details on his blog:
The Social Media Best Practices Workshop builds on the work of Laura Bergus (Iowa College of Law), who felt that her own school was accentuating the negative and ignoring the positive value of online social media. Ms. Bergus, a/k/a Social Media Law Student, began a campaign to reform her school’s policies and won the buy-in of her administration. This triggered the thought that other schools might also be seeking better policies and guidelines for their students.
Read his entire blog post here and a related follow-up post here.
The workshop is set to take place the first full day of the conference (Thursday, June 18). Details on the time and the agenda of the workshop will be announced soon.
Sign up now for the 2009 CALI Conference for Law School Computing® now if you are interested in attending.