The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/21494
BEST T PRACTICES Byte-Sized Learning: Technology Makes CLE Easier and More Effective hink back to law school and the dozens, if not hundreds, of pages you had to read each night to prepare for the next day’s classes. Now ask yourself, “How much of that material is still with me today?” Studies have shown that with learning at all levels, it is harder to retain information when we try to take in a massive amount of information at once. In fact, our cognitive functions operate something like a bottleneck — if too much material is presented to us all at once, only a small amount manages to break though and is remembered. By receiving and processing information in bite-sized chunks, a learner is more likely to absorb it, retain it and actually learn something. This is more effective than relying on short-term memorization in order to regurgitate content. Increasingly, psychologists, educators and content providers are changing practices to accommodate the way people learn best. More and more, educational materials are offered online, or in on-demand formats that allow learners to absorb the material in a place, time and at a rate that is comfortable for them. This idea of “chunking” information into smaller, more easily digestible lessons is nothing new; it dates back to an oft-quoted paper from 1956 by cognitive psychologist George A. Miller titled “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two.” The paper posits that the typical person can hold only seven (plus or minus two) pieces of data at once, a theory that has been generally accepted since. By breaking up a large amount of content into smaller pieces, the brain can process and sort the information into more easily remembered segments, allowing it to be stored in one’s long term memory, rather than quickly passing into — and out of — the short-term memory. So it seems counterproductive that legal professionals — from the first days of law school through continuing legal education (CLE) curricula — would attempt to learn in an “all-at-once” format, cramming too much information into too little time. This is an outdated learning model, especially with the training resources available today. 18 www.iltanet.org Peer to Peer Advances in technology have impacted the educational process, both formal and informal, in myriad ways. But perhaps one of the most beneficial aspects of technology is the ability to take educational material and easily break it down into bite-sized, or in this case “byte-sized,” pieces that are more easily learned and retained in one’s long-term memory bank. THE BENEFITS OF MOBILE LEARNING This is a powerful argument for technology-driven CLE, and particularly for CLE content that can be acquired through mobile devices such as the iPhone. “Mobile learning” allows “No two individuals learn in precisely the same way, so offering legal education in a one-size-fits-all model no longer makes sense.” students to retain maximum control over where, when and how much of a program they digest at any given time. This choice and flexibility contribute to a deeper, richer and more meaningful educational experience, and ultimately ensure that students learn and retain more of the material. In addition, mobile CLE saves law firms valuable time by making the ongoing training and education of attorneys