Benjamin Cardozo made the point tellingly when he enthusiastically endorsed the ALI's formation. Today, we stand at a pathbreaking moment for legal education in the United States. The affordability of the personal computer, the availability and speed of network access, and the ease of Internet use have created countless opportunities for legal educators to integrate computers into their teaching and scholarship. The internet has made it possible for professors to create web sites for their classes to supplement course material and simplify administrative matters. Many law schools are already using the Internet in this fashion.
Students there can review syllabi, take exams, and check their grades online.
Classes are taped and digitized for the Internet so students granted permission by the professor can review a class session. For the shy or withdrawn student, hesitant to speak in public, these groups can be a boon. I understand that here at Rutgers, the law school automatically sets up an e-mail discussion list for every course, and that professors encourage students to post to the entire class their ideas and reactions as the course progresses. 14 Some instructors have used the Internet to bring the law to life by developing interactive, role-playing simulations for their student. Au courant with an issue of more than academic interest, a legal writing instructor at Columbia University Law School asked his student to compose memoranda addressing whether images contained on a fictional web site violated the Communications Decency Act.