Connecting with clients

Connecting with clients
- what tools work?
Emily Allbon
City University
London
Famous connections No.1
Famous
connections No.2
Famous connections No. 3
Bit about me professionally
• 14 years at City
• Open door policy
• Role widened over
time
• Interests broadened
into learning &
teaching and
technology
• Now lecturer…
Bit about me personally
Not all tranquil!
Big commute! 4 hrs per
day….
Walk – Train – Tube - Walk
City University London
• 6 Schools
• City Law School
• History – Inns of Court
School of Law founded in
1852. Northampton
Institute founded in 1894.
• 17,000 students (35% PG)
• Full spectrum of law
Academic/Professional
Studying law in the UK
• £££££
• Fierce competition for
‘apprentice’ stage
• Legal Education &
Training Review
(LETR)
• Law firms and
regulators looking for
new ways of
procuring trainees
Lawbore
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Started in 2002
Gateway to resources
Community elements
Multimedia
Focus on legal skills,
employability, support
network
Woo hoo!
• V proud for Lawbore to
have been recognised
externally to my institution:
– HEA Award for Best Legal
Education & Technology
Paper 2012
– Law Librarian of the Year
2012
– ALT/Routledge Teaching Law
with Technology Prize 2013
– HEA National Teaching
Fellowship 2013
Different technologies used in
Lawbore
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Blogs
Talking slideshows
Video
Twitter
Prezi
COMING SOON!
• Talking Essays
• Videoscribe
• Problem q story tool
Why is it
popular?
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Multimedia
Variety of resources
Focus on the visual
Collegiate
Law profs….yawn…
• “Law professors’ personal stories about ‘how I
learned it’ – somewhat meaningless and
antiquated. ..Novice peers, are perfect mirrors
to help each other reflect and regulate law
student learning” (Herndon, 2010)
And then in
1974…
=
“Advice given by students is closer to your heart
than that given by your professors”
“Felt inspired by reading about what others in our
position have achieved”
But…needed to know more!
"...when the students knew I was representing City
University they couldn't stop talking about Lawbore. Words
can't describe how happy I was to see students outside
our university talk about it and use it."
• Couldn’t be complacent
• What do they want in terms of online
support?
• What tools do they use to keep up to date
and organise themselves?
• How do they really work?
Social media and
professions
Landscape in professions mixed - tension exists:
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Being 'connected' & engaging - making their
profession more accessible. Raising profile.
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Being ethical whilst following organisational
ethical guidance/codes of practice. Maintaining
professional standards and public/client trust
Reputation or ridicule?
What do students think about
social media?
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Underwhelmed
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Hrastinski and Aghaee (2012) "they perceive that their
use [social media] is not related with their studies"
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Consumers not creators "I don't tweet but I like to use
it to search for information"
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Appreciative of institutions trying to engage in new
ways
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Like to have blessing of authority - lecturer
recommendations but intrusion too far frowned upon
(joining course Facebook group)
Community v
competition
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Are law students sharing & caring or out to knock out
potential competition? Selwyn (2009) "it was noticeable that
students were generally unwilling to offer extensive
assistance to each other".
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Lawbore aims to offer community feel - bring students
together.
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Differs between cohorts: more vocational course seen as
means to an end - happy to share to get result. Pure
academic = more protective.
Information seeking
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Wide range of sources required & for different purposes.
For study (cases, journal articles, legislation), but also for
potential employment: research about employers, work
experience opportunities, events etc.
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Keeping up to date "I get the Guardian Law newspaper
bundle into my email. I'm generally quite lazy so it's good
if something comes to me".
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Authority - awareness of limitation of search engines
"you have to be careful...like if it's reputable or not"
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Word of mouth important "I spoke with students from the
year above in terms of what courses I might want to do
in year 3"
Implications for teaching &
learning
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Authority still important - more academics
need to engage in social media and online
communities to guide students
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Do we need to stop striving for interaction?
Just accept that law is a solitary subject?
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More linking of technology and law to the
'real world' and future of the profession.
Collaborations with student lawyers from
other countries (Law Without Walls)
Top 5 Tools: Twitter
• Networks – lawyers, academics, students,
alumni
• Getting a message out internationally
• Some light relief!
• Allow you to
connect in a less
stuffy way, use a
more informal voice.
Be personal
RT interesting things
Promotion & marketing
Be silly
#judgesongs
Top 5 Tools: Blogs
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Easy to set up
Concern around the time factor
Great for establishing a presence
Different tones of writing possible
Top 5 Tools: Talking slideshows
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Adobe Presenter
Articulate Storyline
Prezi
The free one: Jing
Great for demo-ing databases, bringing humour
into online lectures, giving alternatives to reading
everything…Can combine audio, video and written
associated docs
Top 5 Tools: Videoscribe
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Great to engage visually
Attract attention
Needs preparation in terms of storyboarding
Bit of artistic flair needed
See Margaret Hagan for
other visual ideas re
Law
Top 5 Tools: LinkedIn
• The value of LinkedIn IS connections
• Connect with existing networks & reach out to
new ones – both in librarianship & outside it!
• Highlight collaborations and projects
• Promotion
• New opportunities and conversations
• Social networking with clients/
• potential clients
• Current awareness
Useful resources from UK law
libraries
• Current Awareness from the Inner Temple
Library http://www.innertemplelibrary.com
• The Law Bod Blog
http://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/lawbod/
• BIALL blog http://biall.blogspot.co.uk/
• IALS guides
http://libguides.ials.sas.ac.uk/guides
Where next for
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Do more to encourage use of
tech tools by students and staff.
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Results reassuring – indicating
thirst for new resources. More
development work with Lawbore
on the agenda.
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Talking Essays
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Researching for a Moot video
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New Research and Mooting subsites.
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More training for students in tools
to help them organise and
manage themselves.
?
Final thoughts…
Thanks for listening!
References
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E. Allbon “Web, Social Media and Online Communities for those Studying for
Professions: Embraced or Tolerated? Managing Information Online at The City
Law School”
http://www.thinkmind.org/index.php?view=article&articleid=elml_2014_2_30_500
95
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Legal Education and Training Review. Setting the Standards: the future of legal
services education and training regulation in England and Wales, June 2013.
http://letr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/LETR-Report.pdf [retrieved February 2014].
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M. Hagan “Law and Design” http://www.margarethagan.com/drawings/illustratedlaw-flow-charts/
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S. Hrastinski and N.M.Aghaee "How are campus students using social media to
support their studies? An explorative interview study" Education and Information
Technologies, 17:4, 2012, pp.451-464.
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N. Selwyn, "Faceworking: exploring students' education-related use of
Facebook”. Learning, Media and Technology, 34:2, 2009, pp.157-174.
Image credits
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Slide 1 – 7/8” rear assembling receptacle by Connectors distribution box
https://www.flickr.com/photos/shieldconnectors/8015817623/
Slide 2 - HRH Prince George of Cambridge https://www.flickr.com/photos/alexs/14116472462/
Slide 3 - Kylie Minogue by Adam Romero
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bart234465/467919068/i
Slide 4 - hugh_jackman_023 by
pimkiehttps://www.flickr.com/photos/pimkie_fotos/3444786387/
Slide 4 - Hugh Jackman by Gage Skidmore
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/9358553996/
Slide 6 – purchased from istockfoto
Slide 8 - Poppies on Liddington Hill by TempusVolat
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrmorodo/7457819968
Slide 8 - Lacock abbey by Bernard Blanc
https://www.flickr.com/photos/50879678@N03/7166689481
Slide 8 - Stonehenge by Jeffrey
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jb912/7190313554/
Slide 8 - Westbury White Horse by Walt Jabsco
https://www.flickr.com/photos/waltjabsco/3560554280/
Image credits
• Slide 9 - IMGPO394 by Matt Buck
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattbuck007/4144685821/
• Slide 11 - Champagne by Faberzeus
https://www.flickr.com/photos/faberzeus/4655745123/
• Slide 12 – Purchased from istockfoto
• Slide 13 - Purchased from istockfoto
• Slide 14 - ‘Professor Finger Puppet’ by abbey*christine
http://www.flickr.com/photos/abbeychristine/2111324084/ and ‘The
famous yawn - cc licence’ by Hilary Quinn
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hilaryaq/3435257717/
• Slide 17 - Social media by Sean MacEntee
http://www.flickr.com/photos/smemon/5209796269/
• Slide 19 – purchased from istockfoto
• Slide 22 – purchased from istockfoto
• Slide 30 – purchased from istockfoto
• Slide 31 – purchased from istockfoto