Steven Warburton and Patricia McKellar both attended the BILETA 2012 conference held in Newcastle, UK and hosted by Northumbria University. They presented an overview of an eReader and ePublishing pilot that is currently ongoing (until June/July 2012) and discussed insights that were being gathered into the use of eReaders from the preliminary data that has been returned from online survey’s and focus groups. The pilot is running in 5 test areas that cover two groups in the UK, one in Germany, one in Kenya and finally, one in Singapore. The groups have been supplied with eReaders and a number of sample texts and textbooks to gauge how effective this form of material delivery may be in the future.
The comments from pilot users has indicated that the the device is handy, portable and provides and lightweight tool for accessing eTexts, particularly for students who regularly commute. Some of the students have expressed a desire to maintain some hard copy print-based materials and it is clear that the use of ePublished texts and eReaders is just one component of an electronic learning environment, amongst a range of others options, to ensure a good fit with all learning styles and contexts.
The full slide presentation can be viewed here:
Other highlights from the conference included a stimulating and often challenging keynote from Professor Richard Susskind who asked “What are we training young lawyers to become?”. In his talk Richard described how technology is changing the the world of law rapidly and radically. He put forward a vision of the future wher ethe role of the traditional consultative face-to-face adviser will diminish and new jobs for lawyers will merge and therefore tomorrow’s layers wuill need to work and be trained differently to today of the legal profession is to remina relevent.
For further details on the BILETA 2012 programme then please visit this year’s conference website.