Gordon Smith, a University of Wisconsin Law School professor, decided in September to utilize a personal passion and growing Internet trend for educational purposes. Today, Smith sees his creation as a growing success.
Smith’s creation is a weblog, or blog, called Law and Entrepreneurship News. It is run and maintained primarily by a group of 16 UW law students.
“Each student is assigned to an area … and if something new happens (like a news story or a case) then they write about it [or] link to the story or case,” Smith said, adding students are well positioned to write about the topics they study and the blog site is a “good opportunity to be connected to the real world.”
The primary purpose for the blog, Smith said, was to aid students’ education, particularly because student participants are able to take what they learn in class and apply it to a modern context.
“A lot of times we ask students to read ancient text that is [difficult to apply]. Blogging is a way to make things immediately relevant,” he said. “Students like the idea of blogging … and this is good practice. This is good practice [because students] are forced to write, explain a position and put their name on something.”
The primary audience of the site is composed of law professors, practicing lawyers, students and those interested in the topics. The site also contains links to several other sites and blogs with related content.
Smith’s site, which was launched in September, averages 111 visits per day, according to the site’s meter. Smith said he hopes to improve the size and span of the site’s audience.
Weblogs, which have seen rapid growth recently, are websites allowing administrators to post personal or news information for any visitor to view. Smith’s site is dedicated to recent developments in the field of law and entrepreneurship.
Several other university professors across the country have decided to take up blogging, which Smith said partly inspired him. Mainly, he said, the site was an offshoot from his personal blog.
Smith added he believes blogging has the potential to expand to other areas of academia not just limited to business law.
“I think there’s a future for [weblogs]. It offers some interesting possibilities for educators,” he said.
Third-year UW law student Matt Rutlin, a student editor within the topic of corporations, said he joined because the site is a good way for him to keep up-to-date on the necessary news.
He agreed with Smith that blogging puts a unique spin on the course material.
“A lot of times in classes, you’re dealing with things that already happened. [Blogging] is a way to actually see a lot of things going on in the world and apply it in class,” Rutlin said.
