The law is a tradition bound sector, with barristers and judges still bewigged and gowned in several courts in various countries around the globe. It is only recently that lawyers have been allowed to market themselves in places like Australia and the UK. Barristers belonged to chambers and their work practices were strictly controlled. Technology and the digital age is changing the way that lawyers do business and practice their profession in the twenty first century. In fact, tertiary institutions are now using educational technology to teach a new generation of lawyers.
New Technology Applications Educating Legal Advocates
Socratic dialogue is being shelved in the bottom drawer and digital classrooms are coming online. Law students can study and partake in forums, wherever they are located, and not having to physically attend bricks and mortar classrooms and lecture halls. Of course, technology is changing the means by which every academic discipline is being taught right around the developed world. Digital technology is creating the ability for many more students to be educated without having to build ever larger facilities. The internet and world wide web are essentially a means with which to share information globally.
Legal Bodies Are Having to Play Catch Up
People are making bets with technology, doctors are treating patients remotely with digital devices, and lawyers online is really only the next natural step. The world is changing faster than ever before, especially how computers and digital technology affect matters of law. Governments and legal bodies are having to play catch up and swiftly. Facebook has taken over the world in terms of social networking and that throws up a hornet’s nest of issues, which challenge existing laws. Today’s lawyers must be internet savvy and social media literate, if they are to meet the challenge that technology poses in the modern era.
The Law Must Reflect the World It Lives In
Using educational technology to teach a new generation of lawyers is only common sense, because the law must reflect the world it lives in. You only have to look at what has happened to religion in the west, to see how anchoring yourself in the past only makes you irrelevant. Legal advocates need to be immersed in technology and all its consequences from the very beginning of their education. It is time to put aside the robes and wigs, all that ritualised dressing up, and step out into a brave new world in a timely fashion.
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