Law student podcasts

There are more law student blogs out there than you can shake a stick at. Some of them actually talk about law; a good number complain about faculty who are hard to understand, boring, or slow to turn in grades; many offer tips on places to drink large amounts of cheap beer. Just recently a couple of law student podcasts have appeared.

LawSchoolPodcast is the work of Daryl Fallin, about to begin law school at UMKC, and his buddy Chris Othic. In the two podcasts so far, Daryl and Chris have chatted about their preconceptions about lawyers, the great bead store where Chris's wife works, and more. It's what you would expect from two guys who have been friends since high school, but an interesting opportunity to eavesdrop on a beginning law student sharing some of his anxiety about what law school is going to do to him.

Life of a Law Student is created by Neil Wehnemann, an entering 1L at the University of Cincinnati. His approach is a little different, and worth following as we think about students' learning styles. Neil's plan is to podcast daily, and to use his podcast to summarize and apply what he has learned in his classes each day. Neil is a web designer, among other things, with an interest in IP, particularly copyright and patent law. He plans to spend the first part of each program reviewing the day's classes, and the second half applying what he has learned to some newsy issue of the day. Essentially, Neil will be outlining his classes in audio and sharing the results for all the world to hear.

A quick Google search for "torts outline" finds 284,000 results. It will be interesting to see if podcasting catches on. Students could share their audio notes online, even form virtual study groups. Opportunities to learn--and temptations to cheat--abound.

P.S. Evan Schaeffer points to yet another law student podcast, ambivalent voices.