Not Your Grandfather's Law School

Unlike elitest uber-liberal Ruth "Buzzy"Ginsberg, Justice Antonin Scalia gives a thumbs up to cyberspace law schools like Concord Law School.

From his chambers at the Supreme Court, Ginsburg's colleague Justice Antonin Scalia conducts an hourlong online colloquium with more than 400 Concord Law School students, answering their questions and expounding on the rule of law. From chilly disdain to the warm embrace of the members of the nation's highest court: not a bad arc of change in five years. Its significance was not lost on Barry Currier, Concord's dean. "We've certainly come a long way," Currier said after the Scalia colloquium.

In many ways, the online law school has made huge strides. The year before Ginsburg was pooh-poohing it, Concord opened its virtual doors to 35 students and six faculty members. The Concord Law School Scalia "visited" now boasts roughly 1,700 students. More than 70 faculty members -- including Harvard Law School's Arthur Miller on civil procedure -- teach through a variety of methods. Mass lectures are taped and video-streamed; real-time online classroom discussions are conducted through a combination of Real Player audio and a form of instant messaging that allows teachers to direct oral questions to individual students -- and demand immediate answers, Paper Chase-style, except that the students type the replies in for all to see.