Predicting computer technology trends in today's world is one of those tasks like commenting on your significant other's haircut or chairing a committee: no matter what you do or say, you just can't win. As soon as you predict that most law schools will allow students to use personal computers to take final exams...bang! States will probably start conducting bar exams over the Internet. It's getting to the point that you are safer picking Olympic winners (or even the next Miss America...it will be Miss Virginia, trust me...) rather than trying to figure out what the hot new Internet browser plug-in will be next year. And computer labs, those stalwart technological wonders that brought most law schools into the twentieth century (although pockets of Luddite regression still exist here and there), currently seem to be doomed to the same fate that met earlier precursors of emerging technologies, such as the card catalog, the typing room, and sadly, (for acquisition/serial librarians everywhere) the Kardex serial check-in files.
Surprisingly, Law School computer labs are a relatively recent phenomena. While some innovative universities were building personal computer labs within a couple of years of the pc's debut (I remember typing in BASIC on an IBM PC during my junior year in college in 1982) law schools were initially reluctant to commit what amounted to an awful lot of tuition dollars to equip computer labs with slow, boxy machines. Even the highly touted CALR "magic boxes", LEXIS and WESTLAW, were limited in the early 1980's to behemoth work stations with limited access and even more limited databases. I graduated from law school in 1986 without having touched a computer keyboard (and yes, the stories I tell to first year students about those days of typing my moot court briefs with carbon paper are apparently equivalent to my grandfather's epic stories about walking three miles to school in the snow without shoes...at least the students roll their eyes in the same manner I did when trapped on the front porch with grandpa). Finally, many law schools, responding to student demands, began to place 8086 and 8088 pc's in reclaimed student carrels or unused corners behind elevator shafts for student use. The late 1980's saw most law schools with at least a token computer lab, and those schools that didn't have one had plans to build, either as part of a new building, or through rehabilitation of older law school spaces.
Southern Illinois was one of the law schools that chose to rehabilitate space. Although we had four pc's in a student carrel, it was soon realized that students wanted color monitors, faster computers, and lots more of them (as well as decent printers). After "foreclosing" on three group study rooms and a CALR room, the walls were removed and a "state of the art" computer lab was constructed in 1990, with 16 IBM PS/2's, color monitors, and laser printers. The lab was an immediate success with students (especially since it was located within the law school and open 24 hours a day). But, as with all technology, if you don't plan to improve your equipment (and have the necessary dollars to upgrade), the technology becomes obsolete (and yes, I know our equipment was obsolete before we put it in, but we needed to save money and used equipment from the university's computer department was where we chose to save it). Unfortunately, while other schools upgraded to 386's, 486's, and now pentiums, we, because of budget problems, struggled valiantly on with our original 286's. Although it was humiliating in a way (replacing a single disk drive cost more than the market price of the entire pc), at least we weren't bothered very much by viruses (mainly due to a stringent disk use policy..but also because the computers were just too ancient for some up-to-date viruses to attack).
Finally, after biting the budget bullet this year, we upgraded the lab with pentium pc's, Windows 95 software, and access to pop e-mail and the Internet. While students are ecstatic with the new equipment, I wonder what the fate of this lab will be in five years... will we be able to afford the heptiums or dodeciums on the market by then? Will visiting students in 2001 come into the lab and just laugh at our outdated pentiums? Or will we even have a computer lab?
There is a trend afoot to have law students furnish their own computer equipment, thus allowing the law school to concentrate on the network side of things, as the University of Richmond and other law schools are doing. The law school simply provides the local area network, and the connection to it. Without having to commit thousands of dollars for computer lab equipment and upgrades, the law school can then devote its computing dollars to maintaining and upgrading the network, resulting in a much more efficient use of scarce resources. Computer labs can then revert to print/copy centers, group study rooms, or even storage closets for the needed huge network servers.
Personally, I like the idea. Students will buy laptops as they come to law school, and thus the cost of new computer upgrades are borne by the student, not the law school. Coveted lab space is freed up for other uses, and law schools can get out of the lab hardware procurement business. Does this mean, then, that law schools can junk their computer labs tomorrow? No. Lots of ground work must be done first, including introducing or upgrading the law school LAN; providing the necessary connections; requiring students to purchase their own equipment (this may take a bit of political maneuvering, especially in public law schools); and marketing the idea to the entire law school community.
I'd like to think that we are providing the last upgrade of
computer lab equipment at SIU...and that in the future
students will be providing their own equipment rather
than the law school. Networking and software costs
continue to skyrocket, and law schools will need to
concentrate on what they can reasonably afford, while
shifting some costs to the student. So, will this trend
mean that today's law school computer labs be
tomorrow's storage closets? I predict: Maybe. (Hey, I've
tried to hedge my bets ever since that unfortunate wager
on Apple computers getting a 80% market share...).