ANN ALTHOUSE WRITES ON STUDENTS INSTANT-MESSAGING IN CLASS:

My colleague Asifa Quraishi said the students are already using the classroom WiFi to IM each other, and maybe it hasn’t been so bad. We got going on the subject of how maybe we should outright encourage the students to IM, including sending tips and cues to a student who is engaged in Socratic dialogue with the lawprof. What’s wrong with students pooling their expertise on the fly?

I actually do encourage this — I figure that this way you’ve got several students thinking about the question seriously, when they might otherwise just be waiting to see if the student I’ve called on makes a fool of himself. How well it works depends on the class, and how extensively they tend to IM, but I do agree with the point.

UPDATE: Prawfsblawg has thoughts on whether law schools should encourage blogging by professors.