Jordan Furlong’s question on The Future of CLE posted on LinkedIn got me thinking. The question leveraged my prior 3 Geeks post on the Googlization of CLE and included his comments about how CLE’s role could shift towards professional development. So what if we take a step beyond Googlization (which is so “3 months ago” as my son says) and think of applying Web 2.0 to the CLE world?

In Web 2.0 environments you stay current by monitoring blogs, watching tweets and engaging in the dialogue. Most of my continuing education comes from these sources. And more importantly, it has greater value based on my participation. I can comment on LinkedIn like I did with Jordan. I retweet on interesting tweet and add a thought. Then another participant does the same. Or they pick up a related line of thinking and extend the dialogue. The result is a combined, asynchronous effort that brings many minds together and allows them to all benefit from the shared experience. The sum is much more than the parts.

This post is a great example of that effort. Last October I made a blog post. Jordan creates a Discussion on LinkedIn that extends the idea. A number of comments give me the CLE 2.0 idea which results in this blog post (which will result in some tweets and more comments). On one layer this is basic 2.0 in action. But from the CLE perspective, I now have a new set of tools and methodology for helping lawyers stay current on their practice skills. And this new approach has the potential to deliver much higher value than the old-school presenter/audience model.

Am I suggesting CLE Boards accredit CLE 2.0? They should at least start thinking about the idea and how it might benefit the practice of law.

Do I still go to live programs? Of course. But those are for the personal interaction as much as the education. If I relied solely on live programs for continuing education, my current knowledge base would be considerably less (Greg – hold your comments on that point).

As you might guess – I welcome your comments on this subject.