Florida State University law student Amy Cline stood in front of her state constitutional law class in Tallahassee being grilled 21st-Century style _ by a professor more than 400 miles away.
“Did the Virginia Constitution have a bill of rights before the federal Constitution?” asked her professor, former FSU president Talbot “Sandy” D’Alemberte, from a classroom at St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens.
“Yes, I think so,” Cline said tentatively. She was visible, though not particularly well-lit, on a television monitor above D’Alemberte’s head.
Twenty-three St. Thomas law students joined about 35 FSU students on Jan. 11 for the first meeting of a class all will attend simultaneously, though in different cities, linked by the Internet. While real-time videoconferencing over the Web has been done intermittently by colleges for several years, few have committed to sharing an entire course of study with an unrelated institution.
Despite some audio problems, a monitor that kept flipping unnecessarily between views of both classrooms, and remote-control cameras that at times were difficult to aim, students on both campuses appeared to cope well with the technological wrinkles.
“It wasn’t a distraction, but some things they’ll have to work out as far as the connection,” said second-year FSU law student John Martinez. “There was more discussion here than in most of my law school classes, where all you get is a lecture.”
Bob Butterworth, the former Florida attorney general who now is dean of St. Thomas’s law school, sat in on the class.
“I think it’s going to work out pretty well,” he said. “This is the first time in Florida that two law schools have done this.”
The technology solved a dilemma for Butterworth and associate law school dean George Sheldon: They wanted D’Alemberte _ one-time president of the American Bar Association, and a former state legislator _ to teach a course at St. Thomas, but the distinguished lawyer was already committed.
“Bob came to me, then George came to talk to me about teaching Florida constitutional law, but I said I’m obligated to teaching at FSU this semester,” D’Alemberte said.
The solution: Teach the same course to two classrooms at the same time.
“He’s the preeminent scholar in state constitutional law probably in the country,” said Butterworth. “He’s argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and the Florida Supreme Court. To have the former ABA president to come here to teach means a lot to the students. The technology made it happen.”
D’Alemberte will teach the course with Florida Executive Deputy Attorney General Clay Roberts, who serves as an adjunct professor.
“I thought it worked well,” third-year St. Thomas law student Danielle Robinson said of the Internet linkage with FSU. “It’s a good experience to have two professors who know what they’re talking about.”

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