2009 Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Award Winners

Some of the winners include:

Best Online Video Startup Company – Technology – Livestream

Best Streaming Innovation – Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced

Encoding Software (over $1000) – Rhozet, Carbon Coder

Encoding Software (under $1000) – Sorenson Squeeze

Enterprise Video Platform – Accordent Technologies Rich Media Communications Suite

Hardware Encoder (HD) – Digital Rapids StreamZ HD

Hardware Encoder (SD) -ViewCast Niagara Pro II

Live Video Streaming Platform – Livestream

Online Video Platform (free) -YouTube

Online Video Platform (Premium) – Brightcove

Portable Live Encoding Appliance – NewTek TriCaster

Regional (North American) Delivery Network -Streaming Media Hosting

Server Hardware/Software – Wowza Media Server Pro

Streaming Music Solution -Live365

Webcasting/Presentations Solutions – Sonic Foundry Mediasite 5.1

iPhone Apps for Law Students

LexisNexis has released its first iPhone App. It is called “Get Cases and Shepardize,’” and allows users to get cases from Lexis.com and Shepardize them to make sure what they have found is still good law.

Users must have a current account with Lexis.com and a valid password to use the application. The app itself is free at the iTunes App Store.

Will Westlaw be far behind?

Other iPhone apps that would be useful to law students:

• BARBRI Mobile Bar Review – free
• Barron’s Law Dictionary – $14.99
• MBE timer – $19.99
• Law In A Flash – $30-$40 each
• Blacks Law Dictionary -$50
• Law Box
• US Code
• Legal Edge

The LawPod also offers some more.

West Puts Law Books On Kindle

West recently announced that it is releasing e-book editions of 29 of its most popular law books. West is offering the titles for electronic download to be read on Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader.

You can learn more and review the 30 titles via this news release.

Recently, Amazon dropped the price of the U.S. version of the Kindle by $40 to $259.

Google Scholar Now Includes Case Law

I asked a 3L to try it out for me.  He put in a term for reserach is doing for a class  and replied: “THIS IS AWESOME!!”

Westlaw and Lexis:  Watch out….

New Poll on Students and Technology Use

From today’s Campus Technology News Update:

The report, “2009 21st-Century Campus Report: Defining the Vision,” released by CDW Government, polled about 1,000 students, instructors, and IT department staff members in order to gauge their attitudes about technology used in education and their expectations for the future

According to new research  only 38 percent of students indicated that their instructors “understand technology and fully integrate it into their classes.”  Students also rated that lack of understanding as “the biggest obstacle to classroom technology integration.”

Despite this, 74 percent of higher education instructors polled indicated that they “incorporate technology into every class or nearly every class,” and 67 percent said they were “satisfied with their technology professional development.” 52 percent of students said they use social networking tools for education, only 14 percent of faculty members said they use social networking for teaching purposes. (Thirty-six percent of faculty members use social networking tools for non-academic purposes.)

The report also found that students are using technology regularly in preparation for class: 81 percent of them this year said they use technology every day before class to prepare compared with 63 percent last year. Researchers also asked students which technologies they thought their institutions should offer. The top results included:

Wireless access (76 percent in 2009 versus 50 percent in 2008);

Computer labs (66 percent in 2009 versus 55 percent in 208); and

Course management systems (53 percent in 2009 versus 31 percent in 2008).

Results of Kenneth Green’s “Campus Computing Project”

An online seminar entitled  Managing Online Education Programs was held on Oct 28, 2009.  The handouts and archived webcast are now available – Here are some of the key points:

• Institutional efforts to expand online education impeded by: faculty resistance- 68%, lack of key resources -58%
• Limit class size on online courses: 77% limit the class size for online courses, the enrollment cap averages 37 students/class or section.
• Tuition – 70% charge higher tuition for online
• Instructional Media used – traditional textbooks, online text, asynchronous text discussions
• Tech training for faculty -53% mandatory
• Quality online vs on campus – tech prep & tech use by faculty better online, most others same for both
• LMS (learning management system) strategy – 88% use the same LMS for online as for on campus courses, Blackboard is the most popular 59%
• Resources receiving high ratings – tech support for faculty & students, lowest – assessment

Albany Law School’s First Online Course

 

Government Ethics taught by Dean Salkin this spring will be Albany Law School first totally online course.  (Judge Stein has previously taught several HYBRID courses where 1/2 of the class interaction was online).

Students who participate in this course will be guided through interactive class lessons over the Internet, working closely with Professor Salkin and exchanging ideas with fellow classmates online. Required interactivity will be asynchronous, meaning that students do not need to access their online course at any particular time during the day. The only class meeting will be an orientation held at Albany Law School to discuss course requirements.  This course will utilize Westlaw’s TWEN, a course management system that law students are already familiar with. At the course site, students will find reading assignments, links to materials pertinent to the course, a syllabus, a statement of the course goals, a number of hypothetical problems, lecture notes, video clips of lectures, audio clips, PowerPoint slides, slides with narration, a threaded discussion board, live chats, and assessments. Each week, within periods of time designated by Professor Salkin, students will be responsible for covering the material assigned, accessing materials as instructed, viewing lecture clips and participating in online discussions. The discussions will take place on the class’s threaded discussion board. They also may take place in live “chat” sessions, during which the professor may meet with students, or a group of students may arrange to meet, online. Participation in “live” chat will be optional, to preserve student flexibility in time and place. Professor Salkin will be able to track student participation and progress through the TWEN site.  

Study input will be sollicited periodically to make sure students needs are met.  This important feedback will also be used  in designing other online courses that  may be offered at Albany Law School.

What’s On Their Minds? 2009 Voice of the Student Report

This new report was published by IntelliResponse and parts of it are enlightening.  It deals with the top online questions posed by students in colleges & universities, their impact on various depratments at higher ed institutions, such as IT, and recommendations for improvements.

Here are some highlights:

• Close to 75% of all online questions asked deal with administrative, informational issues of one sort or another. This presents an ideal opportunity for institutions to standardize (across multiple communication channels such as contact centers, web site, social media and mobile) information delivery to provide students with the answers they need, while reducing costs and staff workload in key student-facingdepartments.
• 33% of all online questions asked in an IT Help Desk environment deal with simply gaining access to programs via passwords and login information.(Top questions - How do I change my password? Why can’t I login?What do I do if I forgot my password?) Clearly, there exists a tremendous opportunity for many overworked, overtaxed IT and contact center departments to deliver simple, self-serve information concerning this area – which is likely a real source of frustration for both students and staff alike. The prevalence of questions regarding remote/ wireless access to student networks, as well as management of online student portals and courseware programs like Blackboard also represent a significant portion of all queries related toinformation technology.

 

Implications - Schools must understand and provide effective technologies that accurately answer the unique questions posed by both current and prospective students in a self-serve format.

How does this apply to us? 

Yes, much of the information that students request  is probably written somewhere on the website or the intranet or WebAdivisor.  IT helpdesk responds to students’ questions in a timely manner and always points them to where the answers to many of their questions are located such as, www.albanylaw.edu/its/faq  

Windows 7 is out…

Though I haven’t seen it yet…here’s what they say is  new:

•  New Windows Task bar – It looks and feels a lot more like Mac OS X’s dock. These programs can be reordered by dragging them. You can also drag and drop the most frequently used applications on this task bar. When you move your mouse over these programs a thumbnail will pop up displaying a thumbnail of what is inside of each open application.

• Fewer Annoying Pop-ups -  the User Account Control in Windows Vista that kept asking yes/no to approve system status updates and whether you wanted to allow a program to run or not. Winodws 7 scaled back the pop-ups for all of the users making this feature less annoying.
• Device Stage – Windows 7’s device manager will give you a single window for interacting with various gadgets. Clicking on a device will provide some details such as battery charge, available storage space, and even the time and date of your last sync. From this same window you can manage photos, music, or ring tones that are stored on it.
• Other minor improvements:
  • connecting to a Wi-Fi network with a couple of mouse clicks rather than dealing with an entirely new window.
  • If you have multiple locations for music stored on your hard drive, a Music library folder can provide a single point of access to all of that music.
  • Internet Spades, Internet Backgammon and Internet Checkers, which were removed from Windows Vista, were restored.
  • Windows 7 includes Internet Explorer 8 and Windows Media Player 12.
  • Users also are able to disable many more Windows components than was possible in Windows Vista including Internet Explorer

New cool Windows 7 features:

PEEK

SNAP

SHAKE

***Windows 7 videos – Watch them to learn more!

***Windows 7 vs Vista vs  XP – click HERE.

If you can’t beat em, join em

 You have to communicate with students the way they like to communicate or they will not pay attention.  In fact, when I searched,  there were about 50  or so Albany Law Facebook pages.

Albany Law’s FB pages:

• Albany Law School – facebook.com/albanylaw
• Albany Law School Registrar
• Albany Law School Center for Law & Innovation
• Albany Law School Center for Government
• Albany Law School Alumni
• Albany Law Clinic & Justic Center

Student-Created FB pages:

• Albany Law Sci & Tech Journal
• The Issue
• Albany Black Law Students Society
• Albany Law Interns
• Albany Law Phi Alpha Delta
• Albany Law Extracurricular Activites
• Albany Law Softball
• Albany Law Racquetball
• Albany Law Tennis Club
• Albany Law Republicans
• Albany Law Class of 2012
• Albany Law Democrats
• Albany Law Outdoor Club
• Albany Law SBA
• Albany Law Class of 2010
• Albany Law Class of 2011
• Albany Law Cardozo Society
• Albany Law Rugby Alumni
• Albany Law Federal Society

and more…

Educationally, what is the value? 

LexisNexis’ Blackboard course managment system can sync to a student’s Facebook page.  I brought that up to our Westlaw rep.  Will TWEN be able to do the same?