The Switch from GroupWise to Outlook is coming…

MS Outlook Web Access 2007

Our first training was held yesterday in preparation for the conversion from GroupWise to Outlook 2007.  The new e-mail software will be available for use via the Internet on Monday, August 3, 2009. We are also switching our SPAM filter from GWAVA to Postini.

Additional training and support sessions are planned.  FAQs on our website have been posted along with guides, handouts and video tutorials.

Take Home Finals Using TWEN Preserve Students’ Anonymity

Using the Assignment Drop Box in TWEN allows students to submit essay take home exams anonymously.  The only requirements are they and the professor have access to the Internet.  The exams are time-stamped so that the professor can specify how long the student has to complete the exam.  The professor can also control when the exam is available for download and the deadline for upload. Students enter their anonymous number when they download the exam and upload their answers.

Will Distance Learning be an option for law schools in the future?

Above the Law blog  had a great post on the status of distance education for law schools.  Currently the ABA does not accredit online only law schools but will be re-visiting this topic (Standard 306) in the fall of 2010.

Rethinking Higher Education had an article on distance education and the moot court competition. 

Ross Mitchell graduated from the nation’s first online-only law school four years ago and in November won the right to take the Massachusetts bar exam.

So things may be changing….

Guest Blog Post – What’s Important When You’re a Law Student?

If you’ve decided to go to law school or are already a student in one, you probably know what is expected of you. The best students at law school set the standards for the rest to follow – high grades, participation in all activities that matter, and finally, on graduation, a plum job at one of the best law firms in the country. In fact, most law firms hire law school graduates based on their grades and the level of their co-curricular activities.

But, although grades are important, they are not the only criteria for success in your real life as a lawyer. Some of the best attorneys who enjoy successful legal practices today did not have the perfect grades at school. In fact, most of what they have achieved, they have done so through experience in and outside the courtroom.

So if your grades are not so good, if you’re likely to keep to yourself rather than participate in activities like Law Review and others that count towards your future job prospects, it’s not cause for too much concern. What’s more important than grades is:

• Knowing what you want to achieve in life – if you think you would be better suited to work in a smaller firm where you have a greater amount of responsibility and a better chance to climb up the promotion ladder, follow your dreams rather than getting caught up in rat race for the plum jobs in large legal corporate houses.
• Setting a plan and adhering to it – if you think you have what it takes to become a good lawyer, you need to work hard for it. There are ways to impress and convince employers even when your grades don’t show you in a positive light. If you’re passionate about your career in law, it will come across in interviews. At the end of the day, it’s not your grades that matter, but how well you are able to grasp real-world situations and apply the knowledge that you’ve learned for the benefit of your clients.
• Achieving a balance between work and personal life – when you become a law student, you sort of expect to keep long hours. This continues and becomes worse after you graduate and secure a job. It is important to keep your nose to the grindstone, but not at the cost of everything else in your life that matters, like family, friends and other social and recreational activities.

Life is not graded according to our grades in school, so it’s time we stopped burning ourselves out in trying to be the perfect law school grad with the perfect grades.

By-line:

This article is written by Kat Sanders, who regularly blogs on the topic of online court reporter school at her blog Court Reporter Schools. She welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: katsanders25@gmail.com .

Videoconference held in new location

On July 10, 2009, Professor Ouellette and guest were able to attend a “Conference on End of Life Laws” using the our Tandberg MediaPlace which has recently been moved to its new location, the Board Room.  During this conference, lawyers from several locations met virtually for about 2 hours to discuss important issues.

We hope that having this equipment in a location that is readily available will increase its use by law school faculty and staff.

 

Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing is the latest trend in educational technology.  It represents a paradigm switch in the way schools deliver software.  It shifts the emphasis form locally managed server-client installations and IT-related services to Web-accessible resources on thousands of servers called “clouds.”

Many of the popular tools are free:

• Zoho writer – can share MS Word files
• Google docs – robust MS office suite alternative
• Adobe Buzzword - similar to the above
• Adobe Photoshop Express - 2GB of photo storage
• 37Signals Whiteboard - can copy/paste from Word docs only
• Jing - screen capture
• VoiceThread – create/share multimedia slideshows

How does this impact legal education?

According to LegalWritingProf Blog on May1, 2009: Amazon offers free cloud computing services to educators

To the extent Westlaw’s TWEN and Lexis’ Blackboard (along with GoogleDocs, among others) are already forms of cloud computing, I’m not sure whether Amazon’s service has any advantages that would cause law profs to forego those in favor of this.  For the time being, Amazon is offering up cloud computing access for free and some of you may indeed discover advantageous ways to use it in the legal writing classroom.  Unlike Twitter, which IMHO still needs to prove itself, cloud computing is for real (at least until that too proves wrong).

Kick the tires here.  Hat tip to the Chronicle of Higher Ed.

From AdjuntlawProf Blog on May 4, 2009:

….Seems like this service functions exactly like Blackboard and TWEN except that there are no links out perform legal research. For colleges, this service might be worth a try. However, for law schools, I would stick with TWEN or LEXIS Blackboard. Personally, I prefer TWEN.

Enhancements for TWEN

FORUMS AND DOCUMENT PAGES SEARCHING
Now you can search within Forums and Document pages. Searches can be conducted by:
- Keywords
-Dates and/or author (including anonymous authors)
Search results are displayed in a sortable table format. Clicking on the item displayed in the search results takes the user to the item and marks it read for both participation and display purposes.

LAW SCHOOL EXCHANGE AND TWEN

Law School Exchange seamlessly integrates with TWEN. LSE is an online community that allows law school faculty to share, digitally publish, and find scholarship and teaching materials in collaboration  with an online community of peers. Once added to TWEN, material may be moved in and out of folders, hidden from students, and displayed upon entry. For more information, go to http://exchange.westlaw.com.

IMPROVED SIGN-UP SHEET DESIGN
The sign-up sheet for office hours is now more intuitive. Along with the visual changes, functionality has been added so the administrator can:

-Customize text for sign-up sheets

-Share sign-up sheets between courses

-Control how many students sign up for each time slot
-Receive an email notification when students remove their name from a sign-up sheet

UPDATED CITATION LINKING
Linking from citations to Westlaw has been improved for greater accuracy. Citation links in your uploaded documents are able to be viewed when you refresh your browser.

Alternative to MediaNotes?

As previously mentioned, the clinic faculty and students have been using MediaNotes to annotate simulation videos (see Sept 28, 2008 post).

Some law school clinics have been experimenting with VideoANT.

VideoANT received its first publishing in the 2008 Horizon Report as an example of a Grass Roots Video tool most likely to impact higher education in the coming year. It was one of only five video technologies listed! Check out page 12 of the PDF at:

 

 

I tried it with my clicker video which I converted from .wmv to flv and uploaded.  VideoANT was super easy to to use and you instantly receive an email with the link to view, edit or embed your annotated video.

 To VIEW my Annotations, go to: http://ant.umn.edu/vav.php?pid=59625296177400

VideoANT does not provide hosting or upload capabilities. It is simply a tool that allows you to annotate a Flash Video you have posted on the server of your choice, or a video that someone has shared with you. They currently support Flash Video files posted online. They also now support  youtube URL’s.

Rutger’s Law School is working on a web-based solution as well - 

http://camlaw.rutgers.edu/av-request/4072/c1cc8592d7/a/eaebc477f1

 More to come on this subject…