CALICon06

This is the official blog for the 2006 conference held Thursday-Saturday, June 15-17, 2006 at Nova Southeastern Shepard Broad Law Center, Fort Lauderdale, FL.

Each conference session has its own blog post, arranged by date. You can access them here:

• Thursday, June 15
• Friday, June 16
• Saturday, June 17

Here are some links to documents from my presentation. First is a list of the software packages we looked at. Next is the paper that I based the presentation on. Finally the slides from my presentation, complete with my notes.

Only a short post today. Instead of writing a lenghtly blog entry, I decided to comment on each of the sessions I attended. I"ll continue to comment tomorrow, but with a longer entry, too! (Translation: it's late. I'm tired!) Sessions attended:Plenary, Knowledge Management, Into the Future!, Roundtable on faculty use of technology, TWEN in the Classroom.

Audience: Law Faculty and Librarians
Technical Level: Low

This session will showcase how TWEN (The West Education Network) facilitated resource sharing between instructors teaching the same Legal Bibliography course at Georgia State University College of Law. Attendees will be able to:

1. Assess whether course management software is right for your classroom
2. Learn what GSU instructors and students liked and disliked about TWEN

MP3: AdelmanLR5Th400.mp3

Play It Now!

Watch the presentation.

Elizabeth G. Adelman
Head of Public Services
Georgia State University College of Law

Audience: All
Technical Level: Sublime to Absurd

Looking for a chance to participate in a BS session without having to tap someone on the shoulder? Tired of waiting until evening by the bar to have your say? Join Tom Bruce, Ken Hirsh, Cyndi Dean, Tom Ryan, Ben Chapman and Elmer Master for a freewheeling session on issues of the day. Rants will be limited to give everyone a chance to speak their mind.
We'll start out together, and then if the participants wish break off into smaller groups to discuss areas of common interest. Think of it as a foray into an "unconference."

MP3: HirshLR4Th400.mp3

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Watch the presentation.

Thomas Bruce
Director, Legal Information Institute
Cornell Law School

Ben Chapman
Assistant Dean for Information Technology
Emory University School of Law

Cyndi Dean
Assistant Dean for Information Technology
University of New Mexico School of Law

Ken Hirsh
Director of Computing Services
Duke University School of Law

Tom Ryan
Director of IT
Rutgers, The State University of NJ, Camden

Audience: Networkers
Technical Level: Deep Geek

The session will deal in transaction clustering primarily for serving web pages. I will discuss the initial stages of what building a cluster is supposed to accomplish and how to determine organizational need. We will look at deciding on an operating system, and what packages are available to ease the transition. I will explain in broad terms, using the Linux Virtual Server project as an example, how to design and implement a cluster. I will go into detail about load balancing, redundancy and fault tolerance. We will discuss the administrative overhead associated with maintaining data in parity on the cluster and give examples on how this might be accomplished. I will give live demo of a functioning cluster showing how it load balances and imitate a failure to show redundancy. I will briefly describe how other services might be applied to the cluster model. There will be time at the end to take questions... or eat pie.

MP3: NagyLR3Th400.mp3

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Daniel Nagy
Sys Admin, Legal Information Institute
Cornell Law School

Audience: Anyone
Technical Level: Low

This program will focus on the software that manages the legal resources that the students find for their legal writing papers. It is based on my experience of using CiteIT for my advocacy's Appellate Brief writing. Effectively managing the resources for law students can take much of the hassle out of the writing process, and can help students to focus on the content first and then on the citation style later. This is also consistent with the trend of moving from paper heavy to online environment, effectively using technology for the services of legal writing.

MP3: ZhouLR1Th400.mp3

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Don Zhou
Head, Technical Services
William Mitchell College of Law

Audience: All
Technical Level: Hardhats required

Now that we have built out our infrastructure to support wide spread use of computers and wireless access to the network in the classrooms....should we turn it off?

Does the presence of laptops sometimes distract students (or the students in the next seat) from what the instructor is saying?

Is it up to the instructor to decide....or the institution?

This session may post more questions than it answers, but the discussion promises to be lively.

<>This just in from Prof. Paul Caron's blog...The War Over Student Use of Laptops (includes video). (John Mayer)

MP3: LaughlinLR2Th400.mp3

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Greg Laughlin
Associate Dean
University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law

Lisa Smith-Butler
Assistant Dean, Law Library & Technology Center & Assistant Professor of Law
Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center

Audience: Help Desk
Technical Level: Kinda Techie

The University of Missouri / Kansas City School of Law has developed a unique program to assist students with their laptop computer needs. The UMKC School of Law does not require our students to own a laptop, though most students do. This meant that our IT personnel spent a considerable amount of their time helping students with computer problems on a wide variety of laptops. However, the administration made a strategic decision not to impose a mandatory laptop requirement on our students. Instead, we developed the UMKC Laptop Clinic, which was designed not only to benefit our students and IT personnel, but also to embrace our school's strategic vision.

Ostensibly, the purpose of the clinic is to make life easier for our students by providing the tools they need to keep their laptop running properly, and by allowing them to spend their time productively rather than on distractions. The clinic is manned by an undergraduate computer student, which means we exploit local university resources, and our IT personnel spend their time on more immediate computing problems. The Laptop Clinic Technician is responsible for diagnosing basic computer problems, imaging computers, installation of hardware/software, and running virus software in conjunction with spyware programs. The typical technician has extensive working knowledge of laptop computer systems and wireless capabilities in a Windows XP (SP2) environment. The ability to interact well with law faculty, staff and students is a requirement of this position, as is a good customer-service attitude. This session will discuss the initial development of the clinic, actual implementation, and the results over the past year. You will leave the session with the information you need (1) to decide whether this is a program you need and that would work at your school, and (2) to present a proposal to your dean.

MP3: JohnsonLR5Th230.mp3

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Phill Johnson
Director of Electronic Services and Communications
University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Law

Audience: Anyone
Technical Level: Low to Medium

So your faculty are interested in podcasting. You can hand them a personal digial recorder and point them to CALI's FAQs or create a local infrastructure of support. Elmer single-handedly recorded over 200 hours of AALS sessions (close to 120 sessions) and wrote Classcaster, the software that drives the Legal Education Podcasting Project in which over 30 faculty created 1000+ course podcasts. The last part of this session will be a discussion of how to make your school podcast-friendly and even integrate your podcasts with Apple iTunes.

MP3: MastersLR4Th230.mp3

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Watch the presentation.

Elmer Masters
Director of Internet Development
CALI

 (More)

Audience: All
Technical Level: Caffeinated

Podcasting/Classclaster/Streaming Media

Everyone is familiar with the technology. Want to provide it now, and do so in an automated way? Come listen and see what Rutgers is doing to provide a truly robust automated solution.

Tom will showcase Rutgers automated podcast/streaming video solution on a budget solution. He will discuss the hardware used, installation practices, backend software necessary and demo the software as well.

MP3: RyanLR3Th230.mp3

Play It Now!

Download the Slides!

Watch the presentation.

Tom Ryan
Director of IT
Rutgers, The State University of NJ, Camden

Audience: All
Technical Level: Low

Based on my recently published article, this session will give an overview of what law students are writing in their web logs about law libraries. The article can be found at: http://www.aallnet.org/sis/allsis/newsletter/25_2/Blawgs.htm

I will present the information as a PowerPoint, that will provide much more than is contained in the article. Comments about library facilities, personnel, books, computers, furniture, etc. etc. This presentation should be informative and amusing.

Additionally, I will preview some of the research I have been conducting into law professor web logs, too.

Approximately 45 minutes for this presentation.

MP3: HudsonLR1Th230.mp3

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Watch the presentation.

Robert W Hudson
Faculty Services Librarian
Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center

Audience: All
Technical Level: Low

Presentation Powerpoint: Faculty_Rewards.ppt
Book References: references.pdf

Law School's employ faculty for the primary roles of: teaching, researching, and producing publications. However in addition to these responsibilities it is clear faculty are expected to participate in committees, advise student, develop curriculum, organize scholastic activities, attend events, adopt technology, act as a liaison, continually self educate in their respective fields, attend and present at workshops/conferences, and play an active role in the community.

This round-table discussion is targeted to focus on our institutions organizational structure, culture, departmental priorities, and reward systems that shape the roles of each faculty member (at least prior to tenure). It is clear that many challenges emerge when a dis-connect occurs between these systems and the drive to engage faculty in technology adoption. Put another way, faculty roles are changing and the review, promotion, and tenure system is not.

I am hoping we can move close to answering the following questions:

*What are the current organizational structures, cultures, department priorities, and reward systems at your institution?

*How can they be changed to incorporate a technology adoption component directly in each system and promote/motivate faculty participation? (i.e. time, funding, staff, tenure, etc?)

*How can we increase faculty participation in professional development activities to better prepare them for technology pedagogy?

*How can engaged faculty, students, and support staff work together as a change agent to promote organizational change?

*How do we evaluate teaching and learning in adoption initiatives and who is accountable?

MP3: BaiaLR2Th230.mp3

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Watch the presentation.

Patricia L Baia
Instructional Technologist
Albany Law School

 (More)

Audience: All
Technical Level: Low

Laptops are everywhere in law school, but until now there has been no software that specifically does what law students do. Aspen Studyware is workflow software designed by a law student for every part of law school -- class prep, exam prep, Socratic debate, research and writing, and more. Aspen Studyware gives students a reason to brief cases and take good notes by making law school studying more productive. Tested in the classroom, one professor has already declared that students who used the software did better in the course than those who did not. It will be appearing at your law school this academic year. Come and see a demonstration of what the students in your class will be doing with Aspen Studyware. Learn more at http://lawschool.aspenpublishers.com.

Richard Mixter
Senior Acquisitions Editor
Aspen Publishers

Audience: CSI Fans
Technical Level: Low

This presentation will showcase the work of the National Clearinghouse for Science Technology and the Law at Stetson University College of Law (NCSTL).

In 1999, the National Institute of Justice reviewed the status and needs of those who work with forensic sciences, concluding that the end-users of forensic sciences – lawyers & judges – needed more education in those sciences, and that forensic scientists needed more training in law, specifically how to be effective expert witnesses. NCSTL was built to bridge the gap between these disciplines, providing a place for “one stop shopping” for law, science and technology information. Perfect timing given the growing interest in CSI!

NCSTL provides a free forensics research database containing references to resources intersecting science, technology, crime scene investigation and the law. The database is cultivated by law students and researchers at Stetson Law School. Forensics researchers, such as lawyers, judges, scientists, educators and members of the general public, can investigate topics ranging from arson investigation to voice analysis. The database offers bibliographic information for legal and scientific resources, as well as references to popular literature, organizations and educational opportunities.

Developing distance education programs is also a large part of NCSTL’s program objectives. Focus is on the importance of effective planning and development of distance learning programs and includes:

1. identifying needs of the target audience,
2. their familiarity with technology,
3. accessibility of various technologies such as videoconferencing or web-based classes via a CMS,
4. the need for testing, progress tracking, and continuing education,
5. topics considered necessary and important,
6. costs of development,
7. quality control,
8. accreditation,
9. marketing the program, and
10. hiring technology personnel.

Learning objectives:

Attendees will:

1. Gain information about NCSTL’s database and distance education programs
2. Know how content for the NCSTL database is developed
3. Comprehend how to use the NCSTL database to do research
4. Recognize that knowing your target audience is crucial in making key Educational decisions regarding appropriate media and instructional design
5. Know when to use mediated learning versus self-directed learning and asynchronous learning versus synchronous learning

Diana Botluk
Director of Research
Stetson University College of Law

Susan G. Zucker
Director of Technology & Distance Education
Stetson University College of Law

Audience: Anyone
Technical Level: Medium

Barbara Ginsburg and Glen McBeth from Washburn University School of Law will give a hands-on demonstration of video techniques and common video editing software. These are commonly used for creating instructional videos.

• Powerpoint Slides
• Media Files

MP3: GinzburgLR3Th100.mp3

Play It Now!

Watch the presentation.

Barbara Ginzburg
Instructional Technology Librarian
Washburn University School of Law

Glen McBeth
Reference Librarian/Instructional Technologist
Washburn University School of Law

Audience: Anyone
Technical Level: Low

Each year, the Legal Writing and Research faculty at Wayne State University Law School, a staff of five, introduce 200-250 students to the process of legal research and writing. The law librarians at the Arthur Neef Law Library work closely with the Legal Writing and Research (LWR) faculty to plan and present supplementary workshops that expose students to the materials they are expected to use to complete research assignments made in the first semester as well as an Appellate Brief in the second semester. Unfortunately, these workshops do not allow students the hands-on introduction or the one-on-one attention from librarians that students desire and librarians would prefer to make available.

To provide more active learning in the use of library resources at WSU, the Director of the Legal Writing and Research Program, two law librarians and the library?s Applications? Specialist sought and were awarded an Innovative Instructional Technology Grant by the Office of the Provost in Fall, 2005 to create Legal Writing and Research Library Workshop Modules (LWR-LW Modules). The project allows law librarians to provide bibliographic instruction in a manner that responds to student requests for individualized assistance using technology already available on campus. The Applications Specialist, an instructional designer, worked with the law librarians to assess user needs and to develop and deliver materials online made up of screen and document snapshots with voice over lectures to assist students in completing LWR assignments. Use of the Modules is also extended to the hundreds of non-law students on campus who take courses where legal research is necessary including Business, Education and Social Work policy courses as well as reference courses in the Library and Information Science Program.

Interactive Modules were created under the grant on the following topics:

Print Secondary Resources Computerized Indexes Federal Statutes Federal Cases Updating resources: Shepard?s and Key Cite State Statutes and Cases Free Online Legal Research

In this session, Librarian, Lauren Collins, who wrote the grant proposal and spearheaded the resulting program, will discuss the grant process, chronicle the development of the Modules, and provide a demonstration of the finished product.

MP3: CollinsLR1Th100.mp3

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Lauren Michelle Collins
Public Service Librarian/Instruction
Wayne State University Law School

Audience: All
Technical Level: Low with some Medium

Our goal is to examine what is possible with classroom technology. What would an ideal classroom look like today? or 5 years from today? Classroom technology can be done on the cheap, but what would an ideal classroom look like (if cost were not a concern). We would use the University of Texas as an example of a cheap implementation, but one that still incorporates many interesting technologies, such as tablet pc's, ceiling-mounted document cameras, and central control systems.

MP3: AndradeLR2Th100.mp3

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Ray Andrade
Media & Technology Specialist
Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center

Michael Harvey
Educational Technology Coordinator
University of Texas School of Law

June Liebert
CIO and Lecturer
University of Texas School of Law

Audience: All
Technical Level: Low

Over the past 7 years, the Law School Admission Council has become the preeminent player in providing technology-based services to the law school admission offices. In its special position as a membership organization made up of the 196 U.S. ABA-approved law schools and 15 Canadian law schools, LSAC is not ?just another vendor? but is an organization integral to establishment of these services. They are continually being asked to provide more services for law school applicants, law school admission offices and other related contingencies.

During the fall of 2005, technology professionals from 135 law schools participated in four regional technology conferences which were hosted by LSAC. The topics of these conferences covered a general overview of LSAC but focused on their next generation admission services named ACES2. An update on ACES2 will be presented later on in this conference. This session will focus on what LSAC has done over the recent past, its plans for the next couple of years, and its strategic vision of the types of services that may be offered in the future.

Bruce Bachman, Vice President of the Information Services Division and Chief Information Officer for LSAC will present the past, present and future. With an IT organization numbering over 100 people, Bruce will also be happy to share any insights and ideas that he has as a CIO in a company dedicated to law school services. So, bring your questions!

MP3: BachmanLR5Th900.mp3

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Play It Now!

Bruce Bachman
VP, Information Services Division
LSAC

Audience: Faculty, Instructional Technologies, Leadership, IT Staff
Technical Level: Middling

The increasing volume of digital information that researchers' collect and create make the task of finding, capturing, organizing and eventually collaborating with digital data more difficult. Multiple silos of data (e-mail, files on hard dives, web documents and databases for example) exasperate the problem of finding digital information in a timely manner.

Fortunately the tools for organizing and finding digital information have finally started to catch up with the large pools of data that we are collecting. Vannevar Bush was ahead of his time back in 1945 when he envisioned a device that would allow and individual to store "all his books, recoreds, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory." (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/194507/bush) Today we are very close to Bush's 60 year old vision. There is no one size fits all formula for how a researcher will optimally manage their data, but rather we will look at a number of tools researchers at our University have used separatly and in combination to manage data organization, searching and citation, as well as facilitate knowledge sharing. Some of the software tools we will look at include:

- Desktop search tools (Google Desktop & Windows Desktop Search)
- e-Document Management (Onfolio, Firefox Scholar, OneNote, Evernote)
- Social Software (del.icio.us, Flickr)
- e-Conferencing (Skype, Msn Messenger)
- Collaborative Research (SharePoint, Alfresco, Silk, Plone, Groove virtual office)
- Real Time Document Editing (MSN Messenger Application Sharing, VNC, Webex)

The two major benefits that come from effective knowledge management and knowledge sharing are an increase in the speed and quality of the research being performed. Less time is spent looking for information that has already been identified, so that more time can be spend in analyzing and associating desperate pieces of information. Electronic tools can make possible collaboration between colleagues that in the past would have been difficult, if not impossible to do. A group of nine Law Professors at two Universities have used our some of our collaboration tools to successfully share research and collaborate in a way that would have been very difficult five years ago. Not all faculty and staff find every tool useful, but for some they present solutions to long standing problems.

Whether they realize it or not, most researchers are struggling with the mountains of digital data that they have accumulated during their careers. If shown the tools available to them to find, capture and collaborate, our experience is that many, if not most, will start to use at least some of these knowledge management tools to move effectively manage and share their data.

MP3: McCueLR4Th1030.mp3

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Play It Now!

Rich McCue
Systems Administrator
University of Victoria Law School

Audience: All
Technical Level: Pretty Geeky

Since our OPACs are essentially glorified web browsers, expensive, overpowered Windows machines could be replaced with a more secure, much less maintenance-intensive, and cost-effective (read: free) solution, making use of already available hardware. I will demonstrate how I built Web-browsing kiosks for our library OPAC machines using Firefox and GNU/Linux. The kiosk project is Live-CD based, and I will demo the kiosk as part of the presentation.

The presentation will cover the following issues:

• Remastering the CD
• Installing packages
• Securing the system
• Tweaking and Locking down Firefox
• Windows machines not completely gone! (just mostly)
• Current status of the project

slides: http://calicon06.classcaster.org/blog/resource/firefox_kiosk_slides/cali.tar.gz

MP3: HurleyLR3Th1030.mp3

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Play It Now!

Michael Hurley
Webmaster/System Administrator
University of Connecticut Law School

Audience: All
Technical Level: None requried

Nova's Dean Harbaugh has been an avid proponent of technology in legal education for many years. In this session, he will discuss frankly why technology can be an enhancement to law school operations, education and administration. He will also offer advice and insight into how IT looks from the Dean's Office that will be valuable to you at your home institutions.

MP3: HarbaughLR1Th1030.mp3

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Joseph D. Harbaugh
Dean and Professor of Law
Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center

Audience: Faculty
Technical Level: Low

This presentation will include several speakers who participated in CALI's Legal Education Podcasting Project this past spring. Some of the faculty recorded their class lectures and others created weekly summaries for their students.

One of the things that will be explored is the connection between podcasts, and more active learning experiences. We will also pose questions, and have a discussion about the following topics:

What are the benefits of the in the classroom, live lecture or discussion, class expereince for our students, and are we gradually disaggregating the law school teaching system by providing other ways to learn and experience law school classes.

Is this the wave of the future?

Is the live class soon to be an anachronism?

Are there other benefits for live classroom interaction in professional schools, in which students are taught the professional norms, culture, vocabulary and values of their area of professional study, and have the opportunity to interect with and learn from fellow students.

Could some or all of these goals of benefits of graduate and professional education by provided through online learning, or various substitutes for a live class.

MP3: CohenLR2Th1030.mp3

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Debra R. Cohen
Associate Professor of Law
Southern New England School of Law

Andrea L. Johnson
Professor of Law
California Western School of Law

Gregory Lee Ogden
Profesor of law
Pepperdine University School of Law

In addition to the recording from this session that will be posted soon, there are also recorded interviews with other law faculty who participated in the Legal Education Podcasting Project at http://caliopolis.classcaster.org. Choose the "podcast" category to see all of the interviews.

Audience: All
Technical Level: Low

What is Rip, Mix, Learn?

It's a metaphor for the way the digital and real world is evolving and how we use it. It's having the web your way, and sometimes that's the fastest of fast information food. All of the traditional information flows from main-stream media, institutional authorities, government, scholarship are affected by the RML notion that the static web of the early 90's and the one-way web of the early 00's is now the read/write web and the conversation-web of the present. This has particularly interesting ramifications for education.

I will explore some of these ramifications with specific examples from recent insights in podcasting, electronic journals, blogging and electronic course materials and relate them to directions that I believe legal education is heading.

John Mayer
Executive Director
CALI

This presentation is over and I hope that it wasn't too dense or confusing. I really had to work to get it down to under 50 minnutes. The presentation was recorded and we will post the video here soon. In the meantime, here is a link to the Powerpoints - JohnMayerThursdayPlenaryFINAL.ppt

MP3 of the plenary: calicon06PlenaryMayer01.mp3

Video (WMV format): calicon06PlenaryMayer.wmv

Feel free to comment on the presentation in this blog post.