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Each year Instructional Technology actively participates in internal and university wide pilot study programs to evaluate the usefulness of emerging technologies within the School of Law. Recent evaluations and reviews include:
iTunes U is an RSS enabled delivery system for audio and video files currently being used by universities around the US. The Law School Instructional Technology department has joined the greater campus Faculty Technology Committee (FTC) in reviewing this product as a solution for delivering podcasted content to students.
Currently all online media for the School of Law is hosted on our streaming server, Medialaw. Streaming content and podcasted content differ in the ways in which materials are accessed. Streaming content requires that a user have an internet connection while watching a video or audio clip. Podcasted content is first downloaded to a computer then the student can watch, or listen to, the material on their PC or handheld media player (iPod, etc.). Podcasted content can also be syndicated, where students can subscribe to an ongoing series of content which will be downloaded automatically when new content becomes available.
Instructional Technology has received requests from faculty and students alike for podcasting. The ability to have mobile content is enticing to many students, for instance commuting students could access content while on the bus. Other students could download the content while on campus network and view it later. It also allows students to keep the content ready throughout the semester, without needing to go back online to access the material. Podcasting is also popular with many instructors around the country, allowing them to find innovative ways to deliver lectures, assignments or outside information for their course.
This services and its contract are still being reviewed by the FTC.
Visiting Professor Elizabeth Townsend-Gard approached us to assist with the use of Second Life as a teaching tool for her Spring 2007 property class. Her goal was to use this online multi-user gaming world as a tool to examine whether virtual property could be classified in the same way as real property.
To accomplish this Professor Townsend-Gard used the “class hamster” model, whereby students would share the class avatar (or game character) and work in groups week by week to explore specific topics in Second Life. Then, each group would create a presentation about their findings, through the use of screen capture, and post it to the Web.
This project proved to be very intriguing for students. Unfortunately, as a visitor Professor Elizabeth Townsend-Gard is no longer at SU to continue with this experiment, but her creativity in using this online virtual environment was an excellent proof of concept.
In the fall of 2006, we worked with Clinic Director, Paul Holland, to experiment with moving their student/client interviews from a VHS recording format to digitized format utilizing portable Web cameras. The goal was to provide clinic professors with a digital video they could edit quickly on their laptops in order to discuss the highlights of small clips with their students. In the past, this was accomplished through recording to VHS tapes, then spending lots of time fast forwarding and rewinding hours of tape.
The initial experiments were very successful for the process. Professors found the free Windows Movie Maker software easy to use, and much less time consuming than scrolling through VHS tapes. However, the Web cameras we experimented were hit or miss on quality. Fortunately, later that semester Professor Melinda Branscomb approached us with a similar idea for her Spring 2007 Lawyers as Problem Solver class. Her goal was to have her students videotape their own mediation session with Web cameras, edit out the highlights, then submit the clips to her for review.
Since this process was very similar to what the clinic was working with, we were able to create online editing tutorials for both groups. Furthermore, Professor Branscomb brought to us an excellent tip on a higher quality Web camera she had seen demonstrated at a conference earlier that year. We tested these found, finding that they solved a lot of the audio concerns we had with other models and eventually 24 Web cameras, complete with check out cases, were purchased and are now available to anyone for check out through the Law Library. Online tutorials can be found on our Training Module page.
Following up on suggestions from the library, we hosted two presentations by different vendors of “clicker” technology. Clickers are individual remote controls handed out to each student in a class that are wirelessly connected to the instructors computer. They allow students to give real time anonymous feedback to faculty during class. The technology also allows for the recording of pop quizzes and claims to increase student participation.
However, while the clickers seem to have great potential in classes that are primarily lecture-based, most reviewers seem to agree that their usefulness in our school is limited and are therefore not a profitable investment. They also present a check-in, check-out hassle with the hardware. Therefore, faculty interested in the type of feedback clickers offer are encouraged to investigate the alternative uses of the polling functions within TWEN and the CALI’s Instapoll feature.
In Fall of 2006, we participated with a campus wide pilot study of Macromedia Breeze, which later became Adobe Connects. It was our hope that this Web conferencing service could address some of the more advanced needs we’ve seen in recent years for distance learning inside the law school. The results of this study was shared with the Information Technology Committee for reference when recommending software purchases for the entire campus.
The service did turn out to be exceptional in addressing remote student access needs. This included remote sharing of computer based presentations, live interaction with both video and audio from both students and instructors, as well as a handy archiving function.
Unfortunately, while we encountered no problems ourselves, the greater campus OIT department encountered a number of problems trying to get this service to work reliably on the SU network. Therefore, they do not recommend this service at this time. However, they are currently testing other applications that offer similar functionality to Adobe Connect. We will stay in close contact with OIT regarding this process as we strongly believe that Web conferencing software, if reliable and robust, would be a great benefit to the Law School.