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:
MP3: AdelmanLR5Th400.mp3
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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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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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Elmer Masters
Director of Internet Development
CALI
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
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Download the Slides!
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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Robert W Hudson
Faculty Services Librarian
Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center
