Instructional Technology - What's New With Technology?
TWEN Gets Another update
Date: 7/08
So far, these are some of the changes:
- New Course Home Page - cleaner and easier to integrate pictures, documents and links to other media on your homepage. Drag and drop content modules give you more flexibility when it comes to arranging the materials on your home page.
- Document Pages - folders will replace categories; new icons will mark the document type (e.g. Word, WordPerfect, PDF); batch upload will be available for uploading multiple files; new PowerPoint viewer will allow you to page through the slides instead of scrolling down the page; click and drag page items for custom sorting.
- Forums - posting rules set by the administrator will be explicit on the forum; easily review chronological threads on a single page rather than clicking to view postings; each forum will have Reply, Quote and Print options.
- Gradebook / Assignment Drop Box - you will have the ability to batch download all of the most recent submissions to a single assignment; late submissions will be marked in red to easily determine at a glance which submissions were not turned in on time.
- Enhanced Text Editor - on the new forums, document pages and course home page, with Black's Law Dictionary terms added to the spell checker.
- Upcoming Events List - quick glance at seven days worth of calendar events on the TWEN home page.
Coming in August will be:
- RSS Feeds - anyone using an RSS reader can add a TWEN forum topic to their RSS reader to keep up to date on new postings.
- Sign Up Sheets - you can share sign-up sheets across your other TWEN Courses making it easier to schedule things such as office hours.
- Custom Polling - create multiple questions with the ability to have an unlimited number of answer boxes.
Albany Law Presents at CALI Conference
Date: 6/08
Instructional Technologist Darlene Cardillo and Professor Daniel Moriarty presented a session with University of Texas School of Law entitled "Clickers in the Law School Classroom." The CALI conference was held June 19-21, 2008 at the University of Maryland School of Law in Baltimore. In addition to her presentation, Darlene was able to attend many sessions on topics related to legal educaiton and technology.
Legal Profession Class Experiments with Distance Learning
Date: 4/08
Dean Mayer used Adobe Connect and allowed several students to attend class virtually. Using this option, Mayer attached a microphone to her laptop and elaborated on her PowerPoint slides while students listened and watched on their computers (in another room.) The class was also recorded so it could be watched at a later time.
It was so successful that Dean Mayer plans to use it again this summer (albanylaw.acrobat.com/mayer/) Othe professors such as Saul Seinberg also hope to use Adobe Connect as a distance learning option.
Two More Blogs
Date: 3/08
Colleen Ostiguy, the Electronic Services Librarian, has started The Schaffer Law Library Blog to offer information related to library services, legal news and electronic legal resources.
Pershia Wilkins, the Director of Diversity has created The Diversity at Albany Law School Blog to offer information on issues relevant to ALL students, faculty and staff and to provide a forum for discussion around these issues.
Classes Are Blogging
Date: 2/08
Prof's Ota's International Business Transactions Seminar class has a blog. Students daily submit news stories that relate to class content to a blog entitled IBT News Blog.
Class Videoconferences with Students in DC
Date: 1/08
Four students who are doing an externship in Washington DC this semester are able to take a Government Ethics class that is taught by Professor Bierman at Albany Law School. On Thursdays from 6-9 pm, these students go to George Washingtion University Law School where thanks to the videoconferencing equipment in E115 here, watch, listen to and particpate in class.
New Technology Available in the Classrooms
Date: 12/07
In E115, there is now a Tandberg Media Place. Faculty can connect their laptops and project content, use a document camera, play videos and DVDs and VIDEOCONFERENCE!! In E117, there is a Smard Board 3000i. Faculty can connect their laptops and project content, use a document camera, play videos and DVDs and ANNOTATE this content.
More Professors Are Blogging
Date: 11/07
Professor Mary Lynch has started a blog called "Best Practices in Legal Education" where professors can comment on how the book Best Practices in Leal Education by Roy Stuckey is being used by law schools around the country.
For her Introduction to Lawyering class, Professor Rosemary Queenan has written a blog entitled "Under The Robes."
Professor Patty Salkin continues to post daily on her Law of the Land blog with over 200 subscribers and almost 20,000 hits since August.
Albany Law School Participates in Local Technology Group Conference
Date: 10/07
The Capital District Educational Technology Group (CDETG) is holding a conference at the Albany College of Phartmacy on October 9, 2007. (check out www.cdetg.org/meeting.html). Law Professor Daniel Moriarty and Instructional Technologist Darlene Cardillo will be presenting on "Using Clickers in the Law School Classroom", in addition to others from local colleges and universities who will be presenting on Active Learning. The Campus Technology Journal will be highlighting the conference in their October issue
Albany Law School Joins the Blogosphere
Date: 08/07
Albany Law School is proud to have its first faculty blogger: Patty Salkin, Associate Dean and Director of the Government Law Center. Her blog entitled "Law of the Land" at lawoftheland.wordpress.com has received rave reviews and after only week it had received 502 hits!!
Albany Law Considers Participation in iTunes U
Date: 07/07
Albany Law School is exploring the benefits of establishing an iTunes U Service Agreement with Apple Computer. Apple developed the program to encourage higher education institutions to integrate iTunes technology into their academic efforts.
iTunes U provides a powerful way to manage a broad range of audio and video content and make it available quickly and easily to students, faculty and staff. Through iTunes U, users can download content to their Macs or PCs regardless of their location. They can then listen to and view content on their Mac or PC or transfer that content to iPod for listening or viewing on the go.
iTunes is available to the public at no charge from the Apple, Inc. web site. If Albany Law School establishes this agreement, its faculty and staff will have the iTunes application on their school computers and students will be required to download the software onto their laptops from Apple.
For more information, you may visit the iTunes U web page at: www.apple.com/education/solutions/itunes_u
Professor Cited on a Blog for Innovative Technology Use
Date: 06/07
Professor Norman T. Deutsch was featured on the Law School Inovations Blog as an "Innovator." Professor Deutsch has been experimenting with use of laptop computers as an integral part of teaching in his Contracts and Constitutional law classes. Sam Sullivan of Computer Resources set up a system whereby students with laptop computers can respond to Professor Deutsch's questions and hypos during class. Two web pages have been posted, one for the professor and one for the students. Students fill out a form and submit their responses. The responses, along with the students' names, appear on page that only the professor can view. He can then select one or more of these responses to be projected (anonymously) on a large screen for discussion and critique. This system permits more students to actively participate, gives the professor the opportunity to provide feedback to more students, and requires students to respond in writing.
Trial Practice Students Use Technology
Date: 04/07
The students at Albany Law School, the trial lawyers of tomorrow, need to be prepared to practice law in the 21st century. That means they must be able to use technology to engage the jury. For this reason, students in Prof. Lynch and Prof. Shanks' Trial Practice II classes were asked to use technology as part of an opening statement or closing argument. Students presented digital photos and evidence via powerpoint slides or by using a document camera. Click here to see them in action.
TWEN Gets a Facelift
Date: 03/07
TWEN, an online extension of the classroom at Albany Law School, where professors can create and manage courses, access and post course materials, create assignments that students can receive and submit, organize and participate in class forum discussions, administer online quizzes, etc. will have a new look as of July 2007. Some of the changes include: a streamlined log-on page, a flexible design for TWEN pages, new document pages with easier uploading and customization options, forums that are easier to read and customize, and more. Training to orient the faculty and adjuncts on the new TWEN design will take place this spring and summer.
Podcasting Takes Off
Date: 3/07
Recording events digitally so that they can be shared among faculty, staff and students has begun at Albany Law School. So far, we have recordings of the annual "Judges Speak" program from February 28, 2007, the keynote address from the Nanotech Symposium on March 1, 2007 and the FOIL panel discussion on March 6, 2007. We plan to continue to use this new technology in order to provide better access to our events. All the digital recordings can be found at: podcasts.classcaster.org .
Videoconferencing and Science and Technology Law Project
Date: 2/07
On February 9 and 16, 2007, videoconferences were held between students from Albany Law School's Science and Technology Law Center and Director, Annette Kahler and a team from Syracuse University, College of Law and NYS STLC Director, Ted Hagelin. Both groups are working concurrently on a project. Several more videoconferences will be held between these two groups as well as face-to-face meetings. In fact, February 16's face-to-face meeting was changed to a videoconference due to poor weather conditions in Syracuse.
Website Award
Date: 2/07
Albany Law School receives an award of Honorable Mention in the Category of Website: Institutional Home Page at the Annual District II Conference of the Council on the Advancement and Support of Education February 10-13, 2007. Congratulations to Helen Adams-Keane and her communications staff of Dave Singer, Nicole Soucy and Kris Ross for this honor.
Professors Use TWEN to Post Course Materials
Date: 1/07
For the Spring Semester, over 30 courses are providing Albany Law students with online access to their materials. Both adjunct professors and full-time professors are using TWEN (the Westlaw Education Network) to link to case law, statutes, law review articles, to create threaded discussion lists, appointment sign-up sheets, to post the course syllabus, course documents, assignments, PowerPoint slides, and other relevant content for their students.
First IP Videoconference
Date: 12/06
Prof. Gathii reports success in Albany Law School's first IP-based Videoconference. The videoconference was conducted with some colleagues in Toronto, Canada for about three hours on December 19, 2006. It was done over IP (Internet) instead of a leased ISDN line. Prof. Gathii reports that the sound and video was very good and is thankful that it saved him a long trip. Better yet, it cost us not another penny. As a result, Albany Law plans to conduct additional IP videoconferences in its Distance Learning Room (U343). Next year, the school hopes to expand its videoconferencing capability with new equipment in the Dean Alexander Moot Courtroom and in E 115.
Classroom Redesign Project
Date: 12/06
Albany Law School is committed to the use of technology in and outside the classroom to enhance teaching and learning. As a result, the school will be standardizing the technology in each room to facilitate easier use, faculty and student engagement, and promote innovation. All smaller classrooms (U200, U201, U214, E115, and E117) will have the capability for presentations (laptop or document camera), internet connections (wireless/wired), video and audio, and connecting to a portable video conference system. The larger rooms (U343, E116, U300, Room 200, Rochester, Mathew Bender, West Wing, East Wing, and Dean Alexander) will have all of the above in a fixed fashion as well as additional items to facilitate audio/video recording and distance learning. The classroom redesign project will begin next fall with "new" equipment in the Dean Alexander Moot Courtroom, E115, and E117.
New Instructional Technologist
Date: 10/06
Darlene Cardillo has been hired as the new Instructional Technologist to replace Patricia Baia. Darlene has her MA and MS from University of Albany and her coursework completed for her PhD in Instructional Technology from UAlbany. During the previous eight years, she was employed as the Director of Educational Technology for the schools in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany.
Clickers in the Classroom
Date: 10/06
This fall at Albany Law School, three professors, Greg Sergienko, Connie Mayer and Nancy Ota are using the CPS system with their first year students. The goal of this technology is to promote pre-class preparation and in-class participation. The CPS system uses clickers to get responses from all students, not just one which makes all students active participants. As a result, student learning is enhanced. Next semester, Dan Moriarty plans to use this innovative technology in his Criminal Law class.