Courtroom Preparation and Technology

1. Presentation style. Using your presentation video recording as a model, develop a set of specific approaches for making the most of presentation opportunities. The variety of approaches to using presentation technology can vary widely, as we see in the Fortune magazine article, Stark Choices at the First Vioxx Trial. The attorney for the plaintiff presented simple and emotional stories that strongly contrasted with Merck's appeals to colorless reason. More on this story from Cliff Atkinson, Beyond Bullets.

We will use the July 8, 2008 article "Peaks and Valleys of PowerPoint Presentation" from Law Technology News as a the basis for a class demonstration and discussion of presentation techniques to emulate and those to avoid.

1. Exercise: re-purpose material for different uses and to create a common design theme
2. Exercise: use audio effectively in a PowerPoint presentation
3. Exercise: use video effectively in a PowerPoint presentation
4. Demonstration: add narration to a PowerPoint presentation

2. Information management. Developing self-sufficiency, or learning how to learn, are two important skills for maintaining and expanding your professional knowledge and technical skills. This course won't be able to teach you everything you'll ever need to know about working with technology. Instead, the goal is to teach you how to find information when you need it and to analyze the information that you find. We'll examine the web in the context of multimedia learning and "Web 2.0" or "pull" technologies. Other sources of information are help from the Help menu within a program, printed resources, and online reference sites.

Exercises we will discuss and, where practical, complete in class.

1. Subscribe to a free publication such as Law Technology News. Note that many publications offer the choice of print or digital subscriptions.
2. Subscribe to a free blog (sometimes referred to as an RSS feed) such as FindLaw's Common Law site. To do this, you will need a blog subscription manager (sometimes referred to as an RSS news aggregator or feed reader). Examples include Google Reader, Google home page, My Yahoo!, and BlogLines.
3. Subscribe to a podcast, such as UD's Consulting on Demand.
4. Manage and expand your bookmarks using Del.icio.us [Alternative: Google Sync your bookmarks across computers]
5. Get Google to tell you when new information is published about topics that interest you using Google Alerts.
6. A quick refresher on tips for getting more precise results from Google, based on Informit's Ten Tips for Smarter Google Searches. Ready to try doing something different with Google? Read "Top 10 Obscure Google Search Tricks".
7. E-mail advice, for reading on your own: Do E-Mail Right and Five Fast E-mail Productivity Tips. Examples to avoid: pass-along e-mail and very large attachments. For a humorous reminder and related anecdotes, visit Carrie Newcomer's Don't Push Send site (performance shown here on the right).

3. Technology tool kits. Define the components for the technology toolkit you need to operate successfully and efficiently.

4. Review of earlier sessions. Are all of the concepts from part 1 and part 2 and part 3 and part 4 clear? Other questions and answers are here.

5. Courtroom technology overview.

• digital cameras for still photos and motion video
• transportable memory options
• document camera [usage tips]
• tablet PC technology
• distributed and projected video
• Delaware State Courts information:
•      Courtroom conduct
•      Courtroom hardware
•      Courtroom software
•      Electronic courtroom instructions

6. Looking forward. Plan ahead by understanding what you can expect in the next 1-2 years in personal computing and technologies relevant to being a professional Legal Nurse Consultant. We'll also take a look at the steps involved in creating a professional presence on the web.

1. Recommendation: Obtaina domain name.
2. Recommendation: Choose a web host service provider.
3. Exercise: Create a basic web page using Google pages.
4. Exercise: Create your PDF files from Office 2007 for placement on your web site.
5. Demonstration: Transferring your web site files to your web host.
6. Discussion: Publicizing your web site.
7. Discussion: Maintaining your web site.

Other technologies on the near horizon:

1. Discussion: evolving operating systems: Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows 9, Apple OS X Leopard, Apple OS X Snow Leopard
2. Demonstration: Microsoft interactive command reference guides illustrate tool positions in the Office 2007 interface by clicking on their previous location in Office 2003. Guides require Adobe Flash Player 7.0 or later to run.
   1. Excel 2003 to 2007
   2. PowerPoint 2003 to 2007
   3. Word 2003 to 2007
3. Demonstration: New Tablet PC technology and Microsoft Table, the future of tablet computing
4. May 2008: University of Mississippi graduates first U.S. space lawyer (Can space LNCs be far behind?)
5. July 2008: Apple iPhone 3G and similar devices: what are the implications for professional electronic communications?