Fun with Demonstrative Evidence--Rats in the Courtroom

I read this story today, found it amusing, and thought I'd share the link with you.
http://www.complex.com/city-guide/2012/11/man-enters-new-york-courtroom-with-bag-full-of-dead-rats

Although the dead rats were not received in evidence, the man did prove his point and obtained the relief he was seeking.

The future of Advocacy Training? iPads and iPods and Podcasts!

Folks:

Visual aids as an effective teaching and learning tool are well known. See on this Blog Chris Behan's entry about Lonesome Dove (available here)

Another use of such aids is to reinforce some fundamentals for students by making sight and sound record that students can access as often as they want. Posted here is an example of a podcast that you could easily produce and distribute to students. I have produced several of these for use in trial advocacy courses. They allow the student to get a mini-lecture, see a demonstration and then hear a discussion about how to perform the skill correctly. I've also done mp3 podcasts as well.

This happens to be one of a series that is available through www.roseadvocacy.com, the website that accompanies the second edition of my trial advocacy book. I created it on a Macbook Pro using iMovies. You can get the same effect with any of a host of video editing programs available on a windows platform too.

It would be good to see and hear a few more such training aids on this blog so we all look forward to your posting them.

Enjoy!

Charlie

YouTube, Facebook etc - now integral for Teaching and Learning

One of the most fascinating, and frightening things about teaching this generation of students is their ease with technology. They are different in their approach to information gathering. This difference has been discussed in many educational arenas, but I wanted to talk for just a moment about hitting the student where they live - Youtube, facebook and other social sites. Most folks of my generation prefer to think of tweets as a sound that a bird makes. We don't feel a need to be connected 24/7 to everyone in our lives and prefer a different way of communicating. Such is not the case with many of our students. At Stetson I've played with online resources to assist the students in becoming better, and that has worked to some degree. It has not been perfect. I am now working on the 2nd edition of my trial ad book, cutting the final edits. I mean the edits to the videos and podcasts, not the edits to the book, which is long done. Here is an example of the type of stuff I've been working on:




Now this video clip is the result of 3 days of shooting, editing, modifying, converting, powerpointing and just plain hard work - it is also an awful lot of of fun. I've even started a YouTube channel to distribute this stuff. You can view it at www.youtube.com/user/TRIALADVOCACY . Now where did I put that microphone?.....

Forthcoming Blog Topics - Here's a sampling

We've just invited a number of distinguished advocacy teachers to join us in authoring this blog.

Possible topics for forthcoming blog entries from them include the following:

Innovative Teaching Techniques

Trial Teams and Competitions

Advocacy Scholarship

Course Design

Assessment and Grading

Critiquing Methodology

Lifelong Learning

Drills

Demonstrations

Intensive Advocacy Programs

Alumni Relations

Adjunct Relations

The Wisdom of Josh Karton