law schools

How Will Blockchain Technology Affect Law Firms? [Arsic]

On 08/25/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, emerging technologies, law schools, Legal operations, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, society, by Daniel Christian

How Will Blockchain Technology Affect Law Firms? — from legalreader.com by Aleksandra Arsic
Blockchain and cryptocurrencies are here to stay. The technology might yet still be new when compared to the Internet as a whole, but it has already proved it’s ready for wider usage.

Excerpt:

With the dawn of the 21st century, many new and exciting technologies arrived, promising to take off the workload, streamline day-to-day operations, and improve finances. One of the hottest innovations in recent years has been the invention of blockchain.

While it may have started as a way to keep a ledger of Bitcoin transactions, blockchain has grown way beyond that. It has been adopted by many industries, including the legal. But, what is it, and how can it be implemented in a law firm environment? Let’s find out.

Also see:

What has (legal) AI ever done for you? — from legal.thomsonreuters.com

You’re pretty familiar with artificial intelligence and machine learning in your everyday life. When you use a navigation app to see the fastest route to your destination – AI. When you ask your smart home device what time your favorite store opens – AI. And when your streaming device suggests shows you might like – yes, that’s AI, too.

While AI is becoming more and more mainstream in our homes, it’s also making its way into our jobs. You may be wondering what AI-enhanced legal technology can do for you and your law firm. Here are a few ways AI can (or already has) further advance your firm’s reputation and success.

So, what does AI look like for law firms?

New Study Reveals the Full Extent of the Access to Justice Crisis in America [Montague]

On 08/25/2021, in Access to Justice (A2J), law schools, legal reform, legislatures / government / legal, society, sociology, United States, by Daniel Christian

New Study Reveals the Full Extent of the Access to Justice Crisis in America — from iaals.du.edu by Kelsey Montague

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

“The findings of this survey,” says Dr. Martin Gramatikov, Measuring Justice Director at HiiL, “indicate what our research has historically shown—that oftentimes the more developed a nation is, the more justice needs exist in the population, and the greater the challenge of access to justice for all. While it is widely understood that there is an access to justice problem in the United States, the full extent of the justice crisis has been less clear, until now. With the results of this survey, and IAALS’ focus on evidence-based reform, we can begin to truly understand the scope of the problem, and work towards the changes needed to address this justice gap.”

On an annual basis, that translates to 55 million Americans who experience 260 million legal problems. A considerable proportion of these problems—120 million—are not resolved or are concluded in a manner which is perceived as unfair. This study shows that access to justice challenges are significant and pervasive.

10 Ways You Can Use Podcasts in Your Course to Engage Students [Honeycutt]

On 08/25/2021, in 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adjunct faculty, colleges, community colleges, creativity, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, education technology, engagement / engaging students, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, lifelong learning, multimedia, online learning, online media, participation, podcasting, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, remote teaching and learning, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, tools, youth, by Daniel Christian

10 Ways You Can Use Podcasts in Your Course to Engage Students — from barbihoneycutt.com by Barbi Honeycutt, Ph.D.

Excerpt:

Have you used podcasts in your courses yet? If not, you might want to consider it! Podcasts can be an excellent tool to add to your lesson to enhance a message, present more in-depth perspectives, and offer a different medium for students to engage with the course content.

And, podcasts are popular! There are more than 630,000 podcasts representing a variety of topics: current issues, education, writing, research, science, leadership, politics, management, business, skill development, hobbies, etc. The list just goes on and on.

I’m almost positive there is at least one episode in one podcast somewhere you could integrate into your course. And if there isn’t, then you and your students could create one!

How soon/long before #telelegal has its own category here as well? [Christian]

On 08/19/2021, in communications, Daniel S. Christian, ideas, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, platforms, society, United States, vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts and law firms, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Interesting list re: #telehealth and #zoom –>https://t.co/cDDkTO9zSu

DC: How soon/long before #telelegal has its own category as well?#videoconferencing #communications #emergingtechnologies #Internet #telecommunications #platforms

— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) August 19, 2021

What are the unintended consequences of #emergingtechnologies? [Christian]

On 08/18/2021, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Daniel S. Christian, law schools, legal reform, legislatures / government / legal, pace of change, policy, society, the downsides of how people use tech, by Daniel Christian

DC: At times, I wonder…what are the unintended consequences of #emergingtechnologies? Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. That thought came to my mind when I saw this article: https://t.co/vngu9hs4Mb

— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) August 18, 2021

From DSC:
Yet another example of the need for the legislative and legal realms to try and catch up here.

The legal realm needs to try and catch up with the exponential pace of technological change

Jeremiah 9:23-24

On 08/17/2021, in Access to Justice (A2J), faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, relationships, religion, society, by Daniel Christian

Jeremiah 9:23-24 New International Version — from biblegateway.com

23 This is what the Lord says:

“Let not the wise boast of their wisdom
or the strong boast of their strength
or the rich boast of their riches,
24 but let the one who boasts boast about this:
that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,” declares the Lord.

Many Americans aren’t aware they’re being tracked with facial recognition while shopping — from techradar.com by Anthony Spadafora
You’re not just on camera, you’re also being tracked

Excerpt:

Despite consumer opposition to facial recognition, the technology is currently being used in retail stores throughout the US according to new research from Piplsay.

While San Francisco banned the police from using facial recognition back in 2019 and the EU called for a five year ban on the technology last year, several major retailers in the US including Lowe’s, Albertsons and Macy’s have been using it for both fraud and theft detection.

From DSC:
I’m not sure how prevalent this practice is…and that’s precisely the point. We don’t know what all of those cameras are actually doing in our stores, gas stations, supermarkets, etc. I put this in the categories of policy, law schools, legal, government, and others as the legislative and legal realm need to scramble to catch up to this Wild Wild West.

Along these lines, I was watching a portion of 60 minutes last night where they were doing a piece on autonomous trucks (reportedly to hit the roads without a person sometime later this year). When asked about oversight, there was some…but not much.

Readers of this blog will know that I have often wondered…”How does society weigh in on these things?”

Along these same lines, also see:

The NYPD Had a Secret Fund for Surveillance Tools — from wired.com by Sidney Fussell
Documents reveal that police bought facial-recognition software, vans equipped with x-ray machines, and “stingray” cell site simulators—with no public oversight.

DC: This article has a much wider audience than you might think!

On 08/13/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), emerging technologies, experimentation, future, game-changing environment, generational differences, law schools, legislatures / government / legal, marketing/social marketing, publishing, textbooks, by Daniel Christian

We Wondered If NFTs Could Change Education, So We Decided to Sell This Article on the Blockchain — from edsurge.com by Jeffrey R. Young

Excerpts:

These digital tokens can essentially contain digital contracts outlining the rights on how the buyer and creator can use the work in the future.

Here’s where the smart contract part of NFTs comes in: If the person who buys one of Aguirre’s NFTs decides to sell it in the future, Aguirre gets a cut of that secondary sale—a 10 percent royalty that’s automatically paid back to her virtual wallet. In fact, she will get a royalty every time one of her NFTs are resold, even if that happens years later.
…
For an artist, that’s a revolutionary shift in how much control and compensation can be gained from a piece of creative work.

From DSC:
At a bare minimum…this is a highly relevant and interesting article for those involved with the legal realm as well as those involved with the worlds of education and publishing. For example, in terms of law schools, those professors who are involved with teaching property and/or contracts may want to pay extra close attention to the topic of this article.

And for Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) of all shapes and sizes, listen to this item from Mark Cuban:

“The next best application is textbooks,” he responded to my email query. “They allow digital textbooks to be easily resold but more importantly they allow publishers and authors to collect royalties for every resale. Forever.”

But it doesn’t stop there, as you can tell from this article:

Tom Brady NFT’s Instantly Sells Out on DraftKings Marketplace

For those interested in this topic, also check out:

Could NFTs Play a Role in Education? — from edsurge.com by Jeffrey R. Young

Thinking Full-Speed Ahead at Instructure’s Future of Education Collaborative — from campustechnology.com by Mary Grush
A Q&A with FIU Online’s Maikel Alendy

Excerpt:

Maikel Alendy: Our director of learning design and innovation at FIU Online, Gaby Alvarez, likes to use a word that I think was foundational to our strategy to navigate learning through the pandemic — that word is ecosystem.

Our approach, like many, was to leverage Canvas and Zoom, but we had a few processes in place that gave us really a big head start. First, we had piloted Zoom years before and had already rolled out Zoom Pro accounts for all FIU faculty and students. Of course, the initial adoption was nominal. Usage was fine for “BC” (Before COVID) instruction. Still, it was helpful, once in the pandemic, that we already had support materials and some awareness of the tools.

Traveling down the road as a metaphor for the terms “learning objectives” & “learning outcomes” [Christian]

On 08/09/2021, in adjunct faculty, adult learning, colleges, community colleges, Daniel S. Christian, education, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, learning, Learning Experience Design, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, universities, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
As I was traveling down one of the local roads the other day, the thought reoccurred to me …that driving along a road is such an apt metaphor for this idea of using the terms “learning objectives” and “learning outcomes.”

I’m going down the same road.

I can look ahead to see where I want to go. But that doesn’t mean that I’m for sure going to get there. That’s where I’m heading and I hope that I will get there, but several things will need to go right.

OR…I can look in the rearview mirror of my car and see where I’ve already been….what’s already taken place. I’ve already passed such and such a point (or points).

I can see where I've been by looking in the rearview mirror -- or I can look ahead to see what I'm traveling towards

That is, I can’t talk about learning outcomes if I’m just getting on the road. At that point, I can talk about where I hope to go (i.e., my learning objectives), but I can’t talk about my learning outcomes until I’ve been traveling for a while.

Where this gets muddy/tricky is when we discuss entire programs. Then the term “learning outcomes” is often used. I get that — it makes sense at that level of things. But if we are talking about an individual course as seen in Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard Learn, etc…then it makes more sense to me to continue to use the phrase “Learning Objectives.”

The Mental Health Factor: Accounting for the Emotional Toll of the Pandemic [Mahr at americanbar.org]

On 08/05/2021, in health, law schools, legislatures / government / legal, by Daniel Christian

The Mental Health Factor: Accounting for the Emotional Toll of the Pandemic — from americanbar.org by Laura Mahr
Keys to a successful return-to-the-office plan include flexible choices, robust resourcing and resilience training with an eye on mental health.

Excerpt:

While no one has a map that can circumnavigate all return-to-office planning errors, we do have insight into one key area that would be remiss to overlook in your firm’s plan: mental health. In addition to exacerbating pre-existing mental health issues, the pandemic caused increased chronic stress, anxiety, depression and trauma, research shows. Therefore, in addition to planning the logistics of a safe return to the office, also think about the impact of the past year on your workforce’s mental health. Considering the emotional toll and possible post-traumatic stress of the pandemic on your workforce will enable your firm to make available new resources. Targeted resources will support all team members in their performance efficacy; they will also provide additional help for those who may be struggling to integrate yet another change.

What Is Instructional Scaffolding? — from edtechreview.in by Saniya Khan

Excerpt:

Scaffolding is a bridge used to build on what the students already know to get to something they do not know. If the scaffold is properly administered, it will act as a facilitator, not an enabler” (Benson, 1997).

The process of Scaffolding is based on Lev Vygotsky’s concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). This is the distance between what children can do by themselves and the next learning when they can be helped to achieve with competent assistance. Vygotsky said, “children who can perform their tasks at a particular cognitive level in cooperation and collaboration with others and with adults will be able to perform at a higher level. And this difference between the two levels is the child’s Zone of Proximal Development”. He defined scaffolding instruction as the “role of teachers and others in supporting the learner’s development and providing support structures to get to the next stage or level.”

What doors does this type of real-time translation feature open up for learning? [Christian]

On 08/04/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adult learning, Africa, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, Australia, blended learning, bots, business, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, distance education, education, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, faculty/staff, flipping -- inverted learning, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, Hyflex learning, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, languages and translation, law schools, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, Natural Language Processing (NLP), new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, platforms, presentations, professional development, remote teaching and learning, smart classrooms, social learning / networks, society, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, telepresence, tools, training / L&D, transmedia, TVs, UK, United States, universities, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts and law firms, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, vocational / trades, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace, by Daniel Christian

DC: What doors does this type of real-time translation feature open up for learning?https://t.co/beOXFjGZs9 #learningfromthelivingclassroom #education #K12 #highereducation #training #learning #lifelonglearning #globallearning #languages #translation https://t.co/TV5InkWHwn pic.twitter.com/MGblMzQbBL

— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) August 4, 2021

From DSC:
For that matter, what does it open up for #JusticeTech? #Legaltech? #A2J? #Telehealth?

Oregon Considering 2 Alternates to Bar Exam for Attorney Licensing

On 07/30/2021, in change, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legislatures / government / legal, United States, by Daniel Christian

Oregon Considering 2 Alternates to Bar Exam for Attorney Licensing — from lawandmore.typepad.com

Excerpt:

“In early July, the Oregon State Supreme Court took a major step in providing potential new ways to gain licensure as an attorney in the state. More specifically, it held a public hearing to consider a Oregon State Bar Board of Bar Examiners proposals to add two new ways to gain attorney licensure in the state: i) an experience-based learning pathway; and ii) a supervised practice pathway.” – Natalie Runyon, Thomson Reuters, July 23, 2021.

Learning Ecosystems

New Study Reveals the Full Extent of the Access to Justice Crisis in America [Montague]

How soon/long before #telelegal has its own category here as well? [Christian]

Jeremiah 9:23-24

Many Americans aren’t aware they’re being tracked with facial recognition while shopping [Spadafora]

The Mental Health Factor: Accounting for the Emotional Toll of the Pandemic [Mahr at americanbar.org]

Oregon Considering 2 Alternates to Bar Exam for Attorney Licensing

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