Guest Blog Post by:
Cathy Kennedy
Legal Adjunct Instructor
Globe University
I love my laptop. I truly do. The thought of having another
piece of hardware to deal with was a bit overwhelming at first. After
purchasing my iPad, I used it to watch Netflix and played a few games, and kept
it on my nightstand. (I really enjoy Word Jewel, and highly recommend it.) However,
I could already do all of these things on my laptop. So why need an iPad? I
looked at some apps on my iPad but wasn’t really sure what to do with them
initially. I mean doesn’t my laptop have everything I could possibly want? Quickly
I learned that the answer to this is no.
I spent some time perusing some
applications on my iPad for my legal courses, and I found some really
interesting apps. One in particular was
iJuror. I was looking for something for my course unit on jury selection. As I
explored iJuror, I became enthusiastic at the prospect of using this in my
courses. As I played around with the app, I found that I could hand pick my
jury, use courtroom graphics, and place my jurors in a jury box, after filling
out information for each juror. I also had the option of entering juror
demographics, create custom jury questions, and make challenges to prospective jurors.
When all of the jury was selected, the information could be e-mailed to other
colleagues (or the instructor) in this case. Students could use this app free
for 24 hours, which is really all they would need to complete the task. After
that I believe it was $1.99 for longer use.
As I unearthed new apps and sampled them, I was eager to include these as an
option for students to incorporate into their discussion board posts; with the
hope that they would share ideas for some of the applications they tried. In
many of my courses I added an “iPad Unit” for students to examine if they wished. It
really was not difficult once I took the time to peruse the legal apps. I can
visualize in the legal world how
paralegals and legal
assistants could use
iPads to keep
current in the law, and how very useful it could be for trials or depositions.
Instead of going through a stack of papers, apps would be a great way to keep
track of transcripts, and this is something wonderful to share with students as
they can bring this technology to their firms. Many lawyers share .pdf files, and
there are some free sites that allow for importing and sharing .pdf files, which
include voice notes; directing the
paralegal or legal assistant what to do with annotated documents (School Notes
Pro). There are also many blogs that discuss how paralegals can use iPads in
their firms, including: Tablet Legal, iPad Notebook, the iPad Lawyer,
iPad4Legal, iLawPad. If you do some touring of apps, you are sure to find
similar blogs on apps in your area of practice.
I am now happy to report that I do use my iPad for much more
than Netflix now! There are many free apps to visit and incorporate into my
courses. Students can apply these apps to enhance what they are learning, to
further their discussions, and will be able to enter a job with new skills that
they can share with their employers, making them more marketable.
