Digital Usage in the Courtroom (Rough Draft)

Research question: How has technology, specifically digital usage, in the court room effected the way lawyers, judges, and juries function in the courtroom? What are some examples of these digital uses? And how are these digital uses being received and presented rhetorically? 

Things I would like your help on:

** This outline is what I am going to follow no matter the means of my presentation. I am not sure how to present my project…

Should I do a video, multimodal text, or power point? What suggestions do you have regarding this? Any other presentation types I should I be thinking about?

I know this is sketchy rough draft but how is the structure in the outline so far? Does it flow? Does it make sense? Is it missing anything?

Is it entertaining? I know this is not the most exhilarating topic but could you find interest in it? If it is not very interesting to you can you see it being interesting to other people? If it is not interesting, do you have any suggestions to help?

In section V,  I have 3 articles relating the project with 3 articles in class. Do you think these are the right articles? Any other suggestions?

Minor note…title suggestions?

** I have had trouble finding actual court cases that I can study. I have an appointment with my Business Law teacher to see if she can lead me in the right direction.

I. Introduction
             A. Attention Getter: (Some court case where digital rhetoric wins a big case)

            B. Why is this important to the Project? How does it relate?

            C. Research Question to be answered…

II. Explanation/ Examples 

A.     Three basic rules categories for digital usage in a courtroom

1.     Equipment that can be brought into the courtroom by a trial lawyer regardless of whether or not the courtroom is equipped or not. EX: Laptops, videos, sound recordings, etc…

2.     Equipment normally available and equipped for a courtroom. (some courtroom have better technology that others)

EX: Digital monitors in jury box, videoconferencing, better sound system, etc…

3.      Equipment that is used is specialized cases and is not funded by the judiciary.

EX: Virtual reality displays, holograms, etc…

** Insert graphic of levels of digital usage in courtroom.

III. Lawyers

** This section will be formatted similar to section IV but it will be about usage of the digital rhetorical strategies.

A.     Category 1: What example can be most helpful in this category? How are these technologies used in a rhetorical way? How does this differ from the modern way of doing things? Examples…

B.     Category 2: What example can be most helpful in this category? How are these technologies used in a rhetorical way? How does this differ from the modern way of doing things? Examples…

C.     Category 3: What example can be most helpful in this category? How are these technologies used in a rhetorical way? How does this differ from the modern way of doing things? Examples…

IV. Jury/ Judge

** This section will be formatted similar to section III but it will be about perception of the digital rhetorical strategies.

A.     Category 1: What example can be most helpful in this category? How are these technologies perceived? How does this differ from the modern way of judgment? Do these rhetorical strategies actually effect to outcomes of court cases? Examples…

B.     Category 2: What example can be most helpful in this category? How are these technologies used in a rhetorical way? How does this differ from the modern way of judgment? Do these rhetorical strategies actually effect to outcomes of court cases? Examples…

C.     Category 3: What example can be most helpful in this category? How are these technologies used in a rhetorical way? How does this differ from the modern way of judgment? Examples…

V. Application: Apply articles read in class to digital rhetoric in the courtroom. 

A. Grant- Davies: rhetoric, discourse, and exigence. Why is it important? Why is it needed? Why is it important and needed in the courtroom? What are some of the basic ways to use rhetoric using all 3 digital usage categories?

B. Hayles: how do we interoperate? How do these ideas of interpretation help/ hurt a layer in the courtroom?  How does if effect the judge/jury? Relate to each category of digital usage.

C. Fisher: the rise of technology lead toward the fall of rationality. How do these digital rhetorical tools help teach a jury/judge rationality? Is it the lawyer’s job to teach the jury/judge rational? How can each category of digital usage help or hurt a lawyer in terms of Fisher?

VI. Conclusion

A.     Restate research question and answer in 2-4 sentences.

B.     What is the future of digital usage and digital rhetoric in the courtroom?

Infographic Reflection

For my info-graphic I wanted to combine style, sound, pictures, and text into one informational piece. It took awhile for me to come up with my idea because I set those guidelines for myself. I ended up coming upon Ducks because I have been frequently duck hunting this year. There are so many types of ducks and different characteristics of ducks. As I young hunter I felt it was necessarily to be able to identify all the ducks that you shoot. his project was not only so I could have more information on this subject but also so any young hunter in the future can be informed as well.  

This project was a lot different then all of the other projects this year because I came into it with high hopes and a plan. The other projects were more of a "lets see what I can do" type of project. I wanted to have picture of both sexes of he Duck with the type of quack it made, along with the characteristics of color and size. I feel I did a pretty good Job at this except that Microsoft word gave me a template and would not let me falter on it very much. It would not let me change the typlate to two pages and It would not let me add sound. his was a very big problem for me but a that point in my project there was nothing I could do. 

In the future I would build my info graphic from the ground up. I do not think it is hard to add our own text boxes, colors, and pictures, This would give me more freedom and the ability to have as much sound as I please. Overall I had a good time doing this project. I had the best time researching a learning about my topic. 

Virtual Reality Morphing into Actuality

It is obvious that kids are playing a lot of video games; there has to be a way to make all this time they are spending into positivity for society. In my opinion there are two ways of doing this:

1.     Virtual control of an important task like farming, teaching, etc.. For example the games the McGonigal developed that she presented toward the end of her Ted Talks; the game of survival skills in a gas shortage, or developing social sustainability in Africa. Another example of this is the Farm game talked about in Priebatsch talked about in his Ted Talks. These examples can lead to players playing a game and not realizing that in some way they are benefiting society.

2.     Individual virtual reality leading to shaper social, mental, and physical skills. According to McGonigal there are 4 basic skills that can be learned from any game urgent optimism, weaving a social fabric (like someone better after playing) blissful productivity ( happily working hard),  epic meaning.  Once you have mastered these 4 basic skills then you become a super empowered hopeful individual, capable of changing the word.

One ability a video game has that can never be transferred over to reality is the ability to start over. In the above first example above there is no room for failure. Any game with a higher purpose becomes reality not a game. For example if you are helping to support social innovation in Africa by playing that game made by McGonigal. If you are the best player and everyone looks at your work and it is actually used in the real world then does that not just become work? Lets just say this African game takes a hold and people start paying it all over the world. Africa then is some how innovating socially as a society. What happens when the next game comes out? And people start losing interest in the African game? McGonigal says it best at the end when she says “people use games to escape everything that is un-satisfying in real life.” When the things that are un satisfying in life are becoming the games themselves, then game are just becoming more like reality. Why can’t we just help Africa socially stabilize? Because not a lot of people care…Just because someone is playing it virtually doesn’t mean that somehow it makes them care. People want to escape reality when they play games. As much potential as there is for positivity to come out of hours spent gaming, there is no immediate thirst for gamers to change what they are doing.  I can’t see a World of World Craft player to some how shift to a game made by McGonigal.