Thing 18 - Jing / screen capture / podcasts (making and following them)

Law library podcasts?

Wow - even including the postponed Thing 17, we don't have many 'Things' left! Can't believe how quickly time is passing...

I have to say, I am really intrigued by Jing - I had NO IDEA that making a visual demo of, say, a particular website, was something that could be done so easily. I don't have a microphone so I cannot do anything with audio, but if we were allowed to incorporate that into the law library, I strongly believe that it would give a lot of value to the fee-earners. There are so many databases that we have to give the same training on throughout the year. Sometimes lawyers just want a refresher - if they have used the resource before, then they just want a reminder of the functionality to ensure they are getting the best out of it. Then there are others who are completely unfamiliar with some resources, so we are starting from scratch. I really do think that there is a lot of scope for us creating demonstrations for at least one of those categories of users - perhaps the refresher training. It is something that the fee-earners could watch at their desk as well, which would be far easier than trying to pin them down to a time for us to come and see them. (You have no idea how good it would be to alleviate that side of things - I have been known to spend weeks hounding certain fee-earners to commit to a short training session!)

I think the only problem would be convincing IT of the merits of this software...


Podcasting
Yet again this is something I was woefully ignorant of. I did pretty much know what they were, but I have never investigated them, only heard people talking about them. Also my iPod is so old that I wasn't even sure it would be set up to handle podcasts!! From a personal point of view, I don't really see the appeal - I am a strictly music kind of girl when I am commuting to work/walking about, and I just don't like the idea of having to concentrate on what a person is saying. Call me lazy but...!

That having been said, the series of podcasts that Maria mentions by the Careers Group - University of London, does sound like it could be interesting from a professional development of view. I do see why it is like an easy way of keeping up with things, because you are definitely using your time on trains etc much better than someone like me who just listens to endless music!

With regard to using podcasts in our workplace, unlike the screencast videos, I am less convinced of the merits of podcasting in the law library. I really don't see any need for this - nor can I see any fee-earners ever taking to the concept. I don't think it would make sense for any of the training we do. Perhaps it would be good as a standard introduction to our department and all that we do - but we do that in a new person's first week at the firm anyway. I don't think a podcast would add more to what we do already in this case.


Conclusions
Definitely found this week's Thing very enjoyable and interesting. It's great to be introduced to more tools, particularly ones that I had no idea existed OR just hadn't bothered to ever explore. And while I am not convinced of the benefits of podcasting myself, I can see why some people find it a great way of taking in information on the move.

I am really excited about the discovery of Jing, and would definitely like to broach it with my managers, to see if they think there is capacity for using it. Watch this space...