Abstract

Connecting Courtrooms to Classrooms is an educational partnership between the Milwaukee County Court System and the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). Its purpose is to help middle school students understand the role that the court system plays in the lives of the citizens of Milwaukee. Thirteen judges have adopted students from seven Milwaukee schools to build a relationship through face-to-face meetings, email, videoconferencing, and online discussion. Students will master social studies standards through: their course of study in the traditional classroom, real life contact with the judge as a resource, the courtroom as their virtual classroom, and the teacher as a guide. Outcomes will include a concrete understanding of the judicial branch of government and the law for the students, a personal relationship between the judges and the schools they are connected to, and a mentoring partnership between the judges and the students themselves.

Introduction

The current school year, 2002-2003, has been a pilot year for this project. Seven schools and thirteen judges have begun the process of building relationships, creating a course of study, and collaborating in a unique way to support the achievement of the middle school students. This partnership between the county court system and the school system in Milwaukee is a creative way to connect community members - the judges, and real life environments - the courtrooms, in the educational process of teaching students about the judicial branch of government, and the process of law.

Description of Process

During the 2001-2002 school year, Susan Simkowski, Instructional Technology Specialist for MPS, experienced a day in the courtroom shadowing a judge at the Milwaukee County Courthouse. From that experience, an idea was born that students would be more motivated to learn about the judicial system if they were able to experience it firsthand as a learning environment. Judges Jeffrey Wagner and Carl Ashley were immediately interested in the project as a way to create positive interaction between adolescent aged students and the court system. With approval from Chief Judge Michael Skwierawski, and the MPS administration, the project began its planning phases.

Seven interested schools met with the two lead judges during the spring of 2002 to determine the best way to implement the plan. It was decided that students would need some type of overview to introduce them to the court system. The production of a video was selected to introduce the Milwaukee County Court System to student peers. Seventh and eighth grade students used four digital video cameras to gather about nine hours of film. The students worked to edit and produce the 16-minute video focused on introducing the partnership between MPS and the courts, while highlighting the many career opportunities available in the justice system. Meanwhile, judges from both the Circuit Courts in downtown Milwaukee and the Children's Court Center were recruited to participate in this project.

By fall of 2002, the project had been defined and the pilot year began. Schools participating include Audubon Middle School, Bell Middle School, Hartford University School, Milwaukee Education Center, Muir Middle School, Steuben Middle School, and Wisconsin Conservatory of Lifelong Learning. Judges Ashley, Butler, Donald, Kremers, Kuhnmuench, Lamelas, Malmstadt, Martens, Sankovitz, Wagner, and White all agreed to participate by creating a relationship with a specific school.

Students viewed the introductory video to kick off the project and then began to study monthly topics related to the judicial system. The emphasis on relationship building between the students and the judges pushed participants to think outside of the box regarding the way that learning would take place. Judges made their first contact by visiting the schools and meeting the students in their own environment.

To allow for more continuous contact that takes into account the busy schedule of the judges, students have viewed the courtroom in action by connecting via videoconferencing from their classrooms to their judge's courtroom. The students experience the real life lessons of the courtroom and have the opportunity during court recess to have real time conversations with the judge, asking questions about what they observed and clarifying both process and human consequences of the law.

The technical piece of making this happen is simple. The Milwaukee County Courthouse uses ISDN for its video connections. MPS uses video over IP. Normally, these two types of video technology cannot speak directly to each other. A Polycom Accord MCU/Bridge at the School Technology Support Center performs the transcoding necessary to allow the two sites to see and hear each other. Schools preschedule the time frame set aside for the conference. The video contact at the courthouse, Mike Pook, calls into the MPS bridge; the school connects to the bridge via IP, and without having to leave their classroom, students are viewing the law at work. The real time connection also allows the judge and the students to have discussions before and/or after watching the court proceedings.

Another form of contact is provided in the UW System's Dot.edu web course
management system, Prometheus. On this web site, students and judges connect
virtually to explore topics such as "Juveniles Tried as Adults," "DNA, the Death
Penalty and State's Rights," and "Ask the Judge." Through asynchronous chatting,
students tap into the expertise of their judge when and where it is convenient for each
of them. Because the site is available from any computer connected to the World Wide Web, students can log on to discuss the law from home, school, or even the public library. Some students have even personally emailed their judge to ask questions about legal issues they are studying or cases that involve their friends and family. Students have also inquired about how they too could become a judge, receiving information about years of college and experience needed to prepare for this role.

Lessons Learned

One of the court system's objectives was to help students understand that the courts are really a place of service to the citizens. Many possibilities beyond punitive consequences are offered by the courts. As students have built a connection, both electronically and personally, with the judges, their opinions and perceptions about the work of the courts has matured and expanded. After viewing the court proceedings via videoconference, a group of students wrote to the two judges connected to their class, "Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us before court this morning, and for allowing us to observe court proceedings. We were impressed with the amount of respect shown to all defendants by every member of the court." Judge Kuhnmuench responded, "I'm glad that all of you recognized that Judge Kremers and I are respectful to everyone who comes into our courtroom. Being respectful and kind to everyone who uses our courts is one of the most important jobs a judge must do. A judge must be respectful to everyone, including the defendants that appear before us, because respect is a two-way street and if we want to be respected for the important work that we do, we must also remember to be respectful to the people that appear before us."

Another lesson we learned is that it is easy to plan the glitzy portion of the project, such as the use of videoconferencing, email, chatting, and field trips. Much of our current effort is focused on writing strong, age appropriate curriculum that makes the connection between the state standards and the lessons learned from this exciting connection. The excitement of the personal contact with the reality of the system provides strong motivation and enthusiasm from students whose natural curiosity pushes them to learn more about what they are experiencing. The ultimate goal is for these experiential lessons to translate to greater understanding of higher level concepts of government, higher achievement scores, and a better chance for our students to become successful and involved citizens.

Conclusions

The access to new and convenient forms of technology has broken down the barriers that prevented a project like this from succeeding in the past. Formerly, courthouse outreach was limited to an occasional visit from a group of students to the courtroom to observe and if they were lucky, have a discussion with the judge over lunch. This project opens up the concepts of time and space to allow the judges to interact with students from their home at any time of the day or night via their modem. It eases the cost of buses and the time involved in a field trip by allowing the students to turn to the television in their classroom to watch a trial or have a discussion with a judge in his chambers. It creates an ongoing educational opportunity that allows the time needed to make these concepts real by connecting them to current events, to the course of study in the classroom, and to the actual experiences of the students. Viewing the justice system at work and interacting with the judges far exceeds the lessons that could be taught in any textbook series alone. Connecting "courtrooms to classrooms" has become a shining example of how technology integrated where appropriate into a challenging curriculum can blur the division between the school and the community to create education for life, unobstructed by walls, clocks, or miles.

This article was first published in DESIEN March, 2003 and is reprinted with permission of Instructional Communications Systems. http://www.uwex.edu/disted/desien

 

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