MediaNotes Users Group
MediaNotes Users' Group
MediaNotes provides students who are learning new skills an easy way to receive objective feedback on their recorded performances.
- Visit the CALI MediaNotes homepage to download MediaNotes, or get an overview of its features.
- Use this space to ask and answer questions, share best practices, and learn more about supporting law students' skills development.
Best practices wiki:
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Best practices wiki:
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Community Managers
Forum
Often you'll find yourself writing the same comments over and over again to different students. You can save significant time by creating a "Standard Comment" which you can customize for each student after inserting it into your event comments. Here's how:
- Open the Tag Manager in MediaNotes. In MediaNotes' menu, choose Tags > Tag Manager.
- If you've never used Tag Manager before, you will need to create a Tag Manager file. Give the file a name and save it somewhere convenient. Otherwise, open up an existing Tag Manager file.
New Technology Meets an Old Teaching Challenge: Using Digital Video Recordings, Annotation Software, and Deliberate Practice Techniques to Improve Student Negotiation Skills by Gerald R. Williams, Larry C. Farmer, and Melissa Manwaring
Check to make sure MediaNotes is set to play in sync
MediaNotes has three playback options: Sync, Loop, and Unlinked. You may be in Unlinked mode, in which case events won't automatically jump forward in sync with the video. Just click the button to the left of the "Rewind" button (numbered (2) in the picture below) to return to sync mode:

Check to make sure the video is properly formatted
If MediaNotes is not giving you the option to add new events, notes, or tags, but you are able to view an existing project's video and tags, you are probably using an expired trial version of the program. To activate these features, please get a license (free for law school professors, staff, and affiliates; $20 for students). You'll receive a license key by email.
Start up MediaNotes and to to the Help &rt; Register MediaNotes... menu option:
The official MediaNotes manual is full of basic help and instructions:
- For Instructors
- Getting Started
- Creating and Tagging Events
Resources
Role Simulation : "Ashley Paulsen" (Wills, Family)
Ashley Paulsen called this afternoon requesting an initial interview with you regarding a family dispute over a will and her desire to obtain permanent custody of her deceased brother’s children. About two months ago her brother and her brother’s wife were killed in a car accident leaving two small children, ages 5 and 7. There is a dispute between the brother’s family and the wife’s family as to how the estate should be divided and as to who should take custody of the children.
Role Simulation : "Steven Burton" (Tort, Personal Injury)
Steven Burton, the owner of P.J. Mack's, has called seeking your legal advice. Recently a child was injured in his store when a clothes rack collapsed. It is not entirely clear whether the child was climbing on the rack and caused it to tip over, or whether it was overloaded and fell as the child walked by. Either way, the child broke his arm and has apparently been emotionally affected by the incident. Steven wants the little boy to be taken care of, but he doesn’t want it to appear as if the accident was Steven’s fault.
Role Simulation : "Brian Wheeler" (Property / Contract)
Brian Wheeler, the president of the 5th Avenue Home Owner’s Association ("HOA"), has scheduled an appointment to meet with you to seek legal assistance. The HOA is having problems with both the housing developer and some of the fellow members who are delinquent on their HOA payments. He would like to discuss property and contract law issues with you.
Role Simulation : "Melinda Hill" (Property, Encroachment)
Melinda Hill, a resident of California, has scheduled an appointment to meet with you. Two years ago, she bought an acre of land in a private development in the Uintah Mountains, and has just realized that her neighbor is building a home that encroaches upon her property. The neighbor’s home is nearly complete. Ms. Hill would like to discuss her legal options at this point.
Role Simulation : "Eric Doe" (Patent)
Eric Doe, the CEO of Doe’s Cleans and Things (Doe’s), has scheduled an appointment to meet with you to seek legal assistance. A former employee of Doe’s, Matt Taylor, has started a competing business, Spotless, that manufactures and sells a cleaning solution that is identical to one that was first developed and marketed by Doe’s. Spotless also uses a product that is extremely similar to a patented product of Doe’s. Eric Doe would like to discuss possible actions that could be taken against Mr. Taylor and/or Spotless.
Role Simulation : "David Stott" (Employment Law)
David Stott, the CEO of Fast Glass in Reno, Nevada, has scheduled an appointment to meet with you to seek legal assistance. A former employee of Fast Glass, Curt Schilling, has started a competing business, Best Glass, near the Fast Glass store. At Best Glass, Curt has used Fast Glass’s client lists, has contacted current Fast Glass customers and is using some of Fast Glass’s sales techniques. When Fast Glass hired Curt, he signed a non-compete agreement, and David Stott would like to discuss possible actions that could be taken against Mr. Schilling.
Role Simulation : Jennifer Ranson (Employment Law)
Jennifer Ranson, formerly a financial consultant with Consolidated Financial Services, has scheduled an appointment to meet with you to seek legal assistance. On June 25, 2007, Jennifer’s employment with Consolidated was terminated and she believes the termination was unlawful. In addition, she has not been paid the full amount that she believes was due to her upon termination. She wishes to know what kind of recourse she has against Consolidated.
Role Simulation : "Craig Frame" (Contract Law)
Craig Frame called concerning a contractor that has stopped work on his residential landscaping project. He and his wife had entered into an oral agreement with Mr. Dorfman, a landscaper, to do the landscaping on both their front and back yard. Soon after receiving a substantial down payment, Mr. Dorfman disappeared. Meanwhile, Craig entered in to a contract to sell his house with a contingency that the yard work would be finished. Craig wants to know what he can do to recover the money.


Symptom: Video playback freezes and won't resume play until MediaNotes is shut down and restarted.
Context: The computer on which this is happening runs Windows XP. The computer uses Windows Media Player 11 (the version number matters) to handle the kind of video loaded in this project. (Generally, these are video files with the ".wmv" extension).