 The federal judicial system covers a lot of territory. In 1967, Congress created the Federal Judicial Center to be the federal court's agency for research, planning, and for orientation and continuing education of judges and employees of the federal courts. The center provides education through seminars, monographs, manuals, and instructional courses prepared at the center for use in courts around the country under the supervision of court employees specially trained by the center. Video and audio programs and computer-based interactive programs, what we call media programs, help the center to bring continuing education right into the courthouse, saving the time and money required for travel to distant seminar sites. An audio recording of a lecture at a center seminar allows a judge to listen to a lecture he or she couldn't attend. But media programs do more than simply substitute for attending a seminar. They can do things that traditional forms of education can't do. A video program, for example, can take the viewer directly into the courtroom or workplace for a demonstration or illustrate a point more precisely than the conventional blackboard or flip chart. Computer-based interactive programs let court employees test their knowledge as they proceed at their own pace. Media technology allows the center to keep judges and their staffs informed about major new developments in the law. And probably those matters either be abrogated because they have been supplanted or at least be checked to make sure they're not inconsistent. That could be a real problem because the national rule now provides for the waiver of the objection and you can have a local rule that covers the same subject matter but says nothing about a waiver of the objection. This received this center program on the December 1993 amendments to the federal rules of civil procedure within weeks after the rule changes went into effect. Justices of the Supreme Court and other court officials also use the center's media studio to prepare videotape remarks for conferences and seminars they can't attend. Here's a look at the kinds of video programs the center produces. Employees in clerk's offices need to learn how the federal courts operate and how their jobs fit into the larger picture. A series of center video programs fills a large part of that need. These orientation programs rely on dramatization as a learning tool. Let's see what she does with Ms. Atkins testimony about a second phone call for Mr. Mayweather. How long a phone call was it? Not that long. I'd say five minutes tops. You know, it was pure business. He just gave me the figures and that was it. When you testified at your deposition in this case last October, do you remember being asked this question and giving this answer? Question. Who took the phone call from Mr. Mayweather? Answer. I really don't remember. We were so busy then I think it might have been Alan. Yes. You were under oath then just as you are today. Yes. But today you say you took the call. That's right. Programs on the bankruptcy, criminal, civil and appellate processes follow hypothetical cases through the system. The programs are designed to help court employees better understand their jobs and the important role they play in the effective administration of justice. They convey basic information that supervisors in each court can supplement with their own training. Dramatizations are effective because they help viewers think about how to deal with an actual problem or situation, as in this center program for probation and pretrial services officers. I want to see you try. These officers are federal court employees who advise judges about whether to release criminal defendants before trial, how to sentence convicted offenders, and often must supervise offenders after sentencing and imprisonment. The program dramatizes some of the dangerous and difficult situations that officers encounter. What would you do? Another program follows a hypothetical case study to demonstrate some situations officers will face in supervising offenders. Some videos are included in packaged training courses that the center prepares for center trained personnel to administer in federal courts around the country. These packages contain lesson plans, study guides, quizzes, and in some cases center produced videos. These video components allow court managers and employees to observe problems they may encounter and to exchange views on how to handle them. Panel discussions promote a vigorous exchange of ideas on important issues of judicial administration and provide viewers with a variety of perspectives. Here, for example, four district judges who had served as magistrate judges share their views on how courts can use magistrate judges effectively. In this program that the center sends to newly appointed appellate judges, an informal exchange among four experienced judges helps to answer some of the many questions that a new judge may have about being a member of a multi-judge appellate court. Would you ask a devil's advocate question? I don't think a question asked simply to enlighten your colleagues is very helpful. We all know by the time we've had our second oral argument when Judge A. is asking a question just to tell me something. For some purposes and audiences, lectures are still the best way to transmit information. Many of the center's video programs are also lectures, but there is more to producing them than meets the eye. Simply recording a lecture as it is given in a seminar is relatively inexpensive, but the equipment might disrupt the seminar. More important, what looks good in a classroom might not look good on television. The better way is to prepare the lecture specifically for television. In fact, a lecture prepared specifically for video will often communicate the same information more effectively in less time. Producing such a lecture takes more effort, of course. Center staff work with the speaker prior to taping to prepare the lecture for television. It may take a whole day to shoot the footage for one 30-minute lecture and another two or three weeks to edit it, but the result is well worth the effort. We have thousands of Chapter 13 cases in Arkansas. Court shall hold a hearing. Compliance with this provision differs from court to court. The center's orientation programs for all federal trial judges rely heavily on a series of center-produced lectures. New federal trial judges must become familiar with many procedures and areas of the law that they didn't encounter in their former careers. The video lectures provide basic information, along with insights and advice from federal judges throughout the system, each chosen for mastery of a particular topic. These video lectures enable the center to schedule regional orientation seminars for small groups of five to twelve new judges soon after their nominations. The seminar format allows plenty of time for discussion, moderated by an experienced judge who can comment on the lectures and answer questions. This initial orientation is followed by a week-long seminar at the center's headquarters in Washington, D.C. Interviews are less formal than lectures and panel discussions, but they too can engage the viewer's interest. These interviews with three recently appointed district judges help new judges realize that the apprehension they may feel isn't unique, that others have gone through the same experience and survived. Every once in a while I am sitting in the courtroom and I feel this kind of inner self looking at myself and saying, what are you doing here? Audio programs are another center educational tool. Automobile tape decks and portable audio cassette players let judges and their staffs use otherwise idle time to listen to recordings of lectures of center seminars, edited versions of selected center publications, and even the soundtracks of center video programs. Interactive multimedia programs combine the benefits of audio and video with the convenience of personal computers to create individual instructional programs that court employees can work on at their own desks. In this center produced program on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, clerks working at their own pace can expand their knowledge of the rules and check their progress with periodic quizzes. The program also contains the text of all the civil rules and can be used as a reference tool. No matter what the format, educational media programs must be polished to capture the attention of today's visually sophisticated audiences. Federal Judicial Center media programs are primarily the work of experts with combined skills in federal court organization and procedure and dramatization. They determine which topics lend themselves to video or other media productions and design the programs. They work with the center's media production experts who are skilled at translating the information into a finished video or audio product. Center computer specialists work with media staff and with the center's education specialists in developing interactive training programs. Most of the audio and video production and post-production work is done in the center's media production center in the Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building. Judges and employees of the federal courts of the administrative office of the United States courts and the United States Sentencing Commission advise the center on its productions and appear in them. Their involvement makes the center's media programs a cooperative venture of the federal judicial center and the personnel of the judicial branch. While the center sends many of its media programs directly to the courts for them to keep, federal judges and federal court employees may also borrow center media programs, as well as commercially produced media programs through the center's Information Services Office. Programs available on loan through this media library are listed in the center's catalog of audio-visual materials. Users are asked to complete an evaluation form for most programs, thus providing feedback to the center. Producing educational media programs is like the educational process itself. Both are evolutionary. Improvement comes from experience, evaluation, and testing new ideas.