The Wired Classroom

Yesterday “Judge” Paul Steensland of the St. Louis County Library “Courts” presided over Trial By Wire, our mock trial over videoconference.  We had three connecting schools- Parkway West High (MO), Hermitage High (PA), and Brocton High (NY).  Each site had a role in the case- prosecution, defense and jury.  Using the facts from a real Missouri case, the prosecution had to decide how to try the case (what to charge the defendant with), the defense had to counter that case, and the jury listened to the proceedings. In the real case, the defendant was charged with second degree murder, however, in the mock trial, the defendant was charged with voluntary manslaughter. The students did not know the outcome of the real trial, however. Everyone listened as the jury deliberated- it is not required with this program that the jury come back with a verdict, necessarily- and Paul said it was interesting, because initially, the jury was pretty much split, then through their discussions, the opinion shifted to only one person who felt the defendant was guilty.

I wanted to share some feedback we got on yesterday’s Trial By Wire videoconference:

 “I wanted to thank you both for doing this Trial by Wire.  I thought all the parties involved did a great job, and I was quite pleased with my two young men’s presentation of their argument.”