Practical Technology Tools is an experiential course designed to introduce affordable and accessible online dispute resolution (ODR) technology to the practice of alternative dispute resolution (ADR).
Participants will engage in four synchronous, real-time lectures and discussions over a five-week period, with asynchronous forums, wikis, directional study, and instructor interaction. Students will learn about numerous tested online platforms and tools that can elevate and streamline their current mediation and dispute
resolution practices. These technologies will concentrate on the functions of an ADR practice that can most easily be adapted to working digitally, including client intake, client narrative, document review and storage, information sharing, brainstorming, and agreement development, drafting, and execution.
Skills targeted by course:
- Understanding and Assessing Technology: learn about available tools and which are most appropriate for ADR and your practice
- Digital Case Management: assess and apply case management skills to information and communication technologies (ICTs)
- Third Party Skills: anticipate and prepare for how clients will react to and learn to use new platforms and technology tools
- Ethical Evaluation: analyze and adapt mediation and legal ethics to the use of ICT
- Technology Integration: dissecting the practicalities of maintaining a face-to-face dispute resolution practice while integrating technology and/or creating your own virtual ADR practice
About the lead instructor:
Daniel Rainey is one of the leading ODR educators and practitioners in the world. Working with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, he was one of the first instructors to teach a university ODR course, and has since developed graduate level ODR courses for several universities and dispute resolution centers. He has designed ADR and ODR systems for numerous organizations.
He is a Fellow of the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution, a delegate at the UNCITRAL Working Group III on ODR, a member of the ABA Web-based Interdisciplinary Dispute Resolution Environment Task Force, a member of the ABA President-elect’s Technology Initiative, and co-author and editor of the definitive ODR source book, ODR Theory and Practice.