Education Commons^™

The Unreasonable Effectiveness Of Large Language Models In Zero-Shot Semantic Annotation Of Legal Texts, Jaromir Savelka, Kevin D. Ashley

Articles

The emergence of ChatGPT has sensitized the general public, including the legal profession, to large language models' (LLMs) potential uses (e.g., document drafting, question answering, and summarization). Although recent studies have shown how well the technology performs in diverse semantic annotation tasks focused on legal texts, an influx of newer, more capable (GPT-4) or cost-effective (GPT-3.5-turbo) models requires another analysis. This paper addresses recent developments in the ability of LLMs to semantically annotate legal texts in zero-shot learning settings. Given the transition to mature generative AI systems, we examine the performance of GPT-4 and GPT-3.5-turbo(-16k), comparing it to the previous …

Off The Rails: Cinematic Trains As Technological Controls Of The Natural World, Trinity Thompson

Honors Theses

Short train rail lines across the United States are seeing increased national funding to reduce toxic chemical spills caused by train derailments, the most notable of which happened in February 2023 in East Palestine, Ohio. A year prior, the film White Noise (2022) featured a similar toxic train derailment incident, taking place, too, in Eastern Ohio, and featuring actors from the town of East Palestine. In considering other films featuring trains, I identified a pattern of environmental conflict, leading me to question the relationship between trains and the natural environment as portrayed in popular cinema. To conduct my research, I …

The Demorest Contest: Prohibition Leader In Conversation With Wctu And Martha Mcmillan, Grace E. Kohler

Martha McMillan Research Papers

This essay explains the history of the Demorest Contest and connects it to Martha McMillan and her journals. The Demorest Contest was a temperance advocacy event run by William Jennings Demorest and the Women's Christian Temperance Union that encouraged youths to pledge to Prohibition.

Presidential Rhetoric In Times Of Health Crises: From President Eisenhower To President Trump, Abbi Murphy, Justin Kirk

Honors Theses

Three major health crises in American history include the polio epidemic in the 1950s, the Ebola crisis in 2014, and the coronavirus in 2020. Each of these viruses evolved under a different President, from President Eisenhower to President Obama to President Trump. Each of these presidents spoke to the people on their respective crisis, and here I examine speeches, addresses, and social media posts in order to examine the rhetorical strategies that each President utilized. Each of them had a similar goal in mind, to eradicate the disease and quell the public’s fears. However, they all had advantages and disadvantages …

Safety Splash: Pool Safety For Children And Adults, Rachel Lofton

Honors Theses

This outreach project was made to address the issue of too many children drowning at pools due to a lack of water safety education. The dissemination of pool safety education is imperative to reduce accidental injuries and drownings. The goal of the Safety Splash video and supplemental materials is to provide pool safety education for children and adults. By encouraging conversations between children and adults before going to the pool, there can be an intervention that reduces the risk of injury and drowning once they arrive. Through research, I compiled information to support the effectiveness of a combination video, pamphlet, …

Critical Race Theory As Intellectual Property Methodology, Anjali Vats, Deidre A. Keller

Book Chapters

This chapter traces the emergence of Critical Race Intellectual Property (CRTIP) as a distinct area of study and activism that builds on the work of Critical Legal Studies and Critical Intellectual Property scholars. Invested in the workings of power - but with particular intersectional attentiveness to race - Critical Intellectual Property works to imagine new, often more socially just, forms of knowledge produce. In this brief chapter, we lay out the origins of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and its central methods, articulate a vision of CRT, and contemplate how CRT's interdisciplinary and transnational methods might apply to intellectual property. In …

Rhetoric And Race - Background And Assignment - Shu Mlk Symposium 2020, Jon Radwan

CHDCM Publications

Provides an overview of Rhetoric and describes the historical development of Race as a rhetorical construct. Offers two associated assignment options: a digital audio interview plus video debrief on contemporary racism, and/or an essay on 21st century abolitionist rhetoric. - Jon Radwan and Angela Kariotis

Typed Document: The College And University Women’S Public Leadership Consortium Mentors

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

List of mentors for The College and University Women's Public Leadership Consortium. No date given Box: 7 Folder: 15

Missing The (Turning) Point: The Erosion Of Democracy At An American University, Anthony Fucci, Theresa Catalano

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

On August 25, 2017, student members of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), a right-wing conservative organization who advocates for smaller government and free market enterprise, recruited on the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) campus. Members of the UNL community protested nearby. Part of the protest was recorded on video and released to social media leading to harsh public criticism that accused the university of restricting free speech and being an unsafe environment for conservative students. Drawing on cognitive linguistics (e.g. metonymy, framing) and multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA), this paper explores how the TPUSA incident at UNL was recontextualized in local and …

Ua3/2/4 Wku President's Office-Garrett Speech File, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Speeches and notes for speeches written by and delivered by Paul Garrett.

Automatically Extracting Meaning From Legal Texts: Opportunities And Challenges, Kevin D. Ashley

Articles

This paper examines impressive new applications of legal text analytics in automated contract review, litigation support, conceptual legal information retrieval, and legal question answering against the backdrop of some pressing technological constraints. First, artificial intelligence (Al) programs cannot read legal texts like lawyers can. Using statistical methods, Al can only extract some semantic information from legal texts. For example, it can use the extracted meanings to improve retrieval and ranking, but it cannot yet extract legal rules in logical form from statutory texts. Second, machine learning (ML) may yield answers, but it cannot explain its answers to legal questions or …

Using Ai To Analyze Patent Claim Indefiniteness, Dean Alderucci, Kevin D. Ashley

Articles

In this Article, we describe how to use artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to partially automate a type of legal analysis, determining whether a patent claim satisfies the definiteness requirement. Although fully automating such a high-level cognitive task is well beyond state-of-the-art AI, we show that AI can nevertheless assist the decision maker in making this determination. Specifically, the use of custom AI technology can aid the decision maker by (1) mining patent text to rapidly bring relevant information to the decision maker attention, and (2) suggesting simple inferences that can be drawn from that information.

We begin by summarizing the …

Challenging Calls For Civility, Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt

Faculty Publications

In conjunction with her article "When Free Speech Disrupts Diversity Initiatives: What We Value and What We Do Not," Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt writes about civility codes and free speech for Academe Blog.

Ua3/10/1 Investiture Address, Timothy C. Caboni

WKU Archives Records

Speech delivered by Dr. Timothy Caboni upon his installation as president of WKU.

When Free Speech Disrupts Diversity Initiatives: What We Value And What We Do Not, Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt

Faculty Publications

In this essay, I argue that the debate on free speech as pushed by the conservative right is a strategic apparatus to undermine the various diversity initiatives on college and university campuses. While supporters of the right wing extremists around the globe have pushed for various modes of exclusions (social, racial, ethnic, cultural, religious and sexual), here in the United States, such exclusions are most evident in the collapse of academic freedom and the rise of civility codes as students and educators use the platform of free speech to promote various forms of injustices and exclusions. Our neoliberal college and …

Ua37/42 Faculty Personal Papers Nina Hammer, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Personal papers of Nina Hammer, Bowling Green Business University Registrar 1938-1963; WKU Registrar 1963-1969.

The Use Of Zingari/Nomadi/Rom In Italian Crime Discourse, Theresa Catalano

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This study examines the use of the metonymies zingari/nomadi/rom [Gypsies/Nomads/Roma] in Italian media discourse, in order to critically reflect on their relation to the perception of Roma. The author analyses the frequency of these terms in general discourse and crime discourse, as well as the way they are used in context. The findings reveal that nomadi and rom are used to directly and indirectly index Roma, and have a sig­nificant impact on their ethnicization and criminalization. In addition, the episodic framing of crime events, combined with the use of these metony­mies, erases the Italian government’s responsibility for the conditions of …

Guide To The Pyschological Development Of Expression Collection, College Archives & Special Collections

Collection Guides / Finding Aids

This guide describes the organization and scope of the Psychological Development of Expression books from the Columbia School of Oratory archival collection, housed within the College Archives and Special Collections at Columbia College Chicago. The Psychological Development of Expression is four-volume set of texts on expression, public speaking, and oratory for practical use by students of the Columbia School of Oratory in Chicago.

Exploring Diversity, Citizenship, And Gender Through Jazz: A Narrative Criticism Of I Am Jazz, Mary Beth Jones

Northwest Communication Association Conference Papers & Presentations

In this study, a narrative analysis of a children’s picture book was conducted to uncover how young audiences are taught about diversity and inclusion through books. The setting, characters, narrator, and target audiences of the 2014 book I am Jazz were evaluated to decipher how readers are educated about transgenderism and diversity in greater context. Specific rhetorical qualities in the visual and written elements emphasize the importance of diversity, uniqueness, individuality, and acceptance. This particular book has created a range of support and protest since its publication, and it is an important example of the emotional and political power of …

Othering Others: Right-Wing Populism In Uk Media Discourse On “New” Immigration, Grace E. Fielder, Theresa Catalano

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Right wing populism is on the rise. Through the use of othering, right-wing groups delimit their own identities while excluding others. The purpose of this chapter is to shed light on how European mediated public spheres (such as reader responses to media discourse) constitute an important domain of identity articulation and struggle through the discursive construction of the ‘Other’. In this case, the others come from the Central and Eastern European countries that are perceived as newcomers to Western Europe due to the consecutive enlargements of the European Union. Specifically, this chapter provides an in-depth analysis of 236 reader comments …

Ua37/6 Faculty Personal Papers L.Y. Lancaster, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records regarding the nomination of Lennie Lancaster for the Kentucky Medical Association and Kentucky Academy of Family Physicians awards. The series is arranged in chronological order. A short biographical sketch by Dr. Jerry W. Martin, who made the nominations, is included. Dr. Lancaster's diplomas are in the collection, as well as an oral history interview conducted in 1973 which tells, among other things, of his work to establish Western's first campus bookstore in the summer of 1921. The collection also includes the KMA and KAFP awards, as well as several other certificates and awards.

Come On In, The Writing's Fine: Preserving Voice And Generating Enthusiasm In My English 100 Syllabus, Elisa Leah Berry

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis explores the potential for creating a composition syllabus that presents a model of good writing, is an enthusiastic invitation to the discipline, and provides a clear roadmap to success, not only for the course, but also for the students’ college career. This is especially useful for an increasingly diverse student community that arrives to college with a varying knowledge of the academic institution, with its specialized language and systems. The project explores the existing research on syllabus crafting, uses current composition studies and a survey of English 100 students to interrogate the rhetorical situation of the author’s own …

La Reconstrucción Del Debate En Santa Cruz De La Sierra, Bolivia: Una Herramienta Para La Auto-­Descolonización Y El Desarrollo De Un Pensamiento Crítico Entre Jóvenes., Tessa Holtzman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Debate improves public speaking ability, critical thinking, and self-­‐ confidence. It also empowers students to challenge their beliefs and understand the world around them. It has been used in a variety of educational systems as a developmental tool that promotes democratic citizenship and civic engagement. In Bolivia, however, it is an under-­‐used resource. In this essay, I reflect on my experiences teaching and creating sustainable debate programs in partnership with local schools in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. Through an analysis of my successes and failures, I find that differing cultural and economic climates affect the way educators should …

Teaching Argument Writing And "Content" In Diverse Middle School History Classrooms, Chauncey Monte-Sano, Susan De La Paz, Mark Felton

Faculty Publications

Monte-Sano et al describe a program in which they worked with curriculum leaders in an academically and culturally diverse school district to develop materials and techniques that would strengthen middle school students' skills in making arguments and using evidence in historical essays. They outline the Shays' Rebellion investigation activity, which enable students to develop inquiry and literacy practices as they integrate critical reading, historical thinking, and argument writing.

Making Oral Communication A Successful Part Of The Common Core, Jon A. Hess

Communication Faculty Publications

Adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) represents the first time that oral communication has been included in the curriculum requirements for K–12 education in many states. If done well, this change will provide important benefits to students. However, effective implementation will require collaboration among policymakers, educators, and experts in oral communication.

As educators work to strengthen primary and secondary education in the United States, many agree that schools need educational standards that are grounded in today’s needs and shared across states. The CCSS have emerged as a potential solution, and the majority of states have adopted these standards. …

Ua94/7/2 Student/Alumni Personal Papers Training School Mary Grise, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about Mary Grise and collected by her during her years at College High. Mary participated in forensics, drama and music festivals hosted by Western Kentucky University and other organizations in Kentucky. She was elected as a delegate to the American Legion's Girl State and went on to represent Kentucky in Washington, D.C. at Girls Nation. The collection includes scrapbooks, correspondence and papers related to all her college activities. Photographs have been removed to UA1C11.69 Mary Grise Photograph Collection.

Masonic-The Greatness And Antiquity Of Free Masonry, Charles C. Chapman

Charles C. Chapman Masonic Speeches

These are notes for a speech Chapman gave addressing the topic of freemasonry.

Masonic-The Meaning Of Free Masonry, Charles C. Chapman

Charles C. Chapman Masonic Speeches

Here are the text and notes of a speech given by Chapman addressing the principles and foundations of freemasonry - among them wisdom, beauty, strength, morality, equality, and rectitude of life.

College Notes-Chapman College, Charles C. Chapman

Charles C. Chapman College Lectures

A speech about the history and goals of Chapman College. It was founded as a Christian college whose mission was to instill Christian morals and values into students, and help them to build character in such a way as to lead them to success while spreading Christian influence.

College Notes-Advice To College Students, Charles C. Chapman

Charles C. Chapman College Lectures

Notes for a speech in which Chapman gives students advice on their education and their intellectual, spiritual and social development.