Debate Digest: Teacher-student friendships on Facebook, Law school, Balanced budget amendment, US debt ceiling deal.

From Debatepedia

Revision as of 03:29, 11 February 2008

This page serves as a post-training resource for attendees of the IDEA training in Kulim, Malaysia held from January 31-February 4, 2008. It features links to help you continue debating even though the workshop and tournament are over. Also - remember that this is a user-generated site, so if there are issues about Malaysia that you'd like to see debated, join Debatepedia and contribute!

Schedule and Activities

Thursday, Jan 31

• 2:15–4:15 – Registration and Check-in

• 8:00-10:00 – Briefing
  • Introductions.
  • Expectations. The vast majority of expectations related to improving English language skills, while fear of public speaking was the major apprehension.
  • Parachute Game.

Friday, Feb 1

• 8:00-10:00 - Introduction to Debate.
  • For a summary of some of the concepts from this session, you can visit some of the following pages: Critical thinking, Logical argument, Educational debate, The Principle of Cooperation, and Constructive criticism. You may also see several PowerPoint presentations about British Parliamentary Debate by Dr. Robert Trapp and other trainers from an IDEA workshop in Beijing. These can be found at Beijing BP Training.

• 10:15-12:15 - Introduction to British Parliamentary Debate
  • Overview of how to participate in 4-team debate with emphasis on the roles and responsibilities of each team.
  • For guidelines and an overview of individual speaker roles, please see Standards:Two Team and Four Team Parliamentary Debate

• 2:15-4:15 – British Parliamentary Debate Session 2 (led by Yem and Alex)
  • More clarification from morning sessions. Please see link above.
  • Brainstorming. British Parliamentary Debate features only 15 minutes of preparation time, meaning that debaters must be accustomed to thinking of and improving upon several arguments in a short amount of time. In this session, students were introduced to this habit by brainstorming, in groups, as many arguments as possible for why humans should explore space. This exercise is particularly important for teams in the closing house as extensions must be comprised of new material. Brainstorming for quantity of argumentation during preparation time is a good way to ensure that your extension will be unique.
  • To work on brainstorming for opening house positions, students were asked to prepare a case on the motion "This House Believes Malaysia Should Act to Curb Global Warming."

• 2:15-4:15 - Judge's workshop (led by Fareez)
  • Simultaneous to British Parliamentary Debate Session 2
  • For overview of successful adjudication, please see Standards:Judge

• 8:00-10:00 – Workshop – Public Speaking
  • Trainers provided an overview of effective public speaking
  • Debaters presented speeches prepared during the afternoon workshop.

Saturday, Feb 2

• 8:00-10:00 – British Parliamentary Debate Session 3
  • Viewing and analysis of sample debates.

• 10:15-12:15 – British Parliamentary Debate Session 4
  • Random pairing of teams
  • Picking team names, ect.
  • Preparation for afternoon/evening practice debates.

• 2:15-4:15 – Practice debate, Rooms 1, 3 and 5.
  • Motion: "This House Believes Tertiary Education Should be Free."

• 8:00-10:00 – Practice debate, Rooms 2 and 4
  • Motion: "This House Believes Tertiary Education Should be Free."

Sunday, Feb 3

• 8:00-10:00 – Debate Round 1
  • Motion: "This House Would Lower the Voting Age in Malaysia."

• 10:15-12:15 – Debate Round 2
  • Motion: "This House Believes the Government Should be Allowed to Censor the Internet for Political Content."

• 2:15-4:15 – Debate Round 3
  • Motion: "This House Would Ban Smoking in Public Places."

• 8:00-10:00 – Debate Semifinals (with verbal feedback)
  • Motion: "This House Would Abolish National Service."

Monday, Feb 4

• 8:00-10:00 – Debate Final Round
  • Motion: "This House Would Restrict Foreign Laborers from Entering Malaysia."

• 10:15-12:15 – Closing Ceremony

• 12:15-2:15 – Lunch and Check-out

Exploring New Topics

There are tons of topics on Debatepedia that can help you as you develop your debate skills. Pages on Debatepedia can serve as resources for picking practice debate topics, jumping-off points for research, or just interesting reading if you have extra time in the computer lab.

For example, Debatepedia pages can be found on several of the topics discussed at the trainings in Kulim, from Preservation of Languages to a global snapshot of National Service to the merits of Space Exploration and funding for Space Exploration. You can search for pages in the search bar on the left hand side of the page or you can simply start at the Debatepedia homepage and browse from there.

Staying in Touch

There are several ways to stay in touch with IDEA:

• You can visit the IDEA webpage to stay up on news and events
• You can become a member or encourage your school to become a member at Join IDEA
• Join the IDEA group on Facebook
• Visit IDEA's unofficial blog
• Send an email to Alex from IDEA at adukalskis@idebate.org