{"id":293,"date":"2013-05-02T18:20:49","date_gmt":"2013-05-03T02:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.consortiumlibrary.org\/blogs\/dmole\/?p=293"},"modified":"2019-04-04T15:58:09","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T23:58:09","slug":"seawolves-debaters-share-strategies-and-experiences-on-the-next-informania-monday-at-9am-and-thursday-at-5pm-on-krua-88-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/consortiumlibrary.org\/blogs\/dmole\/2013\/05\/02\/seawolves-debaters-share-strategies-and-experiences-on-the-next-informania-monday-at-9am-and-thursday-at-5pm-on-krua-88-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Seawolves Debaters share strategies and experiences on Informania, Monday at 9am, and Thursday at 5pm on KRUA, 88.1."},"content":{"rendered":"

Listen to the interview with Seawolf debaters Matt Fox and Matthieu Ostrander<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Guests on the May 6, 2013\u00a0Informania radio show were senior Seawolves debaters (and participants in\u00a0national and international competitions)\u00a0Matthieu Ostrander and Matt Fox.\u00a0 Matt Fox, a graduating senior, shared the steps he took from Cabin Fever Debates<\/a> to international debater.\u00a0 Matthieu Ostrander, now a sophmore, began debating for the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) as a freshman, and quickly rose to international debate team competitor.\u00a0 These accomplished members of UAA’s Seawolf Debate Program<\/a> talked about the debate program, the academic debate style, strategies for\u00a0debate success, experiences from debate travels, and examples of controversial topics that they have been tasked with while debating at international competitions.<\/p>\n

Getting Started in Debate at UAA<\/strong><\/p>\n

All University of Alaska Anchorage students are welcome to attend Seawolf Debate practices<\/a>.\u00a0 Practices are Tuesdays from 5:30-8:30 and Fridays from 9:30-12:30 in room 266 of the ADM\/Humanities building.\u00a0 The students that end up traveling on the competitive debate teams prove their ability to debate competitively while participating at practices.\u00a0 According to Matt and Matthieu, it is necessary for debaters to create a written brief about the topics that they debate.\u00a0 Sources they have used to build their brief on a topic include the Council on Foreign Affairs, the Economist, and Wikipedia (although they acknowledge it is not the best scholarly source; it is a good place for background information).\u00a0 Deb the Librarian also mentioned CQ Researcher<\/em> and Opposing Viewpoints Online<\/em> as potentially useful sources for debaters that are available through the Consortium Library<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When it comes to debating, it is likely that there will be challenges and losses along the way.\u00a0 Debaters learn to overcome the floundering moments (like debating a topic related to Sesame Street, when you have never seen Sesame Street (true!))\u00a0 These become strength-building exercises.\u00a0 To succeed in debate it is necessary to see the failures and challenges as the essential learning experiences they are.<\/p>\n

British Parliamentary Debate<\/strong><\/p>\n

The UAA Seawolf Debate students participate in an academic debate, based on British Parliamentary style.\u00a0 When participating in national and international competitions in British Parliamentary style debate, competitors are typically given their topics fifteen minutes prior to the debate.\u00a0 Debaters are given seven minutes to make their case.\u00a0 After one minute a bell rings, alerting the debater that the opposing team has the opportunity to request Points of Information (POI) during the next five minutes.\u00a0 The bell then rings again at six minutes, alerting the debater that there is one minute left, and no more POIs can be presented by the opponents.\u00a0 Matt shared that it is good practice to take up to two Points of Information from the opponents during your presentation.\u00a0 It allows you to hear the opposition’s arguments and deal with them at that point, versus learning their opposing strategies later in the debate.\u00a0 The judges also look favorably on teams that take POIs from their opponents.\u00a0 Debaters tend to take the POIs when they have said something controversial (a hot button), and they can deal with the opposition then instead of later; or when they have that moment of pause when they are thinking of the next point to make.<\/p>\n

In some competitions, there are more than one team debating each side of an issue.\u00a0 It seems like it might be better to go first, but debaters appreciate the opportunity to wait to take their turn, and listen to the opposing teams.\u00a0 This gives them additional time to think about strategy, and then argue a stronger case for or against their topic.\u00a0 Typically in competition, every team gets the opportunity to debate in each different order.\u00a0 These orders are selected by computer.\u00a0 There was one competition that Matt and Matthieu attended that allowed the higher ranked teams to select their preference, but these UAA debaters find the computer generated assignments preferable.<\/p>\n

Debate Strategies<\/strong><\/p>\n

When asked about debate strategies, Matt and Matthieu gave an example, and then summed up the strategy.\u00a0 There are different levels of thinking about a topic, from impacts that are global to national to local to personal.\u00a0 There are also the theories and philosophies associated with particular topics.\u00a0 The fact that debaters can open their minds to argue a point they may or may not agree with is an impressive exercise in critical thinking.\u00a0 Although traditionally, the debate topics have tended to be more liberal, their is an effort to include more conservative topics in the debate competition.\u00a0 Whether the topic is arguing against the Pope as ruling Catholic Authority, or that a certain religion is to blame for a war, the debaters need to think of it in terms of academic debate, using the best of their critical thinking skills to do so.<\/p>\n

The Seawolf Debate Program also offers UAA students the opportunity to help with the Middle School Public Debate Competition<\/a>.\u00a0 Matthieu spoke favorably about this experience, and the benefit of involvement for UAA students and middle school participants alike.<\/p>\n

It was also mentioned during the show that there are states exploring the requirement of debate as part of elementary and secondary education.\u00a0 The opportunity to develop critical thinking and communication skills that allow a person to see both sides of a controversial topic; and participate in respectful, engaged communication on difficult topics is a skill worth developing!<\/p>\n

The UAA Seawolves Debate Program, directed by Communication and Discourse Studies Professor, Steve Johnson, is leading the way to popularizing critical debate in Anchorage.\u00a0 In doing so, the community\u00a0 has also been encouraged to think about the topics being debated; audience members asked to question their own beliefs on these topics; and encouraged to look at the other perspectives, in a safe, respectful, educational venue.\u00a0 For this critical thinking, community building endeavor, Steve Johnson deserves a big thank you.\u00a0 The Seawolf Debate Program is popularizing critical debate; and in a day when media is continually streaming turmoil and world problems, the popularization of productive critical discourse deserves to be celebrated.<\/p>\n

Informania is\u00a0 repeated on Thursdays from 5:00pm-6:00pm.\u00a0 This interview will also\u00a0be available online at www.kruaradio.org<\/a>\u00a0as a live-streamed program or podcast through QuickTime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Listen to the interview with Seawolf debaters Matt Fox and Matthieu Ostrander. Guests on the May 6, 2013\u00a0Informania radio show were senior Seawolves debaters (and participants in\u00a0national and international competitions)\u00a0Matthieu Ostrander and Matt Fox.\u00a0 Matt Fox, a graduating senior, shared the steps he took from Cabin Fever Debates to international debater.\u00a0 Matthieu Ostrander, now a … Continue reading “Seawolves Debaters share strategies and experiences on Informania, Monday at 9am, and Thursday at 5pm on KRUA, 88.1.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5294],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-informania-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/consortiumlibrary.org\/blogs\/dmole\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/consortiumlibrary.org\/blogs\/dmole\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/consortiumlibrary.org\/blogs\/dmole\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consortiumlibrary.org\/blogs\/dmole\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consortiumlibrary.org\/blogs\/dmole\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293"}],"version-history":[{"count":37,"href":"https:\/\/consortiumlibrary.org\/blogs\/dmole\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":974,"href":"https:\/\/consortiumlibrary.org\/blogs\/dmole\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions\/974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/consortiumlibrary.org\/blogs\/dmole\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consortiumlibrary.org\/blogs\/dmole\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consortiumlibrary.org\/blogs\/dmole\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}