VBLOG: NYC Scrimmage

This is an experiment mostly for Katie, a friend of mine from graduate school. She wants there to be more video blogging on this site, so here's an attempt. I randomly pointed my camera at people during our recent New York City Scrimmage.

There will be videos of some of the debates posted online shortly, once I can find my missing DV cable. The motion for the debate this night was: This House would make shrinking the income gap a global priority (or something close to that).
If you are ever in the New York City area and want to come debate with us, just let me know!

VBLOG: NYC Scrimmage

This is an experiment mostly for Katie, a friend of mine from graduate school. She wants there to be more video blogging on this site, so here's an attempt. I randomly pointed my camera at people during our recent New York City Scrimmage.

There will be videos of some of the debates posted online shortly, once I can find my missing DV cable. The motion for the debate this night was: This House would make shrinking the income gap a global priority (or something close to that).
If you are ever in the New York City area and want to come debate with us, just let me know!

Active Learning

It’s the beginning of the semester, and classes are starting to meet. Everyone is coming back and putting a nice amount of life into the campus. It’s a great beginning, as beginnings always are.

I went to a workshop on teaching. I’m a sucker for these workshops, i go to most every one. I’m not sure why. One of the reasons is that I like to hear what all the other professors have to say and what they consider to be a problem in their classroom, or teaching, or what have you.
This workshop the conversation mostly centered around the idea of active learning. In what ways can a class be made active? It seems to be necessary that students are directly engaged in their own education as participants, not observers, or as co-creators of their learning instead of just receivers of information from the professor.
So what could be more “active learning” than debate? It’s hard to imagine something that would be more of an active learning experience than participating in debate. Even one or two really flips the traditional course around. The most exciting “active learning” aspect of debate is that the power roles are reversed and sometimes eliminated in the classroom. That is, the students are speaking more than the professor, and they are often speaking to the end of converting/convincing the other students. This is quite dangerous if you assume the point of the University is to authorize particular ways of knowing, particular knowlege, and particular ways of being in relation to knowledge (i.e. “you are not an expert”).
Here are some questions to consider:
What is the role of the professor during an in class debate? Should they be the judge? Another voice after the debate giving commentary? Should they participate in the debate?
Who should generate the motions? Students? Other faculty? Should the motion be generated as a collective?
Should these debates happen in the classroom or for a wider public? Who should be invited? Should the class work toward the crafting of debate experiences outside of the course? Is that proper? Is that a form of assessing debate learning?
What is the content that would be assessed in a debate? What does debate teach? If we assume essay writing teaches good communication skills on paper, and public speaking teaches good oral communication skills, what is being taught via debating?
Should debates in class be assigned win and loss values? To what end should that decision be made?
General Active Learning Questions:
How active is too active? Do you encourage students to participate in the construction of the parameters of the course? Do you allow an “open source” course where students can rework the syllabus? 
Can students, or should they, consider designing the rubric and participating in their own grading a necessary part of “active learning?”
How does attendance play into active learning? Should that requirement be dispensed with in order to generate a more active learning classroom?
Should students be allowed to take over the teaching roles and relegate the professor into a more passive role in the “active learning” classroom?
Is it ethical for the professor to perform the role of a foil “tyrant” in order to spark resistance and conflict with students to force them in the  mode of “active learning?” Is it ok for a professor to lie during instruction, or about course content, to spark a critical response from the students? (i.e. the professor delivers misinformation in the hopes that the students catch it via having done the readings and then challenge the professor’s position).
What does an examination look like in the active learning philosophy?

Active Learning

It’s the beginning of the semester, and classes are starting to meet. Everyone is coming back and putting a nice amount of life into the campus. It’s a great beginning, as beginnings always are.

I went to a workshop on teaching. I’m a sucker for these workshops, i go to most every one. I’m not sure why. One of the reasons is that I like to hear what all the other professors have to say and what they consider to be a problem in their classroom, or teaching, or what have you.
This workshop the conversation mostly centered around the idea of active learning. In what ways can a class be made active? It seems to be necessary that students are directly engaged in their own education as participants, not observers, or as co-creators of their learning instead of just receivers of information from the professor.
So what could be more “active learning” than debate? It’s hard to imagine something that would be more of an active learning experience than participating in debate. Even one or two really flips the traditional course around. The most exciting “active learning” aspect of debate is that the power roles are reversed and sometimes eliminated in the classroom. That is, the students are speaking more than the professor, and they are often speaking to the end of converting/convincing the other students. This is quite dangerous if you assume the point of the University is to authorize particular ways of knowing, particular knowlege, and particular ways of being in relation to knowledge (i.e. “you are not an expert”).
Here are some questions to consider:
What is the role of the professor during an in class debate? Should they be the judge? Another voice after the debate giving commentary? Should they participate in the debate?
Who should generate the motions? Students? Other faculty? Should the motion be generated as a collective?
Should these debates happen in the classroom or for a wider public? Who should be invited? Should the class work toward the crafting of debate experiences outside of the course? Is that proper? Is that a form of assessing debate learning?
What is the content that would be assessed in a debate? What does debate teach? If we assume essay writing teaches good communication skills on paper, and public speaking teaches good oral communication skills, what is being taught via debating?
Should debates in class be assigned win and loss values? To what end should that decision be made?
General Active Learning Questions:
How active is too active? Do you encourage students to participate in the construction of the parameters of the course? Do you allow an “open source” course where students can rework the syllabus? 
Can students, or should they, consider designing the rubric and participating in their own grading a necessary part of “active learning?”
How does attendance play into active learning? Should that requirement be dispensed with in order to generate a more active learning classroom?
Should students be allowed to take over the teaching roles and relegate the professor into a more passive role in the “active learning” classroom?
Is it ethical for the professor to perform the role of a foil “tyrant” in order to spark resistance and conflict with students to force them in the  mode of “active learning?” Is it ok for a professor to lie during instruction, or about course content, to spark a critical response from the students? (i.e. the professor delivers misinformation in the hopes that the students catch it via having done the readings and then challenge the professor’s position).
What does an examination look like in the active learning philosophy?

What's the Point?

It’s the roughest point in the year for me.

The point halfway through when I haven’t been in that nice swing of things that the University schedule provides. It’s all planning and no action. And I hate planning.

One of the advantages of the European model of doing debate is that it’s all done, for the most part, individually. There are no administrators, coaches, or what have you trying to look out for the long term health of the program. It would be so nice to have a primarily self-funded system where individuals decide where and what they would like to attend.

This time of year is depressing for me. It’s all figuring out due dates for assignments, meeting times and places, and budget restrictions. No fun at all.  So I’m always forced to ask: What’s the point?

Hard to give a positive answer right now. But the question remains. It’s one of those questions. Questions like the stray spark from the campfire that they thought they had put out. But now the whole forest is threatened.

There’s always a temptation to just let the thing burn. I’m really interested in burning things down right now, ideologically speaking. Ecologically, sometimes this is a good thing – it supports new growth. But this sort of fire can’t be lit carelessly.

The best answer that I can come up with now is the preservation of debate for those who would not be interested unless someone pushed them a little.

Self-selective debate is dangerous. Sportified debate – that is, debate run like a sports club – is nearsighted. The point is to make sure that everyone gets a shot at debating, not just those who believe they would like to show off how well they can beat others with words.

The point is, I suppose, to provide opportunity for praxis in a University setting where less and less space is reserved for action and reflection.

I also think the point might be to carve out a small corner of the University where students must present and defend their opinions to one another, in front of others who are also students. Yes, I’m aware the positions are assigned. What I am talking about is the more important presentation – the discussion after the practice debate.

And finally perhaps the point might be to force everyone to look up once in a while, look at one another and ask, “What’s the point of meeting like this?”

It’s the start of a new semester for me in a couple of days. I’ve been teaching debate at this institution for about 4 and a half years now. I’ve been teaching debate formally to others since I was about 18. And I feel less prepared to grapple with this question than ever.

Let’s stomp on this ember a bit together, shall we?