A Debate Over Zoom: the Future of Public Speaking?
By Adeline G, Year 10 Journalist Leader
On the 20th January, four year 10s took part at the annual Cambridge Union Debating Competition, but with a modern twist: the competition was entirely virtual!
It felt slightly strange to be joining a Zoom meeting at 9.00 on a Saturday morning with the intention of joining a debating competition. After some technical difficulties, the online debating experience was launched through a few instructional presentations, which included the measures to be taken if someone cut off the call in the middle of their speech. (Wait for one to two minutes and hope it sorts itself out by then…)
We were then shown a very long list containing all the teams and the breakout rooms, which we had to scour in order to find which one we were meant to be joining, what side of the debate we were on (and to avoid joining the wrong one!). After this, the motion was revealed and we were set off on our 15 minutes of prep time, where we had to frantically scribble down all of the points we could think of.
Once the 15 minutes was over, we joined the breakout room, unmuted to say our names and our preferred method of points of information, or POIs. When debating, while one makes a speech, the opposition is able to make these POIs in the form of either a question or challenge to one of the speaker’s points. This is especially useful if the opposition has made a weak point you want to rebut and your turn to speak is over or too far away.
In person, these would be taken verbally, but Zoom changes the format of the debate and offers more choice over how candidates would like to have these POIs presented, be it through unmuting, virtual hand raising or typing the letters ‘POI’ in chat. While this mostly worked well, there were a couple of times where it was unclear whether someone was purposefully ignoring the point or didn’t hear it!
The debates were on a variety of unprepared motions like whether tax cuts should be made to companies with female executives, or if children should be raised communally.
Debating online was a slightly bizarre experience, but I quickly adjusted to the format, which misses almost none of the aspects of debating in person (apart from, of course, being there in person).
A huge well done to everyone that took part and thanks to Miss Gordon, who organised the event and was there to support us on the day!
