Just a little more information...

Just a little more information about what is going on at the 2011 Youth Forum:

The Forum is divided into two 1-week sessions: the KPDC and the educational tracks. Today, we just finished up the KPDC and will now focus on the educational tracks until August 1.

What is unique about the KPDC over other debate tournaments is that 4 out the 6 total rounds are prepared topics, on two separate resoltuions (the fall and spring Global Debate topics, see the bottom of the blog page). The other 2 rounds are limited-prep rounds, meaning that the topic is released only 45-minutes prior to the start of the round. Debaters are allowed to consult pre-printed materials for evidence, but may not conduct new research, or use electronic devices or printed evidence in the round. Yes, this means that all debaters can take in are hand written notes and a dictionary. The 2011 Youth Forum topics were uploaded in a previous post. Some unique aspects of Karl Popper itself include: use of prep time before a cross-examination, use of prep time to extend a speech, and banging on the tables to signal a good point or the end of a speech.

Actually, only printed evidence can be used at all during the entire tournament, as the Youth Forum sees laptops as an unfair advantages to delegations from poorer nations that may not be able to afford laptops. While this issue arose during the first day of the tournament, the tournament offers evidence printing, and the team was able to get all the evidence they needed printed prior to the start of the rounds.

What is next for the debaters is the MTT (Mixed Team Track), starting tomorrow. It is an educational track, designed to teach Karl Popper debate skills. It is called "Mixed Team" because debaters will be split up and be paired with other debaters from different cultures to become a team. I will be involved in the CJT (Coaches and Judges Track), designed to teach Karl Popper judging and coaching skills.

The entire Youth Forum has involved long hours (especially during the KPDC), and is comparable to the schedule of a major national debate tournament. Weekends are no exception. However, with the start of the educational track, the schedule eases up, allowing for more time in the afternoons. We are planning on revisiting the Grand Bazaar and Bağdat Avenue, seeing Maiden's Tower, and meeting out Turkish friend, Taylan, one evening. It is lucky that we chose to arrive a few days early, or it is very possible that we may have missed some of the greatest sites in Istanbul. One of the coming days is the Excursions day, which is a day of the Forum fully dedicated to visiting the city. Because of our earlier independent touring, we are choosing Excursion 3, and visiting the last parts/sites of Istanbul that remain un-visited: Ortokoy (old Ottoman neighborhood), Dolmabahçe Palace (home of Ottoman sultans and Atatürk), and Taksim Square (a popular and famous public square in the city).