A comment suggests that computers in extemp prep would lead to cheating, i.e., consulting the God of All Debate (or the God of All Extemp, in this case) for help. I'm willing to risk it. If you're dumb enough to spend your research time asking someone outside of the room to do your research for you, you deserve the ensuing results. Sure, it could be done, but realistically? Unless your coach is right there, computer in hand, at your beck and call, capable of turning your request into a case in 8 minutes, you'd probably be better off doing it yourself. (And good luck finding that coach to do it for you in the first place.) My inherent point is that you need to learn research skills online, preferably fast. Mastery of those skills is better than mastery of calling your G of A E (who, come to think of it, from the ones I've met, may not be the person you want doing your top-speed online research for you). Doing extemp with a computer presupposes pre-organization of your resources. Folders with links to articles on all sorts of stuff, or similar starting aids. Your coach has these and you don't? No, I don't think you're getting a lot of 1s, bubbeleh. This is an easy risk for any FL to take.
As for the Charlie McCarthy approach, in the same comment, I'm all for it. It's hard enough to speak at normal LD speeds. Imagine repeating whatever Dick Cheney is saying into your ear at normal LD speeds, which you then have to reiterate at those same speeds: boggled is the mind. There should be no rule against this. In fact, you should get extra speaker points just for trying. But only if you do it in front of multiple judges, one of which has to be me. Pleeeezzzeee!
1 comment:
I think that there is a genuine concern less about people getting outside help, although that certainly is a possibility, but that people could store entire pre-prepared speeches on countless topics.
Extemp by its' very nature is an event designed with the idea that you aren't giving a speech that you prepared before the tournament started. While any comments that you say won't be purely of the cuff like they are with impromptu I think that we would be dramatically changing the nature of the event by allowing people to have a canned speech that they just had to open up on their laptop.
With debate due to the time limits I don't think that computers change the event as fundamentally as they do with extemp.
That being said I do agree with you that in the "real world" your limitations often aren't as dramatic as they are in many high school speech leagues that seem to deny the use of laptops.
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