Comments for Its debatable...Speak Up!

Comment on Orbitz Price Guarantee by bk2nocal

bk2nocal — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:43:34 +0000

Wow, this really is horrible. I’ve been using Orbitz for our reservations this semester, but I am definitely going to look into other choices now that I am aware of this. This seems like some kind false advertising…but, who has the time to make a claim?!!? Very disappointing Orbitz. Thanks for the question and feedback…

Comment on Orbitz Price Guarantee by Colin

Colin — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:23:14 +0000

The “low price guarantee” is a bit of a sham. Orbitz trumpets that “you find a lower price on the same flight, and we’ll refund the difference and give you $50 toward your next purchase”.

The problem is that there are so many stipulations that the claim is pretty much hollow.

For example, I just found out today that the terms and conditions state that the offer is only valid the very same day you book a flight! The whole reason I booked as early as I did was that I believed I had a “low fare guarantee” in case fares came down in the future and fares have indeed dropped 25%!

Apparently there’s also some stipulation that if someone books the same flight on the same day/time (with the exact same number of passengers!) through Orbitz.com, that you may see some sort of refund, but the odds of the stars aligning for that to happen are very slim, as I’m sure Orbitz is well aware of.

In short, forget about the Orbitz “low fare guarantee”! For practical purposes, it really doesn’t exist.

Comment on Policy Debate Resources at your fingertips… by Another Season, Another Set of Resources for Policy Debate « Its debatable…Speak Up!

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 21:10:08 +0000

[...] wanted to update the previous list of resources that I provided on this blog with some additional resources that have appeared online since then. [...]

Comment on Gordon Mitchell on Ethics and Evidence – Repost from edebate 5-18-09 by Cole20 » Posts about web 3.0 AND education as of 19 June 2009

Cole20 » Posts about web 3.0 AND education as of 19 June 2009 — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 03:22:02 +0000

[...] [...]

Comment on Is being successful at Forensics too “hard”? by bk2nocal

bk2nocal — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 04:28:43 +0000

Great comments from both Danny and Kathy (who btw I found to be a great motivator when I competed for her). I also think its important to recognize the importance of peers in the process though. I know when I was competing for Kathy at Chico, the culture on the team was one of hard work leading to success. So, although there were some people who did not always put in 100% to forensics, the vast majority of the traveling competitors were working hard and expected those around them to work hard. This was a motivational factor on its own. But, I recognize what Danny is saying about the constant life demands of many students today. I just think its a matter of prioritization and recognizing that each individual will have a different level of commitment, but teaching them that they will also have much different outcomes based on those commitment levels. But, I do like what Kathy says about making connections to the long-term. I have not spent enough time on that…I need to talk more about graduate/law school, professional benefits, networking benefits, etc.

Comment on Back from Birth and PDF to Word Computer by bk2nocal

bk2nocal — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 04:22:25 +0000

Richard – that is a strange coincidence! I think your program is a great service and I am sure people in the debate community will be using it! Thanks for offering it up to us!

Comment on Back from Birth and PDF to Word Computer by Richard

Richard — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 01:14:36 +0000

What strange coincidence. My wife just gave birth and I helped develop the the free PDF to Word service you talk about above. Thanks for the mention.

Comment on Is being successful at Forensics too “hard”? by Kathy

Kathy — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 16:20:29 +0000

I smile as I read your comments, because I could have written exactly the same thing 15 or 20 years ago (shakes fist in air, muttering, “kids these days!.”). I found that my most successful competitors generally fell into 2 categories.
1.The natural comedians, actors and writers often did well because forensics gave them a built-in audience and an opportunity to celebrate their love of the artform.
2.The other group who generally did well over time was made up of those who were able to make the connection between the skills they learned in forensics and their own long-term career goals. Note that short term goals – like graduating from college or finishing the units for a minor – often get in the way of overall forensics excellence because of competing demands for attention. But the ability to keep eyes on the long-term prize – regardless if the competitor was a rookie or a seasoned pro – seemed to make a big difference in work ethic. You are an excellent excellent of a student who fell into this category.

Comment on Is being successful at Forensics too “hard”? by Danny

Danny — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 20:09:18 +0000

Great post – but I have two points to make:
1) I think the personalized approach is the best. For a few years now I’ve been asking students after tournaments to review all their ballots and write down three things they did well and three things they could improve that they noticed recurred on multiple ballots. Then I let them know that these are the things to work on and IF we see these things after the next tournament the student is not working hard enough. I think last semester it was a great success, many of the the things identified at the beginning of the semester (eye contact, projection, memorization) did not appear on ballots at fall champs. I made sure to SAVE all these sheets and at the end of the semester we reviewed them – much to the astonishment of my students who realized how much they had grown over the past four months.

2) I think we have to cognizant of the fact that our students today are very different than students of prior generations – especially at the community college level – to a student, EVERY one of my students has at least a part time job. Almost every student is partially paying for their education. Many are on financial aid – this is a lot of stress students are facing on an everyday basis. While I applaud them for participating in forensics I think it has to be tempered by the fact that these students are very very busy in their lives. That is not to excuse not doing work but some level of appreciation of the difference in workload/life demands is important.

Related to this, of course, is how you define success. But that is another topic altogether =)

great post and enjoying your views!

Comment on Debatepedia – Take a look! by brooks

brooks — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:55:38 +0000

You might also want to have a look at the global climate change solutions debate series with the UN Foundation on Debatepedia

http://wiki.idebate.org/index.php/Global_climate_change_debate_portal