Debate

Overview

The goal of this assignment is for you to build knowledge about research in human-computer interaction. In two teams of 4 people, you will be debating opposing viewpoints on a given topic. Importantly, your argument should be supported by research!

Debate Structure

You should be approximately following the debate structure identified here.

Opening:

Statements:

1 min break (team meeting)

Closing:

Total time is 25 minutes. We will debate one topic during the first third of class, then we will anonymously vote on the winner. We will debate the second topic during the second third and vote. We will debate the second topic during the final third and vote. The whole class gets to vote on the winners.

Debate How-Tos

There is a lot of material online on how to debate well. For this class, the focus is not to train you to become a better debater. The only requirement is for you to use publications as evidence for your arguments! Use publications that are not too obscure (i.e. please use reputable conferences or journals – if you see “IEEE”, “TVCG”, or “ACM”, then it is likely fine). If you’re not sure if a reference is too obscure, contact me. Be prepared! Think of the evidence/publications that your opposing team could use and prepare for those arguments! Work together as a team!

I encourage you to make use of the AI tool Elicit. Elicit is a helpful and accurate research tool (endorsed by the Davidson Library). It does a great job of summarizing papers and connecting themes to answer research questions. Note that this purpose is different than a search engine: you need to input a research question and Elicit will search the literature to find evidence to answer this question. Start with this “Building Your First Notebook” article to learn how to use Elicit.

Unlike typical debates, you are welcome (and encouraged) to use slides.

Given that each team is required to speak 5 times, I expect every person in your team of 4 to speak at least once. How you divide that up is up to your group.

Debate Topics

There are four possible debate topics to explore.

  1. “Design guidelines considered harmful”: HCI research has always had a strong aesthetic design component. As a result, a number of design guidelines have emerged over the years.
    • Affirmative team: Design guidelines are necessary. They help practitioners know how to design effective user interfaces. They also serve as the foundation of HCI research.
    • Opposing team: Design guidelines are rigid and have caused a great deal of harm to the community. There is no “good” or “bad” design – designs are inherently contextual and task dependent.
  2. “The humans are dead”: This is the debate about automation versus human-user control. Data exploration, data analysis, and decision-making have increasingly become automated. Is a human-user still necessary?
    • Affirmative team: Human users are always necessary. Skynet anyone?
    • Opposing team: Automation is inevitable. Get with the program and start praying to our robot overlords.
  3. “HCI is critically missing in critical domains”: Some of the greatest advances of our society seem to rely on “old” technology – think NASA, think medicine.
    • Affirmative team: The greatest advances history in space exploration and medicine use tried and true technologies for a reason – we are at our best when we stick to the basics of a powerful command line interface.
    • Opposing team: Our society’s greatest advances are not at odds with a positive user experience. On the contrary, lessons from HCI have and will continue to inform the future of technological advances in critical domains.
  4. “Human-What Interaction?”: Computers are central to the name (and spirit) of HCI. But they seem to be disappearing. What does a future of HCI look like if computers as we know them disappear?
    • Affirmative team: Computers as we know them are disappearing. In their place are interactions with the environment, with computers embedded.
    • Opposing team: Other current issues in the field such as ethics and privacy will ensure that computers in their traditional form are and will remain the cornerstone of HCI.

Debate Assignments

One of the below topics will go unused.

  1. Affirmative: names. Opposition: names.
  2. Affirmative: names. Opposition: names.
  3. Affirmative: names. Opposition: names.
  4. Affirmative: names. Opposition: names.

Grading

Here is how you will be graded: