After two months of hard work, the Eracism 12-2 finals have started. There will be three finals debates, the first debate last week was Bracket C:
3C - THINK Global School (Argentina) Class 2 - Affirmative
2B - Bettendorf Middle School (USA) - Negative
​Judges: Catalina Valenzuela (Lead Judge), Karin Linehan and Leigh Zeitz
Recording for this debate
Congratulations to the Affirmative team, THINK Global School for being the adjudicated winner of this debate!


The Eracism 12-2 finals this year are being held synchronously in the virtual classroom, Blackboard Collaborate. Student teams must be ready to speak, respond and rebut with very little preparation between each speaker. Judges are sent to a breakout room at the conclusion of the debate and have about 5 minutes to deliberate and return with their conclusion and decision about the winning team.


Teacher from Bettendorf, Aaron Maurer, who is also a Flat Classroom Certified teacher (although this is not a requirement for inclusion in the Eracism project) shared a thoughtful blog post after the debate last week. In this he says:
"These two pictures show education at a high level. We have students listening, analyzing, and trying to process new ideas and concepts in real time without much time to finalize as a team. During the short quick breaks they quickly dispersed ideas and had to quickly gather all their ideas, write ideas down and looking for that one loophole that we needed to win. It was remarkable. I sat on the floor with my coffee and just watched it unfold. I try very hard to keep my thoughts and ideas out as this is their debate. I do give them things to ponder, but never give facts or information directly."

Aaron has another team debating this week, this time against a team in China - and you can imagine the logistics behind how we have finally determined a time for teams to debate live, given that China is 14 hours ahead of where Bettendorf is located.

Eracism Project fosters a global debate, it also fosters learning about the world through interaction with others who live in different circumstances and have different ideas and opinions. It also teaches both educators and students how to use the technology available to connect and communicate effectively.

Please join us for the live final debates this week:
Link for the Debate classroom.
TOPIC: "Global management of natural resources will cause more harm than good"

Bracket A
Date and Time of Debate Final: Monday, December 17th, 2012 at 9:00 a.m. EST, 14:00 GMT. Find YOUR DATE and TIME for this event
3A - Quality Schools International Bratislava (SLOVAKIA) - Affirmative
6A - Lounsberry Hollow MS (USA) - Negative
Judges: Karin Linehan (Lead Judge), Catalina Valenzuela, Susan Adams

Bracket B
Date and Time of Debate Final: Wednesday, December 19th, 2012 at 8:30am. EST, 13:30 GMT. Find YOUR DATE and TIME for this event
8B - Bettendorf Middle School (USA) - Affirmative
3B - American International School of Guangzhou (China) Class 4 - Negative
Judges: Leigh Zeitz (Lead Judge), Catalina Valenzuela, Susan Adams and Andrew Csizmadia

Apply for Eracism 13-1 NOW - Involve YOUR students in this global debate next semester!
Applications open until February 7, 2013.