The debate class used a teleprompter for the first time to assist them while recording their submissions for the Florida Civics and Debate Initiative virtual competition that happened on Monday.

The competition had debate students do the Pro Con Challenge, requiring them to record cases both in support of and in opposition to a specific topic. For this competition, the students recorded speeches for the prompt, “The United States federal government should forgive all student loan debt.”

In order to aid them while they recorded their speeches, the debate class used teleprompters that displayed what they needed to say instead of reading from a sheet of paper.

“It’s going to be helpful because we don’t have to look up and down when we state our cases,” freshman Maggie Qin said. “We will look more professional.”

Senior Anjani Sharma said the introduction of the teleprompter into the recording process makes debate easier.

“I think the tech is super cool,” Sharma said. “It’s interesting and viable. [The speech] flows better because we can make eye contact with the camera.”

One time while attempting to record, the microphone was accidentally left off.

“It was just a silent speech, so that was fun,” Qin said.

Unlike printed text on a sheet of paper, teleprompters display the script in motion, making it so that the presenter can read the script as they speak while having it be less noticeable to viewers. However, the constant motion of the words on the teleprompter was a challenge, according to Qin.

“It’s either my speech problem or the teleprompter, but a section was going really fast while I was speaking very slow because it had very complex words,” Qin said. “For one of my contentions, I kind of messed up, so I just skipped over it.”

The speed of the text can be controlled, but once set, it remains at that speed for the duration of the script, regardless of any changes in the speaker’s change of pace.

“For some sections, I might talk a little slower than others,” Qin said. “That’s a problem that [the teleprompter] would have because it wouldn’t be like when you’re reading a speech and you know exactly where you are and you can control your own speed.”

Sharma said she understands the limitations using the teleprompter but is still glad the debate class can use it.

“We can only [use the teleprompter] for asynchronous events,” Sharma said. “Still, it’s really cool to use tech to make the debaters’ lives easier.”

By Juliana Johnson