Presentation How to go about TOK speech?

[SuperChickenRun]

Hey, okay so we had our last TOK class for before the holidays last week, and we were told that we needed to write the speech for next term. Cool. I have no idea what to do.

 

I am pretty okay with finding a topic as I could just go to a news website and pick a thing that is interesting and make a knowledge question, right?

 

But what I need to know most is what I am actually supposed to do. It is difficult as at my school we only have one TOK class a week, and in this time we mostly just look at paintings and things and analyse them or something, which is helpful but we haven't exactly gone over anything we need to do speech wise....

 

So it would be absolutely fab if someone could send me a list of what I am meant to include in my TOK speech, what things I should avoid doing in my TOK speech (like, tips, not topics), and is there any format I need to follow, or certain way that I am meant to present it? Can I have power point or notes, or what? 

 

And (not sure if I am allowed to ask...?) but are there any topics/cases/things I should stay away from doing? Like, is prostitution not a good topic, or ethics of something, or murder, or anything, just what should I stay away from?

 

Thank you so much

[El :3]

Hey there - check out these sites:

 

http://mrhoyestokwebsite.com/Presentations/presentations_main.htm

http://mrhoyestokwebsite.com/Presentations/Hints%20&%20Tips/The%20Presentation%20-%20Structure.htm

 

and this video is an amazing guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDoU6OijEVo

 

Start with your real life situation, briefly explain it to the audience. Then pick out the knowledge claims, then ultimately the knowledge question(s) you will be exploring. Choose your AOKs and WOKs wisely to explore your topic.

 

Develop your argument using claims, counter claims, and constantly ask questions (perhaps further knowledge questions arising from what you've discovered).

 

Finally, end with a bang - I can't tell you how to do it, but find a way to end, leaving your audience inspired.

 

It's down to you to choose how you set it out, and you've got to be creative - that's what keeps the audience intrigued. Literally everyone in my IB cohort had a powerpoint which is great, but it gets boring and repetitive. So I made a Prezi to go with mine which worked really nicely, and I actually used the layout to enhance my point and (loosely) enhance our appreciation of the way in which I answered my knowledge question. Avoid cliches, or common topics like "was Adolf Hitler's actions in WWII ethical?" etc.

[SuperChickenRun]

Hey there - check out these sites:

 

http://mrhoyestokwebsite.com/Presentations/presentations_main.htm

http://mrhoyestokwebsite.com/Presentations/Hints%20&%20Tips/The%20Presentation%20-%20Structure.htm

 

and this video is an amazing guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDoU6OijEVo

 

Start with your real life situation, briefly explain it to the audience. Then pick out the knowledge claims, then ultimately the knowledge question(s) you will be exploring. Choose your AOKs and WOKs wisely to explore your topic.

 

Develop your argument using claims, counter claims, and constantly ask questions (perhaps further knowledge questions arising from what you've discovered).

 

Finally, end with a bang - I can't tell you how to do it, but find a way to end, leaving your audience inspired.

 

It's down to you to choose how you set it out, and you've got to be creative - that's what keeps the audience intrigued. Literally everyone in my IB cohort had a powerpoint which is great, but it gets boring and repetitive. So I made a Prezi to go with mine which worked really nicely, and I actually used the layout to enhance my point and (loosely) enhance our appreciation of the way in which I answered my knowledge question. Avoid cliches, or common topics like "was Adolf Hitler's actions in WWII ethical?" etc.

Thank you so much! 

 

But what are AOKs and WOKs? :/

[El :3]

Areas of knowledge and Ways of Knowing. I've given you a few examples, but the full list is at

 

AOKs examples:

• Mathematics
• Natural sciences
• The Arts
• Religion

https://ibpublishing.ibo.org/exist/rest/app/tsm.xql?doc=d_0_tok_gui_1304_1_e&part=2&chapter=4 

 

WOKs examples

• Reason
• Imagination
• Language
• Intuition

https://ibpublishing.ibo.org/exist/rest/app/tsm.xql?doc=d_0_tok_gui_1304_1_e&part=2&chapter=3 

[UncleChopChop]

or ethics of something

 

A really commonly held (and grade-destroying) misconception is that TOK is philosophy, or worse, ethics. Far too many TOK students see that Ethics is an AOK and assume that questions of the form "is -x- ethical/acceptable/right" are a good starting point.

 

The core purpose of TOK is to dissect worldviews - both our own and those or others - in terms of the means by which we acquire and interact with knowledge. The means by which we determine ethical behaviour are certainly an important component in their respective AOK, but the focus should not be on objective determination of ethical righteousness - nor should such evaluation be a core component.

 

To reiterate: you want to analyse the filters and personal biases that knowledge passes through for a variety of groups and individuals.

 

Using my own two TOK presentations as a basis, there's two ways you can go about it:

-Start with a real-life situation you think has implicit knowledge issues and try and extract a knowledge question. For example, I considered the conclusion of print of Encyclopaedia Brittanica and ended up with the question "to what extent has the rise of internet technologies altered the way in which we acquire and interact with academic knowledge?" It can be specific to your topic in this manner.

-Start with a knowledge issue (you can find some good ones in various TOK guides) and work backwards to a RLS. For example, I had the knowledge question "to what extent is consensus an accurate measurement of the reliability of knowledge?" and ended up looking at the online "witch hunts" following the Boston Bombings.

 

Have a good read of the materials that previous posters have provided to get a clear understanding of what you need to do. If you take anything away from this post, it should be that TOK is critical analysis of knowledge biases using AOKs and WOKs as tools and means of classification.