Discussion ideas thread

[Admin]

Thanks for your participation this afternoon. It seemed to go pretty well from where I was sitting. 2 of the groups had very few technical problems, the other was not so lucky and had to turn off their video for most of the time. It was certainly easier to follow the discussions with the video working.

I tried not to talk too much which may have made it more difficult for the leaders but it's a good learning experience. You'll probably have to take part in a lot more videoconferencing in the future for your jobs, so facing problems now will give the experience to cope better in the future.

Please let me know in this thread how the session worked for you and compare it with a Face to Face session. Please comment on my connection and input ( I bounced around a lot). Positives and negatives so that I can learn from the experience and make it better for groups in the future.

Talking about next week, I've given you the video link to watch. Do you think we should split into 2 groups or 3 groups or stay as 1 (would that be too unwieldy - big and uncontrollable). Should I run a group after another group so that I sit in on them all the time? How long do you feel you can discuss? If it's 20 minutes should I post 2 short articles for the other groups to discuss at the same time in a similar fashion to this week?

What about future sessions? What do you think about giving a short presentation to a small group 3 times or giving a small group (3 people) presentation to the whole group? What other ideas do you have?

I look forward to your suggestions before making up my mind.

[Emma Vancostenoble]

It was as fun as usual, even if there was some technical problems but it was not so much inconvenient. Maybe we were more comfortable without a Face to Face session. But you managed it well

It's good if we are 6 persons in a discussion group because we can talk to each other easily, listen everyone's opinion and do not disturb each other too during the debate. The idea of mixing groups is good because it mix both promotions AND friends group so we can talk with people we don't talk to very often.

What do you want about a short presentation ? How many time, how, on which support and about which kind of subject
We can do the same as last year about topics, it was nice to vary subjects and we were curious and talkative about them. But maybe there are some innovations we can try.

Have a nice afternoon, see you

[Adrien Roucairol]

Hi John,

It was a good experience this afternoon even if it was quite difficult per moment.
In some groups, there were no video so it was quite hard to keep the attention of each member but i'm satisfied about this session and each girls have been serious and interested by my subject.
As Emma said, I think working in group of 6 is quite well, because everyone can talk and be listened.

And clearly, it will be hard to have a discussion with everybody in the same time, so the idea of split the into different groups is quite good.

Concerning next sessions, it could be interesting to continue to debate on different topics as we done before because it's a good way to speak and exchange our opinions with random groups.

Good luck for the match tonight John!
See you!

[ONDET Pauline]

Hi John

I also found that everything went very well this afternoon during the exchanges with the 3 groups in spite of the few bugs at the beginning and the times when we had to cut the cameras. I also think, as a "leader", that it was easier to keep everyone's attention with the video, especially in a virtual way where the dialogue is more complicated (and even more in a foreign language!). However, I found that everyone was interested in the subject and that there were good and constructive exchanges! I liked the fact that you often change groups but it's a pity that we had less exchanges with you than usual... We missed your opinion And, in my opinion, nothing replaces a good old face-to-face session!

I agree with the others to work in groups of 6 because it allows everyone to participate! And I think it's good that the choice of members is random, because as Emma said, it encourages us to know each other better (+1 for the virtual ). On a 1h video, maybe there will be more than 20min of debate? And I think we can all discuss it at the same time and you can do like today, go from group to group, to see and exchange with each one's arguments!

And I'm not a big fan of the idea of presentations (a bit too academic when English is the most fun class of the week! ). So I share the idea of the others which is to discuss different topics that interest us all personally and involve us all to participate.

Have a good confined weekend, and see you next week!

[Admin]

Hi John,

It was a good experience this afternoon even if it was quite difficult per moment.
In some groups, there were no video so it was quite hard to keep the attention of each member but i'm satisfied about this session and each girls have been serious and interested by my subject.
As Emma said, I think working in group of 6 is quite well, because everyone can talk and be listened.

And clearly,  it will be hard to have a discussion with everybody in the same time, so the idea of split the into different groups is quite good.

Concerning next sessions, it could be interesting to continue to debate on different topics as we done before because it's a good way to speak and exchange our opinions with random groups.

Good luck for the match tonight John!
See you!

We were awesome, even with a makeshift lineup.

[Adrien Roucairol]

Hi John,

It was a good experience this afternoon even if it was quite difficult per moment.
In some groups, there were no video so it was quite hard to keep the attention of each member but i'm satisfied about this session and each girls have been serious and interested by my subject.
As Emma said, I think working in group of 6 is quite well, because everyone can talk and be listened.

And clearly,  it will be hard to have a discussion with everybody in the same time, so the idea of split the into different groups is quite good.

Concerning next sessions, it could be interesting to continue to debate on different topics as we done before because it's a good way to speak and exchange our opinions with random groups.

Good luck for the match tonight John!
See you!

We were awesome, even with a makeshift lineup.

Yessss! It's the quality of great teams

[katia katy]

Hey hey,

Hope you are all fine

the session worked very well beside the technical problems, it was fun and interractive I don't why but i felt more more comfortable and inspired than face to face session.

Talking about the video with all the class will be a little bit difficult, we won't all be able to speak. As pauline said, working in small groups allows everyone to participate. I think we can speak more than one hour about the video.

I also agree with the others concerning next sessions, it could be nice if we can continue the debate about different topics so that we can improve our english.

Well, I don't know if it's possible but we can try to play some role-playing games/role-playing situations or something like this like we did last year. I know it can be difficult online but we can do it with small groups. We can also make 2 or 3 teams and do quizzes and each team play against the other.

Have a nice Week end and take care

See you

[Laura Berthier]

Hello Hello John !

For my part, doing the online session is different than doing it face to face, but it is just as interesting to do it. In fact, in my group we couldn't put the cameras on or it would create too much noise, it tended to create more silence because we couldn't see if someone wanted to talk or not, and when we were talking we felt like we were talking to a wall ... But I think it's improtant to train because we are going to use more and more teleworking and video conferencing in our jobs so we need to be prepared !!

And for the next session I saw that you had put some articles online, so let's go ! I'm ready to debate ! (and I think it's better in several groups rather than just one, otherwise it's going to be anarchy...)

Have a nice Sundayyyyy

[Admin]

Hello Hello John !

For my part, doing the online session is different than doing it face to face, but it is just as interesting to do it. In fact, in my group we couldn't put the cameras on or it would create too much noise, it tended to create more silence because we couldn't see if someone wanted to talk or not, and when we were talking we felt like we were talking to a wall ... But I think it's improtant to train because we are going to use more and more teleworking and video conferencing in our jobs so we need to be prepared !!

And for the next session I saw that you had put some articles online, so let's go ! I'm ready to debate ! (and I think it's better in several groups rather than just one, otherwise it's going to be anarchy...)

Have a nice Sundayyyyy

Hi Laura

It is less interesting when the video isn't working but it's a skill to learn/improve. In the groups last week only yours had problems with the video. The other two groups all had video connected. Perhaps it'll be better next week.

enjoy your sunny afternoon too.

[Emeline Texier]

Hi everyone !

I was in the group which don't had video but I find the last session very interresting because we could talk anyway! I already think that this kind of exercise is more relevant in face to face but we should be prepared for our future videoconference in our jobs !

Concerning the next session, I hope that our videos will work for more interractivity !

See you on Thursday !

[AdélaïdeSagnes]

Hello

Like everyone else I enjoyed last Thursday's course despite some connection problems. (I think Teams works better).

As Pauline I'm not very enthusiastic about giving an oral presentation, we already do this in other courses and I like the idea that in this course you can speak English without pressure.

I like that we do the same courses as usual but at a distance. It allows us to be able to talk to each other and see each other again.

I really like Katia's idea of role-playing. If we could do it from a distance it would be great.

Have a good week

[Admin]

I'll think up something for the role playing idea. Then we'll see if it works or not.

[carolinemaggi]

Hi John !!

I feel like I'm closing the barn door after the horse (okay I found this translation of "arriver après la bataille", I don't know if it's correct but to my mind it matches)
In fact, as guys said before I prefer a Face to face session because it's easier to talk and express yourself, to have a debate and be interactive because (I was in the group without cameras) it's harder when you don't see each other so you don't really know when you can take the mike. Plus, having a Face to Face debate allows us (at least, me) to see people's reactions with their facial expressions.
I like when you input yourself in our group but last week was different bc we couldn't, at least it was more difficult to interact with your thoughts and as you have a quick talk it's not easy to interrupt you to react as we could do in a Face to face debate. Maybe for the next session we could "raise our hand" to make the debate more fluid ?

I join girls and Adrien to let the groups of 6, for the same reasons.
I also join them concerning next sessions, I prefer continue to debate than do an oral presentation. In fact it's a bit too scholar and we already have a lot of group project so having a debate session where we can just talk, exchange our opinions, is more interesting to me. It's like having a normal conversation with my friends, in this shitty period.

Otherwise, I don't have any ideas for what we could do on the next sessions. Maybe keep debating about articles or we can choose a film or a documentary to talk about it (as you give us for this week actually).

See you on Thursday, have a good evening

[Admin]

Hi John !!

I feel like I'm closing the barn door after the horse (okay I found this translation of "arriver après la bataille", I don't know if it's correct but to my mind it matches)
In fact, as guys said before I prefer a Face to face session because it's easier to talk and express yourself, to have a debate and be interactive because (I was in the group without cameras) it's harder when you don't see each other so you don't really know when you can take the mike. Plus, having a Face to Face debate allows us (at least, me) to see people's reactions with their facial expressions.
I like when you input yourself in our group but last week was different bc we couldn't, at least it was more difficult to interact with your thoughts and as you have a quick talk it's not easy to interrupt you to react as we could do in a Face to face debate. Maybe for the next session we could "raise our hand" to make the debate more fluid ?

I join girls and Adrien to let the groups of 6, for the same reasons.
I also join them concerning next sessions, I prefer continue to debate than do an oral presentation. In fact it's a bit too scholar and we already have a lot of group project so having a debate session where we can just talk, exchange our opinions, is more interesting to me. It's like having a normal conversation with my friends, in this shitty period.

Otherwise, I don't have any ideas for what we could do on the next sessions. Maybe keep debating about articles or we can choose a film or a documentary to talk about it (as you give us for this week actually).

See you on Thursday, have a good evening

Thanks

It's the correct expression and it is still used regularly but you missed the end of it. Closing (shutting) the barn door after the horse has bolted (which means left at speed).

I don't think all of the people in a small group have to turn off their video if there are problems only the individual who has the connection problem. It is to do with the amount of information coming down your line. those of us with broadband will have very few problems if any.

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