Last three sessions

Well I came on here to see what topics you'd put up for discussion this week and found ... nothing So sad. Still perhaps you don't want those easy marks I'm giving out.

While I'm here I'll share with you my latest thoughts on the next three sessions. Thursday 19th will be a "normal" session and I'll get 3 discussion pieces up today on UPDago for you to prepare and the other hour of "classwork" will be up before the Thursday session. As usual you'll have the week to do it, whenever you feel most like working.

Thursday 26th will be your presentation day, I think you have an "Olivier" session running on that morning too. I'll put up a schedule on UPdago so that you know your time slot. Login before the actual presentation time and when I finish the presentation before yours I'll transfer you into a breakout room. Considering the course time limitation and the probability of technical hiccups along the way you'll have 4 minutes (max) for your presentation. Make it a good 4 minutes.

Thursday 3/12 will be a video comprehension test session. I've still got to work through the logistics in this new distance testing world but I think you'll all have to connect at the same time and do the test "together". The video and answer sheet will be unavailable outside the time of the test. Will it work? Who knows? We are all guinea pigs, it seems.

I had hoped that the last session would have been a "Christmas party" session involving food and games as I do most years but that's not going to happen. Hopefully we can do something in March/April instead.

Now get those discussion topics up.

Sorry I didn't know where to put my text! So me and my group have choose to speack about distance learning. So here is my beautiful text.
Currently, I experiment a new concept, it’s distance learning courses. During the previous containment, my class was finished, so it’s new for me. I find advantages about this situation, first I can sleep more, very important advantages! Make up becomes not necessary and no transportation.
Despite it’s hard to find motivation. I haven’t sociability and discussion. Distance learning courses allow to have an occupation and complete journey. Despite connection problems, I find the system is good and class is interesting. Teacher are motivating and adapt theirs class, we can ask question and give your opinion about class, positive and negative!
During the first lessons I laughed because teacher didn't know the software and he or she laughed at himself. I keep his name secret for his reputation.
However we have progress and coming soon happen the presentation time. We will make our presentation in front of our webcam and I am sur that be funny and ridiculous. So see you in few weeks to laugh.

We started the distance learning course just over a fortnight ago and it's all new to me! I find it very useful especially during this health crisis because we can continue the courses we should have had, certainly with some difficulties for some but for the moment on my side, I have had no problems at all! I keep my fingers crossed! The distance learning courses are beneficial in a way because we can get up later and come back from the courses earlier since we are already home haha! The comfort too is not the same, I must admit that staying several hours on a chair is much less comfortable than a desk chair or a sofa! However, not having human contact other than one's family for some people is not easy. For me it doesn't bother me too much as long as I keep in touch with my friends via Discord. I think it can't be easy for the teachers as they have to revise part of their programme to adapt it accordingly.

Today with my group we chose to talk about black friday, the date is approaching. This concept comes straight from America, we all know it, Americans never stop.
I find that it is a purely commercial concept that especially encourages over-consumption.
The objective of black friday is only to push people to consume, big companies like Amazon, Cdiscount is excellent in this field. The multinationals are getting richer and richer.  
For me, this kind of concept must be abolished. Today's concerns are linked to the environment and it is important for me to implement greener and more ecological approaches. It is clear that the concept of black friday goes against these concerns, the most harmful impact is pollution. Deliveries, plastic, transport are all polluting things that are not in line with today's world.

With my group, Tess, Titouan and Carole we decided to talk about Black Friday.
So, to beginning, I hate Black Friday! As Tess said, it's only over-consumption and it's onlu to push people to consume mainly on the biggest companies as Amazon, Nike, Apple...
A new movement is set up to fight against this over-consumption : the green friday. The aim of this collective is to warn people about the impacts of this impulsive consumption. The collective recalls important and worrying figures for our environment and fights for people to recover their purchasing power and ecological awareness. Each member commits to take concrete actions throughout the day on the last Friday of November and campaigns for responsible consumption.
In my opinion, it's important to become aware of the hazard of our consumption and to be more ecological to protect our planet

Black friday originated in the united states and it's a day when stores could make very good sales.
Now black friday has gone very viral.It is not only physical stores that offer low prices during this event but it also happens on the internet.
Moreover, it only takes place over one day but sometimes over several days...and many new similar events are made like the frenchdays.
Black Friday has a big impact on the economy of countries but it also has negative impacts.
In fact, people do not buy out of needs or necessities but out of impulse. They are always forced to buy more even unnecessary things.
And the environmental and disastrous impact because many orders on the internet (amazon specialist in balck friday operations) and deliveries with trucks represent a lot of emissions.

I am with the best group : Célie, Coline, Bastien et Lisa. We have chosen to talk about online learning.

This famous online learning, it’s a disaster … I hate that.
We dont’ see anyone, I feel like I feel like I'm listening to and talking to robots. But maybe it’s the case. There are any evidence !

Seriously, it’s no pratical. Firstly, for you, teacher, you can’t know if we are here behind our screen listening. And for we, because the majority of teacher have a monotonous voice. There aren’t live and therefore a desire to give up and do something else.
Moreover, there are many inequality. Some people have a bad internet connection, or don't have good hardware. Their computer can be old, or haven’t storage space, etc.

With my group, we decided to talk about about the Black Friday !!

a nice topic for us, who is representing a lot our society and this working. As Elsa said, I HATE too Black Friday, if we forget the bad aim, the over-consumption, the power of biggest companies like discount, amazon...I think is it interesting to talk about the extent of this day and this impact on consumers. We have all the same image, when I'm thinking about Black Friday, I'm seeing people're running to the same way, in a shop, very closed with a to of noises and action. I don't understand how an event like this with all impact informations consumers have, can create disturbance. People are like animals, they're running to have the best offer. In this case, we're watching the heart of humanity, when a movement is created, the crowd is following.

Thank you

Two interesting topics. Black Friday - it's easy to blame Amazon but it's not their fault. It is we, the consumers, if we ignore the marketing it wouldn't even exist. I can understand people wanting bargains but who really gets a bargain? Don't we just get old stock that companies can't sell? btw if anybody sees a high spec laptop at a bargain price ... I'd never heard of Green Friday but I like what I'm reading. The time is right for the people to act...but will they?

Online teaching - it's really getting a very bad rap. I'd say that in fact it IS the route to go but it's in its infancy and people are learning how to use it , people don't like change. Online teaching should give you great flexibility, greater equality and moreover better teaching (I know it isn't but that's the system not the tool). Flexibility - you should be able to work when you want for as long as you want, if you're a night bird do the work at 3am and sleep until midday, if you need cash get a job and work the classes after and before your job. Equality - no longer are you tethered by where you live, the price of rented accommodation, a physical disability , a moral judgement. You can study with any establishment and live anywhere. you don't even need to study at a university in your own country. The inequality is not down to online learning but down to governments allocating resources unjustly. We should ALL have broadband access (and it should be free or as cheap as clean water) and maybe this will force the government to concede that. Better teaching - you shouldn't be limited to the teachers who your establishment can afford or those who want to work there or who are happy to travel there. In theory you can be taught by the greatest teachers on the planet, you can access the cutting edge theorists, you can question the innovators, you can learn from the specialists. That's all down to educational organisation. Why have an old fashioned French foreign language teacher when you can have a mix of native teachers living in and using their own environments? And of course distance learning is far far better for our environment. We need to change, we need a revolution.

My group has chosen online teaching, I agree with you John but it's all theory. It is very difficult for some people to follow 3 hours of lessons through a screen... As it is very difficult for some teachers to give a course in this way. Maybe one day everyone will be comfortable with this method but for the moment this is not the case. Indeed, the attention of the students (as you probably know ) is variable and I think that it is already complicated to captivate a class at school, and that the difficulty is even greater online!

Today, nobody had the choice, we had to adopt this method. Maybe once everyone has been able to put the necessary tools in place, online courses will be beneficial for everyone. At the moment we are in the development, testing phase.

The group I am with and I, have chosen to talk about the online courses. We are all experimenting with this new tool for which some of us are experiencing some problems such as internet connection, inadequate hardware etc. In general, I find that these classes are easier to take because if we drop the class, we can do something else and come back to the class a few minutes later.

With my group (Paul, Marion P,Auriane and Emmanuelle) we have chosen to talk about our dream in life.
For me, I've had several dreams in my life. When I was a child my dream was to be a Miss France, I used to watch the contest every year and little by little it became a dream to become one. Then as I grew up I gave up that dream, it doesn't really suit me anymore. Then I dreamed of doing the Olympics as a volleyball player because it's one of my passions but after high school I had to stop playing volleyball in clubs because it was no longer compatible with my school schedule, which saddened me a lot. Now, if I think of a dream it would be to succeed in a field of art in general and more specifically to be a writer, artist or painter. Since childhood I have always drawn, written poems or stories or danced. A dream doesn't have to be something achievable I think that's the difference with a goal in my opinion. So I don't know if one day I will reach this dream but I just like to think about it and imagine it.

As Elsa, Tess and Titouan have already stated, we decided to write about the infamous “Black Friday”.

I’ve personally never participated nor do I feel the need to participate in this horrifying event where people lose all their manners along with their remaining brain cells, this is the day where everyone starts buying things they don’t need which leads to many issues like overconsumption, and then there’s the violence that accompanies this day, I’ve seen videos of people pushing and hitting each other in stores to get to the products first, so I guess stores are not exactly the safest place to be on this day either.

Ironically, Black Friday comes right after Thanksgiving which is supposed to be a holiday about gratitude for what they have (let’s not even mention the amount of poor turkeys they stuff themselves with on that day). Americans, am I right?