Re-Re-Confinement

posted on: 28 Jan 2021 | author: tjolley

This is Carcassonne, which withstood a fairly long siege and survived, but it was nothing like as long as this: The siege of Candia (Heraklion, Crete) apparently lasted 21 years…. which, as one astute commentator put it, meant that those born at the beginning of the seige were old enough to fight in its last battle (they lost to invading Ottomans). Our lockdowns are tough, but let’s be thankful for small mercies!!!    ...

Reconfinement – nearly finished?

posted on: 26 Nov 2020 | author: tjolley

Well, we’re in Reconfinement still. The faint whiff of the merest hint of the slightest possibility of a remote chance of  perhaps just maybe letting us ‘off the leash‘ here in France for Christmas, seems to be hanging, tantalizingly in the air. But it has taken a month of a second confinement (and all the associated privations, hardships and financial losses) to get daily new infection figures down from 50,000 to ‘a mere‘ 15,000 per day.  Statistically, if I have read the figures correctly in France, approaching 2% ofthose diagosed as CoVid positive do not walk out of hospitals: that is at least 300 per day (2000 per week or 8/10,000 per month).  Is that small/modest enough to warrant a month of limited ‘deconfinement’ with the risk that, by mid Jan, the numbers of new infections from family-sized, super-spreader end of year events sees us on the leading edge...

Protégé : IES Education transmission team

posted on: 27 Oct 2020 | author: tjolley

Hi there team! Sorry but this was the only way I could think of to get my feedback to you as the file size was too great to send by Gmail and YouTube takes only video and not sound files… I hope this will work! It is protected by password which only you have, so no-one else can ever see it / listen to it: http://www.tonyversity.com/students/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Education-Transmission-team-Majdoub-et-al-FB.m4a Please tell me when you have all listened so I can remove it.  If I don’t hear, I’ll delete it the week after the holidays.   Thanks  ...

Reconfinement???

posted on: 3 Oct 2020 | author: tjolley

Well… will it all STOP again on Monday in France??? I guess we’ll have to wait and...

CoVid & me Rentrée 2020

posted on: 17 Août 2020 | author: tjolley

  No….  CoVid might do many things, but it does not help one to grow back long-lost hair!!  Sadly!   Oh, and by the way, what I am wearing is actually hair combed off our two white Golden Retrievers – I was scratching my scalp for ages afterwards – thanks kids! This News item is a very economical one for me, as my wife penned it for her site and I am largely using her text as a base as we both find ourselves in the same situation as regards our teaching this rentrée.     Well, it looks like we’re going to have to deal with CoVid for a while to come. After 3 months of lockdown, which we all found a bit frustrating to put it mildly (we were 7-8 people, family members, at home all the time, with nowhere to go except dog walking routes…) we all...

Thinkpiece on Sustainability at UHA

posted on: 23 Avr 2020 | author: tjolley

I’ve been teaching ‘Sustainability’ and ‘Sustainable Development’ at Degree and Master’s levels since 1990. Latterly, I’ve been teaching the subject on environmental-based courses at UHA and I have also been seizing the opportunity to introduce and develop the subject on courses upon which I teach English. After all this time, I believe I have a sense of what is going on (or, more correctly, what does not appear to be going on) with this issue, so I feel it is my personal responsibility as a citizen of France (and Britain) Europe and the planet and as a university lecturer to put some things ‘out there‘ to be considered by those in power who control decision-making and the budget strings. I am in no way suggesting that I am a world authority on the subject or that I am ‘right‘ and someone else is ‘wrong‘: I just happen to believe...

CoVid Confinement. Opportunities for Higher Education....

posted on: 23 Avr 2020 | author: tjolley

In writing this article, I am minded of the ‎Gabriel García Márquez novel title: ‘Love in the Time of Cholera’ (i.e. something good and getting stronger coming out of something bad). Here, I am thinking about what we teachers, students and institutions in Higher Education can learn from the unavoidable ‘learning and teaching at distance’ experience we have been having presently during the CoVid Confinement, and the opportunities for positive change we might seize as a result.  If the author of the above book doesn’t mind, my parody of his title for our time and situation might be: ‘Learning and Teaching in the Time of CoVid’ . Background. Firstly, may I say that what I am about to write represents a very personal perspective: mine.  I am not a dyed-in-the-wool French academic. I am a British University Senior Lecturer (Bournemouth University 1988 – 2005) who moved to France in...

Predictions post CoVid

posted on: 16 Avr 2020 | author: tjolley

Some (Personal) predictions in relation to the post CoVid period I am sitting at home still trying to work out what has happened and somewhat in shock as to how perilously sensitive are the systems upon which our economies and societies are founded if a virus we can’t even see can wreak havoc with the entire global economy in just a matter of months…. So, I thought I would ‘prognosticate’ (‘guesstimate’?) a bit as to what the future might just contain for us…..   and here are some of my thoughts on the matter in no particular order.  I am no ‘seer’ … it is just with the passing of time and ‘age’ one tends to see long-range patterns in things: Things never remain the same for long.… some things longer than others maybe, but as Darwin perhaps suggested in another context: the fittest survive and prosper and often a...

La Famille Fonce (vers une vie ‘Low(er) Impact’)...

posted on: 11 Avr 2020 | author: tjolley

OK, I’m going to talk about my family. NOT because we are a lighthouse for a low impact life or a showcase for sustainability BUT rather because we are at least en route and have had some successes and some failures thus far. My wife and I lived our younger years in an idyllic area close to the beach and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, so even 40 odd years ago we were used to protecting countryside and seaside.   We began to see things change: we almost never saw snow as the years went on (In fact, when I was very young indeed and living between Manchester and Liverpool, the first snow I ever saw was mostly black – because it passed through layers of pollution and smoke from local factories.  That was why my family moved to the South: for health reasons – my mother’s lungs couldn’t cope...

Keep a Light On [Dare to Care]

posted on: 9 Avr 2020 | author: tjolley

A song for those  who ‘Dare to Care‘ .……in the midst of the CoVid nightmare that they wake to every day currently….   The song’s called: « Keep a Light On » [aka: ‘Dare to Care’]…….. Here’s another link in case the big one in words above doesn’t work for you: https://youtu.be/IPKyO932I0s I had the ‘Keep a Light On’ idea and a couple of lines and the melody tripping round my brain for a week or more.  Finally broke away from marking university assignments for an hour or so in the late afternoon/early evening sunshine yesterday. Wrote the words.  Stood in front of the PC camera and played and sang without a run-through.  Inevitably I screwed up a ‘bridge‘, but otherwise I think it is OK … despite my poor, nasal voice!  Tried to keep it simple and a little repetitive in case people felt like singing it. If you like...

CoronaVirus and Crisis Management

posted on: 10 Mar 2020 | author: tjolley

   This is Carcassonne. Why Carcassone?  Well, because Carcassonne has known a crisis or two in its time.  At one point the castle was beseiged and people were starving to death inside.  They tried one audacious idea: to cook the very last animal they had and throw it over the walls to the beseiging army as proof the seige would go on for ages as they had so much food!  Apparently the seige failed and the invaders left.   Hence the name given to the city too: ‘carcasse’ -> Carcassonne! To bring us closer to our time, here is Blackadder’s take on ‘Crisis‘ – British humour – you’ll love it! Ok, I’ll get to the point. A year or so ago the focus of a MICAI conference and exchange was ‘Crisis Management’. I remember being a little disappointed at the lack of memorable crisis management phases, so I decided...

Anatomy of a Service Failure

posted on: 3 Mar 2020 | author: tjolley

« I just want to get the hell out of here! » You could ‘hear’ everyone in the queue thinking this aloud, but sometimes their thoughts became words and angry exclamations and sometimes those dealing with those in the queue were equally vocal, and at one point I thought it might even end in a measure of physical violence as the atmosphere had become so volatile. No, not a football crowd, but a queue of people who had paid £6.00 each to enter an airport security ‘Fast-Track’ service (because the queues in the ‘free’ security service were massive) only to discover (if everyone felt like me – which seemed to be the case) that it wasn’t fast and neither did it feel like anything resembling a service – let alone a service for which one had paid £6 to reduce waiting time and maybe have a wait in better conditions. Introduction....

Protégé : Inhibitors CPD 2020

posted on: 19 Fév 2020 | author: tjolley

100% veg – no meat!!!  What is stopping me from going veggie?     INHIBITORS LIST   What you now need to do is to: consider how you might ‘cluster’ related items on the list together in a meaningful way so we can form teams around them brainstorm up ideas to overcome these inhibitors and develop strategies and action programmes to put these solutions into practice.  In particular we will be thinking about ourselves and our ‘corner of the world’.  How can we apply solutions to: this Faculty our University the educational system (school and university levels) Mulhouse and the M2A Alsace 3. to achieve this, we will need to deliver a series of action programme intiatives by determining: what solutions may be possible which are likely to be the most successful, and why? when the solutions should be put in place (immediate, short, medium or long term)and how...

America

posted on: 11 Fév 2020 | author: tjolley

‘2020 Vision’ or ‘America (with due and profuse apologies to Ginsberg)’. A Personal Perspective…. America, have you not had enough time? America, why, after a full three years and then some, have you yet to come even remotely close to your senses?   When will your ‘2020 vision’ kick in so you can look your unpalatable, wind-sown truth full in the face and see it for what it is, warts and all while we the world over are reaping your whirlwind?  Will it take an even more sad and shoddy, second session to tell the tale, to learn the lamentable lesson? America; once he was a joke (even for you and you know it in your heart of hurts), with his cartoonists’ dream of a quiff, his guffs & gaffes and Fake News mantras all too hot-to-trot-out and around the political paddock at the drop of a hat or gauntlet;...

Tony’s Title

posted on: 5 Fév 2020 | author: tjolley

For Masters Research students…   Here are our first draft titles for my ‘interest area’ in guitar construction, playing and composition:   Does the shape, form or structure of a guitar have an effect upon someone’s emotions when performing? Musical instruments and performance: a case study of guitar shapes and varied  performances. Can a guitar’s design have an effect upon its usability? Does the individuality of each guitar affect its performance? How can different guitars make one feel and play differently when playing them? Playing guitar: between performance and emotion?     To what extent (and how) might     guitar design and construction influence playing and song-composition moods and styles?  ...

Teacher’s Revenge!

posted on: 16 Jan 2020 | author: tjolley

In an article on this site more than ten years dated now, I wrote about some of the teachers who dramatically affected my learning, my life and may career…. I now find that I need to update this in the light of current events. The eyes, by the way, are my eldest daughter’s … another teacher…. my mum, me, her….. First of all, I have been looking to find details of my old German teacher from school some 40-odd years ago: one Maurice Gent.  I haven’t found any.  Not too much of a surprise as he must have been about 40 when he was teaching us – he’d be well into his 80s by now if he is still going (and I hope he is!).  If I could have found him, I would be telling him of his ‘revenge’ for all the poor work I turned in for him...

Common Sense

posted on: 14 Jan 2020 | author: tjolley

  OK, that’s my Mum in her 20s I guess – she came loaded with more ‘Common Sense’ than anyone has a right to have.  I’d like to think that she passed some of that on to me – but that’s for you to judge! I read an article this morning on the BBC News website where Professor Richard Betts of the Met Office Hadley Centre was commenting upon the dramatic Australian bushfires and suggesting that, with a 3°C warming, this sort of thing may become less exceptional and more commonplace. In relation to why this might be so, researchers suggest that natural weather patterns are the underlying cause, but that it was ‘common sense‘ that ‘human-induced heating is playing a role’. This got me thinking a bit about common sense……. which leads me to believe that ‘sense‘ is, less than, shall we say: ‘common‘. Chief Seattle reportedly said...

M2 Mus Experiences

posted on: 17 Déc 2019 | author: tjolley

This is the greek citadel of Mycenae – Agamemnon’s seat – now a tourist attraction 3500+ years after its heyday.       So…. our lists: Poor Experiences Bâle, musée : trop de monde, pas de traductions francaises (peu d’Anglais), musique forte Louvre : Joconde, reflets sur vitrage, trop de monde, touristes irrespectueux, mauvaise signalisation Chapelle sixtine : trop d’attente, pas pu entrer, mauvaise communication de l’établissement, peu d’anticipation de la part de l’établissement Aéroport : aucun encadrement, pas de remboursement Versailles : aucun dispositif mis en place malgré canicule, perte de temps, longues attentes Parc aquatique : suppléments pour toboggans pas annoncés avant, peu de traductions, peu de communication Palais royal, Madrid : queue dans plein soleil, attente longue, tickets à imprimer en avance (peu pratique pour touristes) Tunisie : réservation, mais chambre pas prête, chambre sale, aucune variation des repas (pas très bons d’ailleurs), rien n’allait franchement, au moins remboursé, mais pas de compensation pour...

Chances of Avoiding BREXIT

posted on: 16 Déc 2019 | author: tjolley

Ad. Analysis F/bk

posted on: 13 Nov 2019 | author: tjolley

Some feedback for you on your Ad. analysis:   Process-related observations As  ever – please check your work:  in some cases the name of the brand or product was incorrectly spelled three or four times.  Proofreading should be second nature to you now!  DO use GRAMMARLY!!! Adjectives do NOT agree with male or female or in the plural Titles: we capaitalise all the long words not just the first as you tend to do in French (eg. Research and Development Manager) Paragraphing – I keep saying it: pargraphs have beginnings, middles and ends/transitions…. then LEAVE A LINE of SPACE (2 x ‘Return’ keystrokes) to denote it clearly. Try justification on BOTH margins – it looks cleaner. Expression not ‘in a first time’ etc: firstly…secondly… not ‘piques my interest’ or ‘catches my attention’, but ‘caught my eye’ / ‘got/drew my attention’. not ‘large left’ – but ‘far left’ You can...