Meyers Briggs Test

Meyers Briggs Test

My profile was INTJ – Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Judging
I’m interested in the statement that less than 1% of the population has this personality type, yet we have (at least) four in this class who were designated INTJ. That’s interesting. It reminds me of an article that I read that the tech field had a disproportionate number of Asperger’s Syndrome employees. Seems something about this field attracts and INTJ type of personality. Or else the test isn’t accurate. Or this is a statistical anomaly.

My favorite quote from an INTJ:
“Ideas do not have to be correct in order to be good; its only necessary that, if they do fail, they do so in an interesting way.”
~Robert Rosen

I related to a lot of what was stated in the INTJ profile, but then I relalte to what my horoscope sign says about me, and what my Chinese birth year profile says about me. Is it that we tend to read the parts we relate to and say, “Yes! That’s me!” while discounting the parts that don’t quite apply? A few things I disagreed with in the profile are the description of always being prepared not only with a Plan A, but also a Plan B, C, or D if needed. I think I’m flexible enough to try other approaches if the first one doesn’t work, but I don’t see myself being efficient enough to have all the plans prepared ahead of time. I can be a more “fly by the seat of my pants” type of person. It also stated that I don’t like/tolerate inefficiency, but I don’t think that’s quite true of me. I don’t like people who waste time on stupid stuff, but I think highly of creative people who do not always proceed to get things done through an efficient, linear process. I do agree with these parts of the profile: I like to work in the background. I am not a fan of established rules; I am a fan of good ideas. I do think I work hard, and put in extra hours, I generally try to accentuate the positive and move things forward, and I like problem-solving.

While I think I am theoretical, I don’t necessarily feel that having all the research done before deciding is the right approach. I believe in intuition that is backed by work and experience. How does this profile apply to how I teach and use technology? First, I am willing to incorporate new technology, even if I haven’t mastered it. I want to see what kids do with it if you put it in their hands. There is a part of me that thinks I would be a better teacher if I were more prepared. But then another part of me encourages jumping into new territory and seeing what happens. I don’t teach in a very prescribed, step-by-step method. I don’t like the pace that happens when I wait for everyone to do step one before giving step two. (It was a good way to go when I taught 2nd – 4th grades, but doesn’t seem right for high school.) I think it’s OK for my students to experience some ambiguity; to have to figure things out; and to talk to each other: “how did you do that?”. I am becoming more comfortable with the idea that students know stuff that I don’t and/or that they will figure out a way to do something in a different or even better way than I would have given them. I don’t really leave students hanging in the void – if they are experiencing trouble, I help. But I like for them to ask the questions, to have to explain what parts they do/don’t understand, and to come up with ideas for how they can accomplish the goal. I think that technology will always be changing, and rather than teach them the specifics of how to use this version of this software, I would rather teach them the flexibility to figure out a way to accomplish a goal, to use different softwares, to apply useful strategies, to be lifelong technology learners and problem-solvers. Now I’ll use another favorite quote, from Dennis Miller: “But that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.”

 

Moodle

Went to a Moodle workshop yesterday evening. Moodle is awesome. I didn’t stay in the workshop the whole time, because they were showing the interface that teachers would use to develop lessons. It was fairly simple and I feel confident that I can master it. But, what I really wanted was the knowledge of how to set up a Moodle server that I can start using! Alas, not in that workshop. But I was inspired. Also, a student last semester in an independent studies class set up an old computer with Linux Ubuntu, Apache, and MySQL. So I think I may be most of the way toward having a Moodle machine. The question is, do I understand the set up he did well enough to work on top of it? OK, there are two questions. Other question is when will I have the time to delve into this? I have been hearing about Moodle for about two years now, but so far haven’t done anything with this knowledge. What will make me have/make time now???

Am about to start a workshop on Adobe Acrobat. I hesitated to sign up for this – it so seems like something I could learn on my own. But (see above), I haven’t so far made the time to learn the cool features of Acrobat, so I thought it might be worth the time to let someone do it to/for me.

This speaks to the topic of online – I think online/independent learning needs to part of a blend. Sometimes you can learn it own your own. Sometimes you need a more structured class (which could be online). Sometimes you need a face to face instructional setting. And sometimes, you may need one-on-one time with either a mentor or a peer working out stuff with you.

Workshop starting. That’s it for now . . .

 

from TCEA

I’m in Austin!! Drove down yesterday. Beautiful day for a drive. It was great to be alone, windows down, music playing. And although there was a lot I needed to do, I couldn’t do it in the car while driving, so for four hours. . . no guilt.
No “I should be . . . “ 
No “. . . as soon as I finish this, I really need to . . . “
No “. . . in another 10 minutes, it’s time to . .  . “

That might be the best part of TCEA!!!

I did a session this morning on Microsoft Learning Agents. Very fun stuff. The presenter was showing things he did with them for his classes – like having the wizard say hello and take roll. That would be cool, but I was thinking how fun it would be to have the kids make animations with the characters. I’ll have to keep that in mind!!

I also attended three short sessions on CS teaching. One was a woman who had her students create a programming tutorial as a review from the year before. The simplest option was for students to record a podcast. At the more complex (A) level, they used CamStudio and made a video. I like that idea. It made me think that I might be able to do something like that as a part of my classwork for 5110. I also think it’s a great way to review. The students would definitely like it and be involved (unlike many review units, which can seem so boring). And those could be revisited at semester or year-end as a review for exams.

Other workshops were about GUI game programming in Java for students. I am very interested in both the examples shown. Students definitely love doing graphics stuff, especially if interactive and in a game format.

Gotta go now. From 4 – 7, I’m in a workshop about Moodle.
TTFN