Two Bs or not Two Bs

The thing I was most interested in learning about during Module 2 was to wonder how things were going to work in my next group. As two of the members of the group are Type A personalities and two are Type B personality, I wonder how things will work. I suppose the pressure of having the As pushing the Bs into meeting their deadlines will allow us to finish earlier. But I hope they don't get too stressed out if we Bs don't get going right away.

This learning will benefit me as an online facilitator because it will encourage me to consider personality types when setting up groups. Today, one of my fifth grade classes was supposed to be working in cooperative groups. A number of different students came up to me and said they couldn't work with either individuals at their table or that some weren't trying. I'm not sure how much of it was personality issues and how much was the class was being cranky as the teacher confirmed to me after school that they were the whole day long.

In an online environment, being able to place students who will work well together is a much greater challenge than in my library. I know my students (generally), so I can tell who to definitely not have at the same table if I want to keep the chaos to a minimum. Knowing who to place together is hard to do online. By providing the group the opportunity to try out different personality tests and share the results will let the members understand what they are getting into and what to expect based on personalities.