Personality Assessment

Every textbook series seems to have a unit on personality. It’s one of those “high interest” topics that textbooks often manage to turn into a slog. But it doesn’t have to be that way. The web is full of sites that playfully help users think about their own personalities and compare them to people, things, or characters. On Facebook, you can take tests that ask what type of beer you are, what decade best fits your personality, etc., etc., etc. But you don’t have to get onto Facebook. Recently there are many sites on the web that analyze your personality and compare you to something or someone. They can be a lot of fun and a nice introduction to some of the ways people talk about personality or their characters, and like and dislikes. They work on the assumption that everyone is familiar with what they are being compared with. Below is a list of different sites that you may want to use with your learners, organized by what your personality is compared with. They are taken from Kyle Mawer and Graham Stanley’s Digital Play blog, a blog that focuses on using web games and game-like sites for language learning .

Which Star Wars character are you like?

Which High School Musical character are you like?

Which Twilight character are you like?

Which superhero are you like?

Which Harry Potter character are you like?

Whyville

Whyville is an educational site that is a little like controlled 2D Second Life with a focus on education. Young users make their own avatars and then explore the island of Whyville, playing educational games and interacting (through chat) with learners from all over the world. The website states that “inside Whyville, citizens learn about art history, science, journalism, civics, economics, and really so, so much more. Whyville works directly with the Getty, NASA, the School Nutrition Association, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (to name just a few) to bring incredible educational content to kids in an incredibly engaging manner. Today, there are countless learning games and activities on Whyville…which is probably one of the reasons Education Daily states that Whyville is one of ‘edu-gaming’s biggest successes’.” Registering as a teacher in Whyville allows you to bring your students on and manage their accounts. Interesting content and a controlled, secure environment for young learners with a little proficiency.