Week Four

Four weeks down, eleven to go till the end of the semester. This week focusing on a new aspect of Professor Downing’s teaching style, pair programming. The idea of working in groups or pairs on a project is not something he only does, there are other professors, including computer science professors who believe being able to work together. The difference between simply working together and pair programming, is that pair programming involves working at the same computer together. This fact alone really puts me on edge. I do not mind working in groups, but I typically do so solo. In other words, I help the group but I do so at my own pace and usually in my own private space and not next to someone else. So my first taste of this style of group working came Saturday. It was not as bad as I thought it would be and it was helpful to figure out how we wanted to set up our program, so in that respect it can be beneficial. However, I am very much an introvert and my ability to interact with people for extended periods is severely lacking. I work more comfortably on my own, which is not to say I do not like my partner or that pair programming is bad, on the contrary I think my partner is very insightful at programming and I think pair programming can be beneficial, to an extent for certain kinds of people. For more extroverted people it can be a great way to work, especially when they gain energy from being around others, but for an introvert it can be very draining to do so in large doses, and with the requirement being pair programming 75% of the time and there being little time to do short bursts I foresee a very tiring work while working on this assignment. My worry is that when the group work starts next that we will be required to do 75% of the work all together, because trying to match schedules with one person is tough enough, doing so for three more would be killer. So we will see how this pair programming fairs.