The workout scrawled on the whiteboard at my gym last week asked for 100 DU’s. These are double unders, a skipping style where the rope goes around twice for every time you jump off of the ground. These are not a strength of mine. I can manage a few double unders here and there, but I lack the rhythm, the stamina and the finesse to crank out dozens at a time. Many of my workout pals can do these, dozens at a time, with ease. As I asked my trainer how many single unders I should do to modify the workout, a friend looked at me with a spark in her eye and checked in with me,

“You can do some double unders, right? I’ve seen you.” I admitted that I could do one, or two, but that it wasn’t pretty. “Well, if you can do them, you should keep trying. Just do fewer.”

Hmm… How could I argue with that logic? I do want to improve my double unders, and I know that I can do a few. So I agreed to try.

As you can imagine (or perhaps you can’t, because you’re too smart to waste your time doing DU’s), I lashed myself a lot in the next twelve minutes. But I did reach a milestone. I figured out the rhythm of one double under followed by one single under, followed by another double under, and another single under. I’d love to report that I managed dozens, but I probably ended up being able to do about A dozen. Regardless, it was more DU’s than I’ve ever done in my life.

This course is pushing me in the same direction. I’ve had logins and access to a few LMS / elearning platforms for a while, but I haven’t invested the time to get better at using them. That is happening now. My interests are aligned with the curriculum I am trying to absorb and I am making more time to work in these online environments. This course has also given me the opportunity (read: pushed me) to learn about Connect and Moodle in a Blackboard Collaborate Session, and to add a comment to Bates’ ebook. These are not activities in which I would likely engage if not for the desire to maximize my learning opportunities at hand.

I also find people to be extremely motivating. When I see another person’s interest or passion for a topic it really encourages me to join in and get similarly enthused about either the same topic, or something I find equally interesting. A small piece of that motivation could be equated with trying to keep up. But I’m okay with that. I like to find the big thinkers, those with the big picture in mind, and run alongside them to collaborate, to share our journeys, and to push one another. In this course in particular it has hopefully led to a group for the second and third projects and for a side project I have joined (but, admittedly, may or may not complete.)

My group for Assignment 1 was a compelling mix of personalities and strengths. We worked together very efficiently. It is a trait within a group project for which I am always grateful. We met face-to-face to begin the collaborative process, and we stayed in fairly constant email contact through the duration of our time working together. Our comments on our Google doc numbered in the 1000’s (okay, okay, there were only dozens of comments) and I felt I was pushed along by the group to learn more about Moodle. On reflection, I feel I could have pushed my group further by being more emphatic about my desire to contrast Moodle with Eliademy. This is the prime time to explore and to play with different platforms. But for the record, I had plenty to learn with one LMS in hand. I am a big fan of group work. Only once in my MET career has it gone sideways. Working with Chris, Jenny, Melissa, and Stephen was interesting and rewarding and if this is their letter of reference, I would happily work with each of them again.

And maybe later, when we go outside to play, we can work on our DU’s together.