Spring break is here, but it doesn’t really feel like spring or break.

For starters, several inches of snow fell in my location last night. Work has piled on over the last few weeks. But most importantly, spring break doesn’t mean much when you’re in a MOOC.

I wrote last month about how I signed up for my first MOOC. MIT is teaching its Learning Creative Learning class both in person and online. I was excited to expand my knowledge as a person working for a company that promotes learning, a martial arts instructor, and as someone who wants to potentially seek a master’s degree.

I’m not disappointed with the class, but my expectations were a tad off.

First of all, I was under the impression this class was going to focus on different types of learning. In other words, I thought there was going to be some major component of cognition or psychology involved in how people learn. Many of the readings have touched on the fact that the traditional education model is not suited toward every person. This supports the type of reading I’ve done for my role at work, which suggests that we learn much more in informal settings than we do in formal ones. 

Secondly, I had no idea how the concept of homework was going to work. How do you read 20,000 responses to a particular reading? As it turns out, the homework – for the online participants, at least – is pretty much optional. After all, no grades are handed out. The homework consists of things like, “Create a project in Scratch,” “Teach somebody something today,” and “Participate in this discussion.”

Speaking of Scratch, I feel like the programming software for kids has appeared too often in this class. A conspiracy theorist might argue that MIT wanted to get the word out about Scratch to a wider audience, and created this class and the associated activities to do so. I’m not denying its applications and effects. I found Hernandez’s research on remixing very enlightening about how kids remix others’ ideas and how it fits in with U.S. intellectual property law. I just wonder if MIT could point to other sources for learning computer programming.

The class discussions are great. MIT brings in thought leaders in each subject each week for an hour-long discussion. They are not scripted, and Professor Resnick and the speakers engage in a casual conversation.

As far as my involvement goes, I am doing the required readings each week. I’ll read the additional resources if they look interesting (next week has a blog post from Henry Jenkins!). I haven’t been doing all of the activities in step with the syllabus, but I have done things like, “Teach somebody something.” I get to do that each week at karate class. I also do not participate in the live sessions, but will generally find an hour to listen to the class discussions while doing something like ironing.

Outside of the class itself, I formed a Google Plus circle for the people in our sub-group. Activity has waned, but a few of us seem to be regular posters. The links they have brought to the table and the discussions we’ve had have been good. I wish I had more time to devote to reading all of their links, but it’s definitely a social space.

Overall, I’m enjoying the experience, if for nothing else that it’s something new that I wanted to try. It’s giving me a good idea of the level of effort required to complete an online degree. I may not be learning what I thought I would be, but I’m still learning nonetheless.

Any martial artist should have experience in more than one style.

Last week, I attended a combat hapkido seminar led by Mr. Donald Moore. I have no formal training in combat hapkido, so I was apprehensive about making the hour-and-45-minute trip to Moline.

However, as I found out during the course of the four-hour seminar, combat hapkido teaches the same types of things I learn in karate, tai chi chuan and Hsing-i chuan.

1. You’ll learn that each martial art has more in common with another than you think

First, the martial arts share a few common goals – namely, self-defense and bettering yourself.

Over the past several years, and especially in recent months, I’ve been working on expanding my knowledge of traditional karate kata to incorporate joint locks and throws. It turns out that hapkido is full of many of these same techniques – wrist locks from opposite- and same-side grabs, center locks, armbars (“pluck the needle from the bottom of the sea,” in Chinese lingo), and more.

Martial arts can often be distinguished by particular characteristics of movement, stances, hand positions, breathing and so on, but we should always be reminded of what the martial arts in general aim to achieve: a strong body and a sound mind.

2. You’ll get more out of seminars

Next, if you do like I did and attend a seminar about an art that you have no experience of, it’s conceivable you’ll feel like you fit right in.

Given the relatively small group that Mr. John Morrow hosted at Morrow’s Academy of Martial Arts, Mr. Moore took some time before the event to survey his participants. We had about a five-minute discussion during which he asked me about my martial arts experience, and he was able to relate since he’s trained and ranked in both karate and tai chi chuan.

Throughout the seminar, when Mr. Moore was about ready to explain something to the group, he’d tell me to pay special attention  or just demonstrate the technique on me so I could better understand. Because of his capability and knowledge as an instructor, I was able to find more value in the information he presented.

3. You’ll bring new information back to your art

Finally, once you’ve made the step to go outside your art and learn a thing or two, it’s time to bring it back.

The sole purpose for me to continue training in the Chinese martial arts and to seek out other sources of knowledge is to deepen my own understanding of Okinawan Shuri-ryu karate. As my instructor routinely says to me, Shuri-ryu is a complete system, and we need to learn why that is. By going outside of karate and learning tai chi chuan and Hsing-i chuan (Shuri-ryu karate’s predecessor), and attending a combat hapkido seminar and other events, I’m able to bring all of that knowledge back to my original art.

What reasons do you have for cross-training? I’m sure you have more to add to this list! Leave a comment below and describe what you’re thinking.

Thanks to Jeff Tillett for suggesting the topic for this article. If you have a martial arts topic you’d like read about, let me know.