Leading involves inspiring and motivating.  It also involves working collaboratively to address issues and explore new possibilities.  Finally, it involves decision-making.  AU allowed me develop these skills that I use continue to develop these every day while managing a five-person team.

I entered the AU MEd program not sure if I could cut it and not feeling very knowlegeable. Sure, I'd been a distance education student, but I had never actually worked with anyone else at a distance.

As it turns out, it worked out OK. And the skills I learned through distance education have come in very handy as a part of a virtual instructional design team. I've not met many of my colleagues at AU in person, and I'll likely never meet either my boss or the team that reports to me, but I've made some very good connections in both.

I've included in this section:

1. Mii collage of my team. I can not say how much respect I have for each of the people pictured here. With such a great team, leading is pretty easy - and a lot of fun. 
2. A blog post that further describes the great team I have the privilege of being a part of
3. A couple of blog posts that I tossed out at work when I first started - something I'd never had done if I hadn't become comfortable with onlin discussion boards and blogs in Moodle and the Landing. I would have also never had said these things in a meeting in my first months at work, and a Landing post that describes somemore of my thoughts.

I don't think I can overestimate the importance that AU and distance education has had on developing my ability to lead, organize and manage.