Hello fellow ETEC 522 participants!
My name is Sarah McLean and I am a faculty member at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. I am married and have two young children- Vivian (4) and Betty (3). I am really enjoying the ages of my children right now because they have so much personality (and say the most random things- for example, Vivian was complaining that there isn’t a “Kid’s Day” because she heard about Mother’s Day this weekend). When I am not at work or chasing around my children, I try to indulge my creative side. I really love painting (see picture) and create art and glassware using alcohol inks. I have also started to really enjoy gardening, but I am pretty novice at that right now.
In terms of my professional self, I have a PhD in Physiology and currently, have a teaching-intensive position at Western. My students are in the interdisciplinary medical sciences program, and many of them have aspirations of going into medicine. Besides my teaching role, I am also the eLearning coordinator for my unit. Though this position isn’t well defined, I decided to enroll in the MET program a few years ago to advance my skills and give me further background/practice/research in eLearning and pedagogy. I generally take the ETEC courses in the summer, as the rest of the year is pretty hectic for me. This is my 6th ETEC course (yay! past the halfway mark!) and I am also taking ETEC 524 right now. I signed up for this course because I wanted to learn about new aspects of technology-integrated learning that are emerging. My unit is currently looking to invest in technology-integrated learning in a more meaningful way, and I thought that this course would help me learn ab0ut some of the opportunities that are currently available, and also how to think about the utility and analyze different approaches. I try to have a growth mindset in everything that I do, and I have found aspects of the MET program challenging, but I am really happy with my progress and what I have learned.
I look forward to learning with and from you in this course.
Cheers,
Sarah
