I am from the northern part of Nigeria, sub-Saharan Africa. As far back as I can remember, my family has always prioritized the education of myself and my six siblings. Though both my parents are educated to Bachelor’s levels, mum in Geology and Dad in Law; they went to great lengths to get it and that impact isn’t lost on me. My dad walked long miles to elementary school alongside doing farm work. My mum birthed kids while writing exams, at a time when women were not too welcome in classrooms. Somewhat because of these sacrifices, I am able to pursue a doctoral degree today; the first in my known extended family to do this.

My background is in Software Engineering, having obtained a Bachelor of Science from the American University of Nigeria (AUN). This was followed shortly thereafter by a Master of Science in Software Engineering from the University of Manchester. I got an introduction to the teaching side of things during a one year post-study mandatory service period required for all Nigerians, in which I was a Graduate Research Assistant at my alma mater AUN. This evolved into a long term teaching contract as an Instructor of Computer Science and Software Engineering.

Though I was surrounded by colleagues decades older than myself and was one of the only two female instructors in the School of Information Technology, I was inspired rather than intimidated.  It was at this time that I began my storied journey towards a PhD in Learning Technologies (LT) at the University of North Texas (UNT). Over the years, I have published, presented and reviewed for international conferences spanning Europe and North America. A recent highlight was the opportunity to co-author with Dr. Tandra Tyler-Wood, Chair of the LT department at UNT.

I have also gotten to create some learning based technology efforts oriented towards online learning.  The Peer-Assisted Learning System (PALS), which was accepted for the Design & Development Showcase at the 2018 AECT International Convention, serves as a matching tool for tutor to tutee in a higher education setting. This was developed using C#, ASP.Net and Javascript technologies building upon my software development experience. On the other hand, Mathy! is a pre-k learning tool for math education designed for touch-screen devices to familiarize children aged three and under with the numbers one to five.

My scholarly writing has been a bit more varied. Though my earlier work dilly-dallied on topics of AI in education and the digital natives/immigrant debate, my more fully formed interests now congregate around three, sometimes intersecting, themes; STEM education (inclusion, digital fabrication), landscape of educational technology in Africa (the haves and have-nots) and relationship-based learning (peer tutoring and transactional distance).

My non-academic efforts have included serving in an advisory capacity at a non-profit called Wadi Ben-Hirki Foundation (WBHF) which caters to the educational needs of internally displaced children in Nigeria. I also just completed a Fintech programme at Oxford University, during which I further developed my ideas on equitable and sustainable education financing.

In light of all aforesaid, my future professional outlook is oriented towards contributing to the development of strong education systems underpinned by technology in both policy making and product innovation capacities.