i. Personal Background

My name is Jeff Nwagbo. I am an International Development Studies Co-op student. I am also doing a Major in Environmental Studies and a Minor in Political Science. I was born in Nigeria and moved to England in grade 6 then moved to Canada in grade 7. My dad is British and Nigerian while my mom is Canadian and Nigerian. I currently hold Nigerian and Canadian citizenship. I also skipped a grade when i was younger making me a year younger that most of my contemporaries in second year. In the future i hope to go to law school after i graduate and pursue a career in corporate or environmental law. 

ii. Interest in the Course

I am interested in this course because of my experience in the IDSA02 class. My project for the IDSA02 class was an ICT for development project in Northern Ghana. I throroghly enjoyed creating an ICT project and that spurred me to take this class. I hope to learn more about ICT technologies and how they work, i also hope to learn about how these technologies can positively affect development. I felt like my project in IDSA02 was lacking in many areas and i feel that this course will give me more concrete skills along with a better technical understanding of the technologies i use everyday. 

I also enjoyed Prof Chan's TED talk on open access and i feel like this course will also give me more knowledge regarding how to use technology to made information more accessible and collaborative by using things like Wikipedia. Learning about new ways to push the boundaries of education and information sharing has always been an interest of mine and i feel like this course will expose me to some of the innovative ways that information is being shared today.

iii. Vision or Aspiration as an Active Learner

As an active learner i hope to become personally invested in the work i do in this course. I want to use my background knowledge of development and development theory, along with the knowledge i gain in this class to be a critical and analytical learner. I also look forward to the debate structures that we used today in class. Debating is one of my strengths but i also cherish the opportunity to learn from my classmates via discussions and open dialogue. I am excited about the upside down classroom premise and exploring new ways of learning in order to maximize my information retention over the course of this semester. I look forward to taking what i learned from my ICT project last year, improving upon it and showcasing the knowledge i have gained via the final project.