Research Overview.
Welcome :) I am a Learning Sciences researcher exploring how emerging technologies shape teaching and learning with a particular focus on inclusion and agency, and critical and creative thinking. Below, I outline some key professional highlights in research, teaching, and service, both within the university and beyond.
Critical AI Literacy · Futures Literacy · Culturally Grounded AI and STEAM · Inclusive Digital Learning
Featured Research.
Education 2050: Futures Literacy for a Polycrisis
As Co-Director of this SSHRC-funded international partnership, I am helping investigate how Futures Literacy can prepare educators and students to navigate uncertainty, imagine plural futures, and contribute to more equitable and resilient education systems. [Co-Director, SSHRC Partnership Development Grant]
Lopako: A Culture-Based AI Learning Agent
This SSHRC-funded participatory research project brings educators, students, researchers, and community partners together to develop a culturally grounded AI learning agent for middle-school science in Hawaiʻi. The project centres Hawaiian educational leadership, community knowledge, responsible AI design, and safeguards against cultural misrepresentation and cognitive offloading. [Primary Applicant, SSHRC Explore Grant]
Critical AI Literacy
My work in Critical AI Literacy helps educators and students examine the ethical, social, cultural, and educational implications of AI. This research includes a Critical AI Literacy Framework and Screening Tool, professional learning for educators, graduate course development, and policy work supporting responsible AI integration in education.
Culture-Based STEAM and Mobile Making
Through a SSHRC-funded partnership with Robotics Assisted Instruction Hawaiʻi, this project explored how a mobile makerspace could support culturally sustaining and inclusive STEAM learning in rural communities. Learning experiences connected coding, making, environmental education, and Hawaiʻi Culture-Based Education. [Principal Investigator (Applicant), SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant]
HyFlex and Inclusive Digital Learning
Using design-based research, my colleagues and I have investigated how HyFlex and online learning environments can be designed to strengthen access, participation, community, self-regulation, and meaningful engagement across learning modes. [Primary Applicant, Centre for Digital Innovation in Education Grant & SSHRC Exchange Grant]
As Co-Director of this SSHRC-funded international partnership, I am helping investigate how Futures Literacy can prepare educators and students to navigate uncertainty, imagine plural futures, and contribute to more equitable and resilient education systems. [Co-Director, SSHRC Partnership Development Grant]
Lopako: A Culture-Based AI Learning Agent
This SSHRC-funded participatory research project brings educators, students, researchers, and community partners together to develop a culturally grounded AI learning agent for middle-school science in Hawaiʻi. The project centres Hawaiian educational leadership, community knowledge, responsible AI design, and safeguards against cultural misrepresentation and cognitive offloading. [Primary Applicant, SSHRC Explore Grant]
Critical AI Literacy
My work in Critical AI Literacy helps educators and students examine the ethical, social, cultural, and educational implications of AI. This research includes a Critical AI Literacy Framework and Screening Tool, professional learning for educators, graduate course development, and policy work supporting responsible AI integration in education.
Culture-Based STEAM and Mobile Making
Through a SSHRC-funded partnership with Robotics Assisted Instruction Hawaiʻi, this project explored how a mobile makerspace could support culturally sustaining and inclusive STEAM learning in rural communities. Learning experiences connected coding, making, environmental education, and Hawaiʻi Culture-Based Education. [Principal Investigator (Applicant), SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant]
HyFlex and Inclusive Digital Learning
Using design-based research, my colleagues and I have investigated how HyFlex and online learning environments can be designed to strengthen access, participation, community, self-regulation, and meaningful engagement across learning modes. [Primary Applicant, Centre for Digital Innovation in Education Grant & SSHRC Exchange Grant]
Teaching & Mentorship.
My teaching is grounded in authentic inquiry, critical reflection, creativity, collaboration, and care. I design learning experiences that invite students to examine complex educational issues, connect theory with practice, and understand themselves as agentic contributors to educational change.
At Ontario Tech University, I have designed and taught graduate courses in Critical AI Literacy and AI in Education, alongside undergraduate and graduate courses in digital literacies, online learning, writing, literature, teaching methods, and educational design.
I supervise and mentor M.Ed., M.A., and Ed.D. students conducting research on AI literacy, digital literacies, STEAM education, online learning, and related areas. I also involve emerging scholars and community and industry partners in collaborative research, conference presentations, publications, and community-engaged work.
In 2026, I received Ontario Tech University’s Early Career Teaching Award.
At Ontario Tech University, I have designed and taught graduate courses in Critical AI Literacy and AI in Education, alongside undergraduate and graduate courses in digital literacies, online learning, writing, literature, teaching methods, and educational design.
I supervise and mentor M.Ed., M.A., and Ed.D. students conducting research on AI literacy, digital literacies, STEAM education, online learning, and related areas. I also involve emerging scholars and community and industry partners in collaborative research, conference presentations, publications, and community-engaged work.
In 2026, I received Ontario Tech University’s Early Career Teaching Award.
Service & Leadership
My service work extends across institutional leadership, educational policy, professional learning, and community-engaged initiatives. These contributions reflect my commitment to ethical research, responsible educational innovation, and connecting scholarship with practice and public dialogue.
Internal Service
At Ontario Tech University, I contribute to institutional and faculty initiatives related to research ethics, artificial intelligence, graduate education, scholarly communication, and digital innovation.
Selected contributions include:
External Service
My external service connects academic research with educational practice, policymaking, professional associations, community organizations, and public engagement.
Selected contributions include:
Internal Service
At Ontario Tech University, I contribute to institutional and faculty initiatives related to research ethics, artificial intelligence, graduate education, scholarly communication, and digital innovation.
Selected contributions include:
- Member and reviewer, Ontario Tech University Research Ethics Board
- Faculty designate, Institutional Leadership Team for the School of Ethical AI
- Host of WHOSE AI?, a Women in Research Council initiative developed in collaboration with CDIE and Creators4Change
- Former Co-Editor, Journal of Digital Life and Learning
- Former member, Centre for Digital Innovation in Education Executive Committee and Media Studio Sub-Committee
- Contributor to the Critical AI Literacy Summer Institute
- Advisor and participant in the development of Ontario Tech’s institutional AI learning agent
- Member of faculty hiring
External Service
My external service connects academic research with educational practice, policymaking, professional associations, community organizations, and public engagement.
Selected contributions include:
- Member and advisor, MPP Chris Glover’s Technology Committee
- Lead author of a policy brief advancing AI policy in Ontario’s K–12 and higher education systems
- Participant and invited panellist with Science Meets Parliament
- Co-developer and facilitator of Critical AI Literacy professional learning for educators
- Invited collaborator on a principals’ guide for responsible and faith-aligned AI use in education for the Catholic Principals' Council of Ontario
- Reviewer for SSHRC, academic journals, scholarly conferences and Prime Minister's Awards for Teaching Excellence (regional evaluator)
- Co-Director, WeWrite Hawaiʻi, an aloha ʻāina-based creative collaborative
- Community-engaged STEAM educator with Robotics Assisted Instruction Hawaiʻi
- Invited presenter, podcast guest, and panellist for educational, academic and community audiences
- Former mentor and judge for national digital inclusion and K–12 technology initiatives
