ICT & Educational Technologies Professional Development

Digital Pedagogies

Dr Zagami can provide presentations and workshops on Digital Pedagogies to upskill staff on approaches to using technology to support teaching and learning, the range of technologies available, and strategies to develop a sustainable and transformational change using a systems-based approach to address the stakeholder complexities of educational environments. 

Emerging Technologies

Dr Zagami can provide presentations and workshops on the range of emerging Educational Technologies that teachers and schools leaders should be aware. He conducts ongoing research into trends and innovations in computer education and the uses of digital technologies in schools, and can inform on the breadth of educational technology options available to schools and their relative potential impact on education.

Artificial Intelligence

 Dr Zagami can provide presentations and workshops on the challenges and opportunities of Artificial Intelligence technologies. He conducts research on the implications for education of Artificial Intelligence technologies. He can also provide workshops introducing AI technologies, the ethical challenges of AI, curriculum implications of AI, assessment challenges of AI, and the preparations needed for General AI and conscious AI.

Assessment and AI

Dr Zagami can provide presentations and workshops on the challenges and opportunities that Artificial Intelligence technologies present to assessment. Framed around four approaches (1) detection and punishment, where AI usage is treated as academic misconduct; (2) oral examination, used to authenticate understanding through real-time articulation; (3) embedded artefact creation, where students document and reflect on the iterative process of developing work, supported by AI; and (4) extended criteria standards, which include dispositions such as leadership, initiative, and collaboration—capacities not easily outsourced to AI. The model is supported by research and provides a foundation for both school assessment policy development and practical classroom assessment approaches.

Girls and Computing

Dr Zagami can provide presentations and workshops on increasing female participation in K-12 computing. He presents three main approaches, the normalisation of computer education to reduce the negative consequences of specialised programs for adolescent girls differentiating them from their peer group; strengthening the teaching of concrete and relational processes in computing to reduce the emphasis on abstraction which favours males; and reducing the use of gender hostile language in computing. Dr Zagami conducts research into the scope of female disadvantage in K-12 computing, the contributing factors, and approaches to mitigating  their influence.

Project Based Learning

Dr Zagami can provide presentations and workshops on the use of Project Based Learning to develop higher order thinking skills. He uses a model of student agency in identifying and solving real world challenges and opportunities through the application of strategic (entrepreneurial/managerial), futures, systems, computational, and design thinking processes. Dr Zagami conducts research into the uses of Project based Learning in education and the range of learning activities available to develop thinking skills through PBL in all learning areas and age levels.

Game Based Learning

Dr Zagami can provide presentations and workshops on the use of Game Based Learning in education. He researches how schools can make use of games, particularly computer games, to support all curriculum areas and age levels. Game use in schools include drill and practice cognitive reinforcement games; exploring game narratives as literature; language immersion within foreign games; creating and programming games, their artwork, and music; physical games for PE and drama merging digital and physical movements; through to scientific and mathematical simulations and experimentation. Dr Zagami conducts research into the uses of games in education and the range of curriculum applications and learning activities available for all learning areas and age levels.

Gamification

Dr Zagami can provide presentations and workshops on the development and use of gamification techniques to support teaching and learning, behaviour management, staff recognition and feedback, and the tracking of school sport and extracurricular activities. He demonstrates a combination of reward and recognition systems, league tables, badging, and micro-credentialing systems; and how these can be used to support teaching, learning and organisational goals. Dr Zagami conducts research into the uses of gamification in education for staff and all student learning areas and age levels.

Brain Computer Interfaces

Dr Zagami can provide presentations, workshops, and classroom support for the use of EEG brain wave headsets to measure and display student cognitive activity as feedback to teachers on the cognitive impact of their teaching and as meta-cognitive feedback to students on the most effective activities to improve their learning. Up to 10 students or teachers can be monitored concurrently with immediate feedback provided on learner neural activity. Student interest, engagement, stress, excitement, focus, and relaxation levels can be displayed in real time, with more complex analysis of EGG patterns available from recordings.

Virtual Reality

Dr Zagami can provide presentations, workshops, and classroom support for the use of Virtual Reality to support learning. Up to 10 students or teachers can concurrently use personal VR headsets to explore a range of VR apps and Google Expeditions, with a full scale VR environment (Oculus Rift) including motion simulation available to explore high end VR environments and their educational uses. Dr Zagami conducts research into the uses of VR in education and the range of curriculum simulations and learning activities available for all learning areas and age levels.

Augmented Reality 

Dr Zagami can provide presentations, workshops, and classroom support for the use of Augmented Reality to support learning. Up to 20 students or teachers can concurrently use personal AR devices at a time to explore a range of AR apps and educational applications but more can be accommodated with additional mobile devices or desktop/laptop computers equipped with cameras. Dr Zagami conducts research into the uses of AR in education including student and staff creation of AR and location based applications such as school tours, activity learning stations, and a range of curriculum simulations and learning activities for all learning areas and age levels.

Robotics

Dr Zagami can provide presentations, and workshops on how Robotics can be used to support learning throughout the curriculum. He can demonstrate a wide range of Robotic device options including most available mobile robots systems, robot arms, underwater robots (UUVs) and drones (UAVs); with groups sets (up to 30 concurrent) of Bee Bots, Arduino, Lego Mindstorm, Edison, and Evo robotic systems, and up to 10 concurrent micro-drones. Dr Zagami conducts research on the use of Robots for instruction with a NAO humanoid robot and a full size R2D2 demonstrating how robots can be used in many workplaces, including teaching.

Dr Zagami also develops and provides professional learning through online courses that can be modified to support school and system needs, ranging from single workshops to comprehensive courses of study. In 2017 Dr Zagami conducted a series of three 9 week online professional development courses on the Digital Technologies curriculum for 1500 Queensland teachers supported by the Queensland Government Advancing Futures #CodingCounts initiative. 

Dr Zagami is able to support school and system grant applications that incorporate staff professional development.