Daniel Hickmott
About Me
I am an educator with experience in digital technologies education, research and software engineering. I'm a versatile and adaptive problem solver who enjoys working with technology and people on projects that aim to have a positive impact.
I completed my PhD in Education at the University of Newcastle, Australia in 2020. The focus of my PhD research was on the design and evaluation of a professional learning program for K-6 school teachers learning and teaching computer coding. You can read more about the program I ran on this page and you can also download my thesis from the NOVA repository.
Research Interests
- Computing Education
- Teacher Professional Learning
- Online Learning
- Serious Games
Education
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Doctor of Philosophy (Education)
2016 - 2020
University of Newcastle, Australia
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Bachelor of Software Engineering, Honours Class 1
2010 - 2014
University of Newcastle, Australia
Projects
You can find out more about some projects I've worked on by clicking the Project Details buttons below.
Memory Trick Widget
November 2024I created a simple widget that can be used to generate images for passphrases, as a way to help people remember their passphrases. I wrote a Python script to generate images for all the passphrases that can be generated with the widget and used HTML/JavaScript to create the widget.
Project Details
MEd (Digital Technologies)
2020 - 2022I lectured in the Master of Education (Digital Technologies) at the University of Sydney, working with the Australian Computing Academy. This program was for teachers upskilling for and leading the implementation of the Digital Technologies curriculum.
Project Details
Coding in Stage 3
2016 - 2020I developed and ran a sustained professional learning program for primary school teachers, as part of my PhD study's data collection. My PhD project involved measuring the program's impact on participating teachers' coding knowledge, confidence about teaching coding, and plans for integrating coding across the curriculum.
Project Details
Literacy Apps
2014 - 2016I worked with a team of educators and engineers to develop the iOS versions of the Apostrophe Power and Sentence Hero mobile learning apps. I also applied Serious Games Analytics to data collected through the Apostrophe Power app to gain understanding about how players interacted with the app.
Project Details
Coding and STEM 4 Schools
2013 - 2019From 2013 to 2019, I worked with a team of educators and engineers to prepare resources for and co-ordinate a variety of professional learning programs for upskilling teachers for the Digital Technologies curriculum.
Project DetailsSelected Publications
I have highlighted three of my favourite publications below but you can see the rest of my publications from the Publications page.
A scoping review of studies on computational thinking in K–12 mathematics classrooms
Published in Digital Experiences in Mathematics Education (April 2018, Volume 4, Issue 1)
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Exploring play-learners’ analytics in a serious game for literacy improvement
Presented at the Joint International Conference on Serious Games in Brisbane, Australia (September 2016)
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To Assess or Not to Assess: Tensions Negotiated in Six Years of Teaching Teachers about Computational Thinking
Published in Informatics in Education (September 2018, Volume 17, Issue 2)
More detailsResources and Media
I have included some different resources and media (videos and presentations) on this website. I have highlighted my favourite resources and media below but you can see more on the Media page and the Resources page.
Learning to Teach Coding Resources
A list of high-quality resources that I have collated for teachers that are looking to start teaching coding
I have created a page that has a list of resources for teachers that want to start learning coding. These resources are high quality and beginner-friendy resources that we use, or recommend, in the professional learning programs that we run.
View Resource
Integrating Coding and Maths in K-12: Research and Practice
Presentation from talk given at Google's CS Education Partner Summit in 2017
In this talk, I explained three projects that I had been involved in that had investigated the teaching of computational thinking and coding alongside Mathematics.
Open PDF
Creating Virtual Worlds Workshop Pitch Video
A winning entry in the University of Newcastle's Centre for 21st Century Humanities startup competition in 2018
This is a video that I submitted to a competition ran by the Centre of 21st Century Humanities. The competition involved creating a pitch video for a Digital Humanities startup idea that had to be less than 1 minute.
Watch Video on YouTube