MID seminar with Daniele Dragoni

Short bio

Daniele Dragoni is a PhD candidate in the Italian National PhD Programme in Teaching & Learning Sciences at the University of Macerata, in collaboration with Roma Tre University. His research focuses on artificial intelligence in education, with particular attention to AI-supported learning, educational guidance, and the design of AI-based tools for teaching and research. CounselorBot is one of the main projects developed as part of his doctoral research.

Abstract

This seminar introduces CounselorBot, a platform for guided self-reflection in study and career orientation that connects established educational guidance frameworks with contemporary AI infrastructure. Grounded in the work of Michele Pellerey and Mark Savickas, it emphasizes narrative approaches, personal agency, self-reflection, and career adaptability rather than static job matching.

CounselorBot is built around an engineering harness that combines structured prompts, privacy-aware gateways, local AI routing, and controlled access to external AI providers to keep interactions educationally aligned and protect users’ data.

A central aim is to bring the QSA questionnaire and related guidance tools beyond the Italian context. Collaboration with KTH could support their translation, cultural adaptation, and validation in Swedish, English, and other languages through pilot testing and cognitive interviews.

Finally, CounselorBot is presented as an open research object. Participants are invited to test the platform and provide feedback on its educational design and technical architecture, contributing to its development for international research and guidance contexts.