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Toward a Global Roadmap: An Analysis of National Strategies Toward Digital Education Improvements Across Southeast Asia and Southern Africa
Get PDFThe rapid global expansion of digital technologies has created significant opportunities to transform education systems, foster innovation, and reduce inequalities. However, access to and benefits from these technologies remain unevenly distributed, shaped by differences in infrastructure, human capital, governance structures, and economic development. This thesis investigates how systemic approaches to digital education in Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe can inform a more inclusive and adaptive global roadmap for digital transformation in education.
Adopting a mixed-methods design, this study combines a comparative quantitative analysis of the CISCO Digital Readiness Index (DRI) with a qualitative content analysis of national education and technology policies. Quantitative findings reveal significant disparities among countries across seven core components of digital readiness, with Technology Adoption, Ease of Doing Business, and Technology Infrastructure demonstrating the strongest correlations with overall readiness.
Drawing on these insights, this thesis proposes a global roadmap that emphasises prioritising highly correlated components to maximise impact, strengthening infrastructure and human capacity, promoting inclusive digital access, and supporting adaptive governance models. The roadmap recognises that effective digital education strategies must be contextually informed, scalable, and equity-driven. By integrating comparative findings and best practices, this study aims to contribute to ongoing efforts by governments, educators, and international organisations to advance equitable, resilient, and sustainable digital education systems worldwide
The Design of Time: Envisioning the Future through Science Fiction Production Design in the Alien Franchise
Get PDFIn filmmaking, the production designer works closely with the director and cinematographer to ensure cohesion and uniqueness in the film’s visual design. This collaboration often provides the designer with a strong degree of influence on the film’s final look, thus shaping the thematic and visual impact of a film on the audience. In highly stylized and fantastical genres, such as science fiction, production design plays an especially important role in creating worlds that may be entirely different from the one we currently live in, while still reflecting the real-world context in which the film was made. This phenomena can particularly be seen in the production design in Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979) and its subsequent sequels and spinoffs. A case study of the Alien franchise reveals how these design conventions evolve over time, from the industrial style of the original film, to the sleek CGI-enhanced minimalism of Prometheus (Ridley Scott, 2012), and the homages to the original film in Alien: Romulus (Fede Álvarez, 2024) that reflect larger trends in the film industry trend of rebooting older titles. These three examples of Alien franchise films demonstrate how production design styles evolve over time in response to cultural and technological change, while still serving the ultimate goal of preserving verisimilitude
La Voz 2025
Get PDFLA VOZ is published by the Modern Languages & Literatures Department, Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA
Senior Recital
Get PDFFeaturing research on the lives of Giacomelli, Vivaldi, Brahms, Mozart, Duparc, Bolcom, and Schwartz. The music is analyzed for context in romantic relationships and history. This recital was presented as a culmination of works learned by senior voice major, Kaya O\u27Brien-James
The Seed Pile Project - A Reflection
Get PDFWe conducted a community-science project in Northern California - the Seed Pile Project - with three broad goals: 1) to test which locally-native, seed-dispersed plants would thrive without intervention in human-occupied spaces, 2) to engage the public with the often-ignored biodiversity along our roadsides, sidewalks, and other highly-disturbed spaces, and 3) to create community around rewilding our urban areas. We conducted the project initially as a pilot project in 2020-2021, then as a community-science project in 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. The project design was intentionally simple to make it accessible for participants of all ages: participants received free packets of native, local-ecotype plant seeds, then dropped them into piles in their neighborhoods or commuting routes. We provided data-entry forms and seed identification guides, and participants took note of which species germinated and monitored them until they died, as well as what types of disturbances occurred at their piles’ locations. The project had successes and challenges: we reached more than a thousand participants and gave out more than a hundred pounds of seed and had a well-attended kick-off event. We set up seed pickup points throughout our area, engaging local businesses and organizations. However, we faced challenges retaining participant engagement through the duration of the project and did not collect compelling data about plant species success. Our key challenges related to data entry, in particular the format and functionality of the data forms, as well as how much information to ask for. We will discuss these successes and challenges in this paper and suggest future directions and improvements for the project going forward
Student Work in the Evolving Library Landscape
No full textThis presentation shares a work-in-progress from the Technical Services department at the University of San Diego Copley Library as we work to retool our student worker program to center student skills and interests, provide a job experience that is fulfilling and transferable, and act as a gateway for future potential librarians.
Student workers are integral to library operations, and student positions are valued both by the library and by the students themselves. For many students, working at the library may be one of their first jobs. However, resources related to supervising and mentoring student workers are typically centered around student workers in Access or Public Services, and more guidance is required around fostering a welcoming, rewarding, and transparent experience for students employed in other areas of the library. As a job provider, the library has a responsibility to create a job experience that yields career literacy, leverages library operations as opportunities for professional learning, and empowers students to own their work at the library.
Library workers from all departments are invited to participate in this session, which will provide a space to discuss current struggles and successful techniques for connecting with student workers, brainstorm ideas for integrating student workers into “back-of-the-house” areas of the library, and share student worker viewpoints.
Outcomes
By the end of this presentation, both presenters and attendees will be able to: Share strategies to connect with student workers and identify student worker strengths, motivations, and interests Build on conversations with student workers to create fulfilling student jobs and holistically integrate student workers into Technical Services or other areas of the library Feel motivated to inspire student workers to become librarian
Visible and Valued: Centering Belonging in Medical Libraries Through Curated Book Displays
No full textThis lightning talk discusses the creation of book displays highlighting collections and titles that align with heritage, health awareness, and identity months at an academic medical library. In the midst of and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic the co-presenters saw a need to re-engage with patrons physically in the library space. One avenue is the creation of consistent book displays. Medical and health sciences libraries do not frequently prioritize recreational reading or engagement in outreach “soft” skills. Despite patron and library worker interest, there has been pushback from colleagues about the purpose, time commitment, and impact of updating displays. The co-presenters argue that these displays demonstrate that the medical library is a space for all users, a place for academic rigor and leisure, and that library workers should support patrons as whole people. While metrics and data are necessary for determining sustainability and impact, we suggest that these displays enhance patrons\u27 sense of belonging at the university and specifically within the medical library. The talk will discuss strategies, workflows, and our perspective on the success of these displays. We will consider barriers moving forward within the confines of the current political atmosphere.
Outcomes Attendees are able to articulate why balancing community and belonging is necessary for student success and usage of library resources and services Attendees are empowered to think critically and holistically about library collections as an avenue for community engagemen
Out of Sorts and Sorted Out: Transgender Subjectivity in a Theological Library
No full textMy presentation explores the intersection of transgender subjectivity and library work during a political milieu in which the futurity of either is fraught, if not precarious. During a week in June of 2024 I underwent a gender-affirming procedure as a trans woman and by the week after had resumed my internship at an academic and theological library. I offer insights into this strange summer in which I navigated my shifting embodiment within an institution that, due to its Christian affiliation, made complex the possibility of my gender expression. Grounding my theorization within the Tagalog word bakla–a term denoting gender or sexually nonconforming individuals in Filipino culture–I discuss my queerness within the frame of my Filipino experience. The Tagalog words babae (girl) and lalaki (boy) are concatenated with a k to create the word bakla. Thus, the term symbolizes and enacts a moving to, through, and between two gender categories, categories which I reflect upon in theorizations upon my academic library experience. Attendant theories regarding temporality, slow librarianship, critical in/access, and others enrich my understanding of the ethical, relational, bureaucratic dimensions of my work to underscore the capacity for the body and the library to change. While change often represents the onset or intensification or marginalization of transgender and gender nonconforming library professionals, my presentation also uplifts the positive transformations that have made my continued engagement with academic librarianship not only possible, but desirable. My research occurs at a juncture during which political initiatives are enfeebling transgender subjects and the power of libraries. Indeed, both affronts may be traced back to a coordinated effort to preclude critical epistemological work. This presentation insists against this anti-knowledge project through its articulation of transness as an animating and meaningful lens through which to theorize the importance of library work.
Outcomes Provide insight into the complexity of gender nonconforming and transgender experiences by both library workers and patrons Complicate and expand upon how disability and care may or may not manifest at work, and how library practices may change to better accommodate workers and patrons Underscore the interrelatedness of disability and transness as modes of marginalized experience that vivify racialized experiences, particularly in librarie