Minnesota State University, Mankato
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Volume 44, Number 1, March 2024 OLAC Newsletter
Get PDFDigitized March 2024 issue of the OLAC Newsletter
A Critical Phenomenological Study of White Educators who Engage in Antiracism
Get PDFRacism is reflected in political, economic, and educational institutions throughout the United States. These institutionalized systems were successfully designed to have a chilling effect on any progress toward antiracist change. It impacts the achievement level of K-12 students of color in the public school system who make up the majority population in public schools nationwide. Yet, their teachers remain largely white. This is especially important in Minnesota, which ranks fiftieth in the country for graduation rates of Black and Latinx students. The method used for this study is critical phenomenology which is important when looking at the influences of race, gender, culture, racism, and whiteness on educators. This study shows five themes that are important for white educators to engage in antiracist praxis (1) motivations, (2) characteristics, (3) conditions, (4) identity, and (5) the ability to sustain antiracist work. When identity and values are imbued, the level of risk increased as educators’ sense of responsibility strengthened. This intrinsic connection motivated most of them to engage in activism despite the highrisk sacrifice to their financial, mental, and social wellbeing
Assessment and Feedback Strategies
Get PDFScreenshot of Assessment and Feedback Strategies, a website that provides information on assessment and feedback tools for faculty. https://www.mnsu.edu/it-solutions/locations/instructional-design-academic-technology-services/mavlearn/assessment-and-feedback-strategies
The LEARN Method: An Interactive Guide for Effective Learning
Get PDFThe LEARN Method is a program designed to teach students strategies to improve learning.
NOTE: Some of the interactive elements are not available in the PDF version. Please visit https://minnstate.pressbooks.pub/learnmethod/ to view the online version with full H5P elements.https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/university-archives-msu-authors/1477/thumbnail.jp
A Growing Dome in the Clouds of Everest: An Applied Anthropology Project in the High Himalaya
Get PDFPresented is a novel approach to addressing food insecurity within a remote indigenous community situated in the high Himalaya of Nepal. The village faces challenges in accessing fresh, affordable produce, particularly during harsh winter seasons. This threatens the community\u27s food sovereignty and adversely affects the stability of the Sir Edmund Hillary School, a site of historical and cultural importance. Through the integration of indigenous knowledge and technological advancements, this APP details a strategy to augment local agriculture, drawing on applied anthropological methodologies. The genesis of this project stems from the creative leadership of the school principal and his vision for a greenhouse capable of year-round cultivation to enhance the nutritional well-being of students, staff, and the local community. Central to the proposed solution is the installation of a 42-foot solar geodesic growingdome, supported by feasibility studies and the endorsement of the principal, school board, and community elders. Methodologically, the research utilizes an analysis of Shar-wa (Sherpa) culture, ethnographic immersion in the upper Khumbu Valley, and an examination of technologies related to high-altitude, deep-winter farming. Findings establish the growingdome’s potential to mitigate the community\u27s food security challenges, a sentiment echoed by the stakeholders. This APP also delves into fundraising strategies, potential support alliances, and ethno-sensitive policies to mitigate unintended consequences. In addition to serving as a business plan for the project, this APP aims to stimulate related research and development. Beyond its immediate local impact, this initiative carries broader implications for sustainable, eco-sensitive agriculture in remote communities across the Himalaya and analogous regions globally
Tales of Dead Men
Get PDFThe first issue that I came across was that of a creative issue, which was having a strong affection for my protagonist, who was constantly overshadowed by the side characters. I concluded that my protagonist should not just be reactive but also be a catalyst that moves the story along. My second issue was my technical writing, which took multiple semesters in the program. Now, whenever I write a description sentence, I try to expand it to two or three lines long while also splitting my large paragraphs into smaller parts that are easily read by the reader. The last problem that I faced was that of analysis. When I first started the older pieces, I realized that I will always need feedback no matter how good I get, but I have started to kill my ego to improve my writing. I still have a lot more room to grow on all these aspects, but I believe that my time in the program changed me to a better writer and person
Analysis of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Media Coverage via Instagram
Get PDFIn a departure from previous reports, analysis of the media coverage of the Olympic Games examined photos posted to the main feeds of the following Instagram accounts: @Olympics, @Paris2024 @TeamUSA, @NBCOlympics. These are the official governing body accounts of the games, and NBC is the official media rights holder for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the United States. The number of photographs dedicated to male, female, transgender athletes or multiple athletes were counted for each source totaling 4,899 pictures. Preliminary data analysis of the pictures posted during the Olympic Games (n=973) indicates that @Paris2024 accounted for 41.3% of the images, @TeamUSA 23.2%, @Olympics 21% and @NBCOlympics 14.4% of the images. 37.4% of images were dedicated to female athletes, 42.6% dedicated to male athletes, 12.8% dedicated to both male and female athletes. Images were coded into three categories: active, passive or metacommunicative (images with text like promo for NBC, or memes). Male athletes were depicted as active in 22% of the total Instagram posts compared to female athletes in 12% of the total posts. Female athletes were featured in metacommunicative posts 18.4% of the total posts compared to male athletes at 15.72%. Female athletes were depicted as passive in 6.7% of the total posts compared to male athletes, 5.4% of the posts. According to the IOC, the Olympic Games had 50% male athletes and 50% female athletes. The media analysis (at this point) seems to suggest that the official accounts provide more coverage for male athletes and depict male athletes as active compared to female athletes
A Deep Learning Model for Early Diagnosis of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus from Facial Images
Get PDFSystemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) poses significant challenges due to its complex and varied symptoms making diagnosis extremely challenging and time consuming. Symptoms of SLE often mimics other autoimmune or physical conditions and around 5 million people worldwide suffers from this condition, as reported by the Lupus Foundation of America during their study in 2019. However, diagnosis is much more difficult in developing countries with backdated clinical technology and setup therefore, making it virtually unknown the exact number of SLE patient count worldwide. Among all the heterogeneous symptoms presented by SLE, Butterfly Malar Rash (BMR) is one of the symptoms that is prevalent in the majority of SLE patients, which is a butterfly shaped malar rash that appears on the face. This BMR is often misdiagnosed since it is mimicked by other skin conditions like Rosacea, Acne, Eczema, Fifth disease and so on. To speed up the diagnosis process, we experimented with multiple CNN models in this study to create a tool for dermatologists that can classify BMR from other similar facial rashes. We proposed a customized state-of-the-art Densenet121-C model that outperformed the existing models achieving an accuracy of 97.3% and 98% precision rate for detecting BMR caused by SLE. We also scoped out a system architecture for model deployment in a clinical setup that can act as a tool to classify BMR from facial images in real-time, thus helping the dermatologists speed up the process of diagnosis. For model training, we constructed two custom datasets based on various online sources. During our experiments we noticed improvements in the performance of our model, especially when the models were retrained on a better-quality dataset. Medical images, especially facial images, are difficult to get because of patient confidentiality and validity issues. Therefore, we experimented with StyleGAN3 technology and laid out an outline for augmentation to generate synthetic images of BMR, which can be used for training such classifier as a future scope
