John W. Lawton

https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/willowhillheritage-obituaries/7028/thumbnail.jp

Optimizing Anaerobic Digestion of Food Waste and Industrial Sludge for Biogas Production

Food waste is a major contributor to municipal solid waste, and its disposal at landfills has significant environmental and economic impacts. Opportunities need to be identified for the sustainable management of food waste at large scales. Pulp and paper mills throughout the country commonly use anaerobic digestion to treat their waste sludge; however, this sludge can consist of over 50% lignin, which is slowly or negligibly digested. This research aims to explore the sustainability of co-digestion of food waste and paper mill sludge. Lab-scale studies were used to assess the feasibility of anaerobic digestion by measuring treatment efficiencies and biogas production. Results demonstrate that adding food waste to pulp and paper mill sludge increased methane production by 103% compared to anaerobically digested pulp and paper mill sludge on its own. The results from this work demonstrate how food waste can be diverted from landfills, while potentially providing paper mills with the opportunity to enrich their sludge for better digestion and increased biogas production

Because These Things Will Change: Updating a COVID-Era Asynchronous Learning Object

In 2021, my co-author presented at GICOIL about LibraryDen, an asynchronous information literacy course they created during the COVID-19 lockdown to provide support for students in research and information literacy. The course has had initial successes: since Fall 2020 more than 2000 students have been enrolled in it, LibraryDen won the ALA-Library Instruction Roundtable Innovation in Instruction Award in 2021, and the course with its associated texts is serving as a model being adapted into Spanish by four university libraries in Mexico. What started as a pandemic-era tool has proven to be useful beyond the moment of crisis; to continue its effectiveness the creators sought to update and improve it. In this presentation, I will show how I worked with my co-author to evaluate, update, and improve this learning object through a combination of applying best practices in pedagogy, identifying and eliminating redundancies, and close examination of student feedback. Based on this examination, the presenters determined that one of the biggest flaws was that this resource often relied on rote memorization rather than application of learning. This presentation explains the strategies used to create a more interactive and engaging resource, primarily through the use of Springshare LibWizard tutorials to transform the course modules into interactive tutorials which simultaneously display course content with self-evaluation questions. This formatting serves to reduce cognitive load and allows for more application based questions to be introduced. The benefit of these modifications is that students are now asked to engage with course content and apply their learning, rather than simply repeating back presented information. We hope to incorporate the use of LibWizard tutorials into other areas in the library and elsewhere on campus. The goal of this presentation is to show other users how to utilize LibWizard to create interactive, asynchronous learning materials that support active learning in the digital age

How to Keep Youth Out of Trafficking

There are more children in slavery today, more than any other time in history because of how lucrative and fast-growing the human trafficking industry has become. Many people do not realize that this is happening in their own backyards. I will be raising awareness, teaching preventative strategies, and giving tools to support the youth in your life

What is the vita activa –the active life– in a world of labor, work, and screens?

What is the vita activa –the active life– in a world of labor, work, and screens

The Impact of Technological Innovation On Deaf and Hard of Hearing Communities

Over the past couple of decades, significant shifts have occurred in technological development. Among these advancements, the smartphone has emerged as an integral part of people’s daily lives, serving as a powerful tool for accessibility and global connectivity. This literature review explores the ways in which everyday communication technology is utilized by Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) individuals and examines the impact of its development on these communities. The goal of the work is to investigate how the evolution of modern smartphones contributes to breaking down communication barriers for DHH communities. This review focuses on smartphone features that enhance communication for DHH individuals, regardless of their geographical location or language differences. The ways in which smartphones enable DHH people to connect with others seamlessly will also be examined. Additionally, the review discusses the limitations in current smartphone technology and proposes future directions for research and development

A Direct Instruction Case Study and its Impact on Math Learning: Master\u27s Thesis

Early intervention is important for students struggling with a math learning disorder. Elementary aged students with a math learning disorder need support, especially with the foundational skills needed for success in middle and high school math. This study explored whether a one-to-one direct instruction case study could help a student who needs additional focused instruction to improve basic math skills. The direct instruction approach utilized for this study was a structured and sequential approach to learning. Clear goals were established, and feedback provided to the student. This exploratory case study was used to determine the type of in-depth instruction needed for potential future work with a larger group of students. Therefore, data collection for this study included a pretest, posttest, an examination of repeated instructional sessions, student observations, audio recordings, student psychological-educational report, and scores from standardized assessments used to measure growth in math skills. Results are discussed in terms of the types of changes in math instruction that could be used to improve the math skills for struggling students after receiving a direct instruction intervention

Puros Técnicos and Luchadores Rudos: Debating the New Cultural History among Latin Americanists

This essay dives into the debate and surrounding context of a special issue of the Hispanic American Historical Review. It was on the new cultural history—its usefulness, its methods, and its relation to truth. I argue that the new cultural historians eventually vanquished their critics and internalized their methods and epistemology within historians of Latin America at large. Stemming from earlier texts, the special issue of the HAHR is the most revealing collection of texts on the philosophical foundations of the new cultural history. It showcases scholarly activity from supporters and detractors of the novel movement with considerable focus on Mexican history. The different authors have varying views on the nature of power, language, knowledge, postmodernity, and meaning, creating vastly separate conclusions on the nature of quality historical work. Taking these contributors into account, I believe that cultural history efforts were and still are crucial to the historical discipline, and therefore worthy of study

Scholar-Practitioners Learning Qualitative Research Online

What started out as distance learning is now a worldwide phenomenon. Classes, and sometimes entire programs, are now taught online on levels ranging from elementary school to higher education. The authors’ institution offers several education doctorates (Ed.D.) in fully online, asynchronous formats. While there is a great deal of research about what works well in online programs, when the focus is narrowed to education doctorates, much less is known. In particular student perceptions of the value and use of the research training offered, integral as students learn to be scholars who complete research to improve educational practice, is under-researched. In this study, we sought to understand what doctoral students in online, asynchronous qualitative research courses found most valuable and applicable to their professional practice. To determine this, we completed a thematic analysis of reflection papers and course evaluations over a 3-year period across 3 Ed.D. programs. These findings can contribute to a greater understanding of qualitative research pedagogy and the applicability of such training to scholar-practitioners