Books, Reading, Libraries, and Learning Blog

      Infographics                 Infographics is a method of conveying information in a concise and eye-catching way. In various incarnations, infographics can be traced as far back as the beginning of book illustrations. One such example is the illustration of “sunspots in  Rosa Ursina sive Sol , an illustrated astronomical text published by Christoph Scheiner in 1626 . ” (Evers, 2015) Another example of infographics from the 1600’s was Galileo Galilei’s Sidereus Nuncius , published in 1610. Galilei’s work used infographics to share information about Earth’s moon, the moons of Saturn, and various constellations. Thus, it can be argued that the use of infographics is 400 years old. Some have argued that infographics goes back as far as prehistoric cave paintings or Egyptian hieroglyphs, but I prefer to limit our historical identification of the usage of infographics to the post-Gutenberg press era, from the 1400’s onward. The term infographic comes from combining the t

Online Book Communities There are many online book communities on today’s internet. Two of the most popular ones are goodreads.com and LibraryThing.com.   I signed up with goodreads.com first. Using the search function, I loaded 126 of my most recently read books, 26 books that I would like to read, and 1 book that I am currently reading. Goodreads.com has four default “bookshelves” upon which you can place your books: “All”, “Read”, “Currently Reading”, and “Want to Read”. In addition to those four default bookshelves, goodreads.com also gives the option to add additional bookshelves to be named by the user. Below is a screenshot of my goodreads.com profile page. Below is a screenshot of my goodreads.com home page. In the upper left area, you can see the book that I was currently reading, Purple Cane Road by James Lee Burke. On the left, below my Currently Reading list, it shows the Reading Challenge in which I have enrolled. Below that are my “WANT TO READ” books. Most of these book

  Animoto, QR Codes, and Cartoons             In recent years, there has been an explosion of new technologies and practices being introduced in school libraries. Three of these are Animoto, QR codes, and the use of cartoons. The following are descriptions of my own studies of these new library science possibilities.             Animoto is a video creation service. People use it for a variety of video production projects. One of the uses that librarians have found for it is the creation of book trailers. The history of book trailers stretches back to the 1980’s. (Vollans, 2016). Since then, the use of book trailers increased to the point that it is now a standard method of enticing students to try new books. I tried my hand at creating a book trailer. I chose John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars. I love that book. It made me cry when I read it the first time, and it made me cry again as I made the book trailer for it. Unfortunately, the book trailer itself makes me cry due to its

    Environmental Scan of Educational Technology at Medina ISD in Medina, Texas               Medina ISD is located in Medina, Texas. This is in the Texas Hill Country northwest of San Antonio. Although it is listed as having a humid subtropical climate, Medina is noticeably less humid than nearby San Antonio. The area has a substantial history of drought, with occasional torrential rainfall that causes flooding. The town of Medina is unincorporated. This is a rural area with a small population. The population is in the hundreds, probably close to 500. This is a ranching community with a variety of livestock including cattle, goats, and sheep. Residents who do not participate in ranching commute to other nearby towns and cities to work: Bandera, Kerrville, Comfort, San Antonio and its nearby communities. Most of the people of the community are English speakers, with a minority of Spanish speakers. The school district is very small. It is listed as 1A by UIL, and its football team