And with this post ends the documentation of the inquiry! I specify “documentation,” as the inquiry isn’t ending here. Only the official record of it (for now) on this blog. Who knows, maybe I’ll come back to post here and there! I wanted to take a quick space to just reflect and talk about how this exploration was supported by tech and the format of the assignment.
One other reason I chose this topic (beyond what I said in the first post) was that, for my undergrad thesis, I had actually written a draft of a children’s picture book about old growth forests and the environment. My thesis supervisor and I had played around with the idea of submitting it for publishing, but that task seemed far too daunting. I wanted to use this project to give myself a reason to take the time to explore, and to document what I found. Even if I don’t submit it any time soon, I now have these posts as a bank of information for if or when I do want to enter that sphere.
Regarding tech and reading, the way this inquiry shifted to cover books in general was more driven by passion than anything. I love books, if that wasn’t made abundantly clear by now! Exploring the ways tech, books, and reading all intersect opened more doors into this thing I love; it showed more ways that reading can be made accessible and brought into the classroom. I loved taking the time to explore just some of the many online resources there are. As well, this inquiry gave me a chance to explore some of the topics we had discussed in class (graphic design, screen recording, video making, and Google Slides). Taking these tools to explore something I was passionate about made the practice of tech usage that more fun.
I’m not done with books and the world of publishing. If anything, this project only strengthen those interests. Talking to Michael in our last meeting, he prompted me to look into open access textbooks and other educational texts—something I hadn’t considered at all! Well, as that shows, there’s always more pages and that this may not actually be the end. Or if it is, it’s the back cover of the first book in the series.
