Very last blog

Just when I thought I had finished........... I did a double check on my blog to ensure I had all the posts I needed and I seemed to have missed the boat on tutorial three so I'm adding another blog to make sure I have everything covered....... Tutorial three requires a technical description of the process of setting up a blog. Now that I am at the end of this course I can say that setting up and writing a blog is such an easy process, with the best thing being the number of resources available on Youtube that explain the processes involved with step by step instruction. Here's what the experts say about setting up a blog:



Well I think that's me!!
Take care, have fun and be safe.
Cheers
Julie :0)

Assistive Technology

This week's tutorial was all about assisstive devices and the role they play for people with disabilities.

According to Cook & Hussey (1995), assisstive technology is defined as "Any item, piece of equipment or product system that is used to increase or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities".

In our tutorial we had a "hands on" session to see how the devices worked. The one I liked the most was a communication device called a "Go Talk". The Go talk is a recording device that can store up to 100 variable and 5 static messages. It was relatively compact and was made of a hard plastic so it appeared durable. The cost of the Go Talk is approx $500.00.

The Go Talk could be used in a number of different ways to increase independence, for example a non-verbal school child could have messages such as "Hi, my name is Jacob" or "Could I have a bus ticket to Hamilton East please" recorded on to his device so that all he has to do is press the relevant button for the message to play.

Alternatively, they could also be used for individuals with short term memory loss, so instructions for, say, morning procedure, could be recorded onto the Go Talk, and used as prompts if necessary.

Cook. A., Hussey, S. (1995). Assisstive technologies principles & practice. Mosby: St Louis

Wiihabilitation

For our tutorial this week we got to look at the Nintento Wii and answer some questions with regard to how it is being used as a rehabilitation tool by Occupational Therapists. Its pretty impressive. Here are the questions:

Q Why do you think Wii Gaming has appealed to people who are not traditional video game player?
The Wii appeals because it is easy to use, involves active movement and is fun. Players get to participate in sports such as ten pin bowling, wakeboarding, boxing, which may be new, or familiar to them. I imagine alot of appeal has to do with the lack of violence in the games.

Q What is the relevance to Occupational Therapy?
Used as a rehabilitation tool the Wii is very relevant to Occupational Therapy. It is important for therapists to keep updated with new technologies and incorporate them into treatment where appropriate. Occupational Therapists have moved on from basket weaving.

Q Investigate the other applications offerred by the Wii. How else could it be used?
One of the reasons Wii is so relevantas an Occupational Therapy tool is because of the many practical applications. It's software includes programmes such as "Cooking Mama" where the playes simulate real life cooking skills such as slicing meat, peeling an onion, breaking an egg. The link below show a patient practising to climb stairs. These are real skills that patients are able to practice in a safe controlled environment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtLDRN--CeY

Overcoming Adversity Movie

Hey, well here it is finally, WHEW what an effort that was. But it was worth it 'cos now Shaz is famous - a star is born! There was a bit of work involved in making the movie. After uploading the movie sequences from the camera to the computer we then had to make the movie which involved using Windows Movie Maker which can be downloaded free, and is easy to use. So we selected the sequences we wanted, dragged them into Movie Maker, edited them if they were too long, added transitions between the shots -check them out they are pretty stylie well no actually they are majorly overdone, but it was fun trying all of the different effects! Then we added the title and credits which was just a matter of following the instructions on Movie Maker. The only problem we had was the music!! We spent a while trying to figure out some good music that suited the movie and decided on "Road to Nowhere" by Talking Heads, so managed to get that added to our movie and everything was going according to plan until we tried to upload the movie to youtube. Oh no we hadn't understood the copyright laws and as a consequence our video has uploaded but without the music :( Nevermind, as our tutor pointed out it's a learning exercise - and we learnt. I'm just glad we don't have to redo it!!!!

Final Tutorial Embedding videos and Flickr badges

It's nearly the end of our semester! Yipppeeee. For our final tutorial we are required to provide a technical description of the process of posting video entries (vlogs) and digital photo badges onto individual blogs. The best way I can think of to do this is to let the experts speak - they explain it far better than me.

Tutorial Six: The internet and online communities

This week we were required to search the internet for an online community that interested us. I chose "Living and Raw Foods: The largest community on the internet for living and raw food information". The web address of this site is: http://www.living-foods.com/index.shtml

The focus of this community is twofold: firstly it is to inform the world about the benefits of raw food, following a premise that many health problems result from a diet that includes chemicals, preservatives, artificisal additives, pesticides and cooking. It's second focus is to support and inform its members keeping them updated with the latest resources and information.

This comprehensive site offers recipies and articles relating to raw and living foods. It has a central location page for resources for example it lists restaurants from around the world that offer raw and living foods, relevant books and magazines, support groups and organisations that support people in maintaining a living/raw food lifestyle.

The site is interactive with online discussions, and a realtime chatroom. People can contribute by posting notices, asking questions, supplying articles.

I imagine people would choose to contribute to this community because it draws those with similar thinking and beliefs together. It is a place where people can seek to expand or pool their knowledge, and gain or give support to others.

An example of the types of topics being discussed include:

1) Living and Raw Food Discussion eg

Can you eat kiwi skins? You know the fuzzy brown part? If so are there any essential nutrients in it? Seems silly for me to skin them before eating

2) Juicing, Juicers, Blending and Blenders Discussion eg

Hi, I just bought a citrus juicer and have been juicing oranges, tangelos, etc. averaging about 12 ounces a day. a bunch of oranges i have are going bad soon and im juicing them, meaning today i had about 20 - 24 ounces? is that too much acid?

3)Recipe Discussion eg

Hi guys,could you please advice on how to dehydrate tomatoes please ?

Hmmm interesting discussions but are there potential ethical issues that may arise in this community? Well I think so, there is no accountability, anyone can give advice, which may or may not be accurate so information may need to be verified from a reputable source.

There are benefits this sort of online community holds over the traditional notion of community that is based on proximity. For instance:

• People from around the world can contribute to this site, allowing a large diversity and volume of information.
  


• It brings together people who may live in towns and cities without raw/living food communities, enabling large numbers of people to connect.



• The alternative nature of this community means it may be difficult or limited to meet others with similar ideas regarding food.

Having said that, benefits of traditional communities include:

• The ability of members to physically meet everyone within its community



• Physical resources eg books for borrowing



• Inclusive of everyone regardless of computer skills
  

YouTube - Wii Therapy at Immanuel Rehab Center

YouTube - Wii Therapy at Immanuel Rehab Center

Tutorial Five Research

This week, besides shooting the film, (see previous blog), we are required to research a website related to Occupational Therapy. My chosen site is the website for the New Zealand Association of Occupational Therapists http://www.nzaot.com/index.php

The site "provides support, services, representation and networking opportunities for Occupational Therapists". Obviously, the site is used by Occupational Therapists, who are able to join as members, however it also offers the public information about Occupational Therapy, and what Occupational Therapists actually do.

The site has valuable information on career development, conferences, workshops, vacancies, and publications to name but a few.

For me, this will be a very valuable site - I didn't even know it existed - I'm sure we would have been told about it early last year, but it possibly hadn't meant much to me at that stage!! There are even links to some OT blogs, so I'll have to check those out.

Tutorials Four and Five Video Production

For these two weeks we are looking to plan, produce and upload a 30 second film on YouTube........ hmmm not so sure about this..........watch this space, or maybe better not to!Hopefully it won't turn out to be an unintentional comedy ha ha.

Well its now Thursday night and we produced our film today. Due to the extremely tight timelines we had, it was important that we had planned our film well. We did this by initially agreeing on a idea for the film and then breaking that idea down into sections. We used a storyboard (which is similar to a comic strip) and for each section we worked out the exact sequence of events that we were going to shoot, the lighting and the most appropriate type of shot eg panning or close up.

Using the storyboard forced us to be more thorough in our planning, it was also really useful having the storyboard with us when we went out to to shoot, everyone knew what was happening, and where we were up to. By having the sequence and plan down on paper we were also able to shoot quite quickly which was a huge advantage because the camera we were using was low on batteries and memory space. After a few technical hitches we finally got the footage we required and have uploaded it from camera to computer. Apparently next week we will be editing and uploading our video onto Youtube.

For those of you who don't know Youtube is a videosharing website where users can upload and share videos (Wikipedia, 2010). According to About.com (2010) users are also able to to rate videos, add comments and subscribe to their favourite producers.

Youtube can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/

References:

Wikipedia. (2010). Youtube. Retrieved March 19, 2010, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube

About.com. (2010). Youtube explained: Overview of Google video sharing tool. Retrieved March 19, 2010, from: http://google.about.com/od/moreaboutgoogleaps/p/youtubeprofile.htm

Julie 2

Julie 2
Originally uploaded by julie856

Week 3 A Summary of Services offered by Blogger

Blogger is a free blog publishing system. It provides instruction and a step by step guide to setting up a blog. A blog is like an online diary where individuals can write posts on anything from the serious to the frivolous. Blogger is the system that makes it possible for technophobes like me to create a blog.

Blogger allows you to:
Design and customise your own blog site
Control your blog, allowing private or public access
Send photos or text from your mobile phone straight to your blog
Upload photos from your computer or camera to your blog
Contact their help service if you have any queries or questions

Tutorial 2 Digital camera use and applications

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This weeks tutorial was about digital cameras, ethics and methods of image storage. The points covered in the tutorial are recorded below.

In considering the statement "A new technology is rarely superior to an old one in every feature" it is easy to see this is the case with digital cameras. Although digital cameras are far superior in terms of being able to see immediately whether the desired result has been achieved or not, there are still issues with regard to photo quality. Also while taking the shot it can sometimes be difficult to see the detail on the screen. Having said that, being able to take as many photos as desired with the ability to delete unwanted ones, and to upload photos directly from a digital camera to a computer is a huge advantage.

Images can be stored on the hard drive of a personal computer, on a disc or on a photo storage website such as Flickr (more on this later in the blog). Images can be digitally enhanced or manipulated using software such as Photoshop, they can be transferred via email, memory sicks, camera leads.

In considering the prevalence of image caturing devices there are ethical issues surrounding the use of this technology. Invasion of privacy, eg taking photos of others without consent, using devices for inappropriate means and manipulation of images would be three that come to mind.

Some of the ways in which digital images are being used in occupational therapy practice include home visit assessments, for example taking photos of entrance ways, or areas that require modifications. Images could be used to back up funding applications.

Flickr.com is a free website that allows members to store, sort, search and share photos online. As you will see throughout this blog I'll upload a few of my own photos. There are other photostorage websites offering similar services, one of these is Fotki, check it out at :http://contests.fotki.com/contests/weekly_may26/266674707.html

In considering the difference between a digital zoom and an optical zoom the optical zoom actually focuses in more, whilst the digital zoom reduces the number of pixels and drops the outside ones off, decreasing the quality of the image.

A pixel is one of the millions of squares that makes up a digital image, today's images usually vary between 1 and 14 million pixels. One mega pixel equals one million pixels, two megapixels equals two million pixels etc. (wikipedia, 2010).

References:

Wikipedia. (2010). Pixels. Retrieved March 22, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pixel

Tutorial 1 Information Technology & Ethical Issues

This blog outlines the material covered in our first tutorial where we looked at defining Information Technology (IT) along with other related terms. We also considered how commonplace technology has become in our society, discussed the technologies we are familiar and comfortable using, and recalled the technologies used in the fieldwork placements we completed last year. Naturally, ethical issues are a major consideration within IT so we also spent some time discussing this aspect of IT.

Defintions of Information Tecnology and other related terms:

Information Technology: "A term that encompasses all forms of technology used to create, store, exchange and utilise information in its various forms including business data, conversations, still images, motion pictures and multi media presentations"(Entrepreneur, 2010).

Computer Ethics: "A branch of practical philosophy which deals with how computing professionals should make decisions regarding professional and social conduct"(Wikipedia, 2010).

Intellectual Property: "Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works and symbols, names, images and designs used in commerce. Intellectual Property is divided into two categories:
Industrial property eg inventions (patents), trademarks, industrial designs.
Copyright: which includes literary and artistic works such as novels, poems and plays, films, musical works, artistic works such as drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures, and architectural designs"(World Intellectual Property Organisation, 2010)

Social Justice: "Fair and proper administration of laws conforming to the natural law that all persons, irrespective of ethnic origin, gender, possessions, race, religion etc are to be treated equally and without prejudice" (Business Directory, 2010).

Informed Consent: "Informed consent is generally agreement to do something or to allow something to happen only after all the relevant facts are disclosed" (USLegal, 2010).

So, that completes the defintions...... when the above IT definition is considered it becomes very obvious how commonplace technology has become in our society. It encompasses most things we do in our daily lives, from preparing food(using the microwave) to studying (using the computer), to shopping (paying with my eftpos card), to relaxing (watching a DVD). On a personal level there are many IT devices I feel comfortable using for example cellphones, digital cameras, computers, tv, fax, photocopiers, having said that in each one there are functions that I don't know how to use, so I guess I feel competent in the limited capacity that I use some of the devices mentioned.

Within my fieldwork placement computers were used to write reports, access information, research, and communicate with others. Phones were used for communication with clients and cellphones were used for staff to keep in touch if necessary eg whilst on a home visit. There was also a fax machine and photocopier within the office. It was interesting to note that each computer was shared by several therapists. When the therapists were with clients some of the interventions used modern technology. In the room used for kitchen assessments there was an oven, and a microwave. Computers were used to assess return to work capabilities, typewriters to improve fine motor skills, however a large number of the interventions I witnessed didn't use the latest technologies.

Ethical issues that arise from the capturing, sharing and transferring of information via IT devices or systems involve first and foremost privacy and confidentiality of the individual. When considering the internet, emails, photos it is necessary to be aware that these media all provide the ability to communicate truths, but also untruths, for example photos can easily be distorted and manipulated using software programs. Obviously as an OT it will be critical to ensure any interaction with clients is mindful of the ethical issues that arise when using any technology.

When thinking about the way in which we live today it is easy to see that technology is an integral part of our lives, and this will not change in the foreseeable future. With so many new technologies there are many reasons why it is important to keep up to date and have a good understanding of the technology as well as the ethical issues that surround the use of technology. When working as an Occupational Therapist in order to deliver best practice it will be imperative to keep up to date with technology in order to utilise all available resources and deliver appropriate information and practice. Technology is a powerful tool if used appropriately and ethical considerations such as privacy are not compromised.

References:

Business Directory. (2010). Search for a term. Retreived February 17, 2010, from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/social-justice.html

Entrepreneur. (2010). Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 17, 2010, from http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/term/82268.html

USLegal. (2010). Informed Consent Law and Legal Definition. Retreived February 17, 2010, from http://definitions.uslegal.com/i/informed-consent/

Wikipedia. (2010). Computer Ethics. Retrieved February 17, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_ethics

World Intellectual Property Organisation. (2010). What is Intellectual Property? Retrieved February 17, 2010, from http://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en

Purpose of the blog

Hey ...welcome

This blog has been created as part of course requirement for "Participation in Occupation", a 2nd year paper that is part of the Occupational Therapy degree at Otago Polytechnic.

This blog will describe the use of commonplace technologies and include links to occupational therapy practice.