Tutorial Seven: Assistive Technoogy

Cook and Hussy's definition of assistive technology is "any item, piece of equipment or product system whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized that is used to increase or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities"

( Cook and Hussey, 2000, p.5)Cook, A.M., & Hussey, S.M. (2000). Assistive technologies: principles and practice. St Louis: Mosby

One piece of technology that was introduced to us during this tute was the big red switch also referred to as the large jelly bean by the star education website. This switch is easy-to-see due to it being overly large and bright red and easy-to-activate becuase of its 127mm diameter surface. Now the price of these big red switches are $90.00 excluding GST.

Now how would you use this big red switch well...to activate it you can use...
-electrical appliances via an environmental control unit
-battery operated adapted toys and games
-a computer through a switch interface
-AAC device through a switch port.

So are you thinking why would someone use this and whats the purpose?

The large colourful surface makes this switch ideal for students with visual, cognitive, or physical requirements. Cord storage compartment in the base and easy to mount with a standard flange base. Provides a tactile and audible feedback to the user. Designed for activation no matter where pressed. This would be ideal for someone with gross motor movement, they will be able to press the button with ease to activate whatever they desire to have it connected too which of course enables more independence.

Tutorial Six: Online Communities

During this tute we were required to investigate an online community.
The community I choose was The Low Down.
http;//www.thelowdown.co.nz/#/home/

This community focuses on helping young kiwis understand and deal with depresion.

This service provides / allows individuals with problems to contact The Low Down team through texting which is free and email. There is plenty of information on this site reguarding depression, symptoms of depression, facts, questions and answers, what should I do, how do I know if I am depressed and they also have what they call a "Depressed Test" for people to take. There is an interactive chatroom where people share there problems and ideas with each other and provide support. The Low Down also offers other sites and ideas like links to inspiration and community sites, mental health services, specialist communities, depression helpline and help strategies for depression.

I was unable to copy and paste some of the content on The Low Down website because you can not do this weather you are a member or not but you are able to go into the chatroom and read comments but to reply back you must register.

An potential ethical issue mat arise is others not being supportive and challenging ones behaviour but in saying that "The Low Down" chatroom is consistently monitored by their team.

The benefits of this online community over traditional notion is no one knows who you are, it allows the individual to speak their mind and connect with others in similiar situations, even when you live in a isolated area the individual is still able to share their thoughts without intimation.

This is a really good community but it does lack physical support that a traditional community can provide for the individual also the individual will not be online in this community 24/7 unlike with their traditional community where support can be provided around the clock for them.

Tutorial Five: Video Production Session Part 2

When me, Rachel and Nikita planned the video "spooning around" addressing the issue of overcoming adversity we had to use a script to do so. A script involves everything that is heard, seen and done onscreen. A typical good script involves movement, expression, mood, interaction with others (optional of course), camera angles and shots...a script really involves everything that is going to be done. The use of our script was helpful to get a general overview of what we wanted to do and be done, although it was not quite as detailed as what a "good script" should be.

Also when videoing "spooning around" we had to use a story board, our story board consisted of nine simple scenes that we decided we wanted to shoot for the video. A story board is a illustration of what the video is going to be about in a logoical order and where the scenes are going to be taken, this provides a overview of how the video will run before the actual filming stage begins.

Tutorial Four: Video Production Session Part 1

During this tutorial we were in groups of three and had to make a short film about over coming adversity. Me, Rachel and Nikita created a short video called "spooning around" as you may have noticed I have added this to my blog, hopefully you will be able to see how we over came adversity so check it out if you have not done so already!

A little bit about Youtubes services - well youtube allows anyone reguardless of age or race to post home made films, creative short stories, home and away! and many many other interesting videos on to the site. It is free to post videos onto youtube and free to watch on the site aswell. Youtube has pretty much everything you could think of on it...its a pretty good how to do manual aswell, just search the topic and without a doubt there will be information provided in a video. Youtube has such a large variety of information, some of this is simple and some can be complex all depending what you are searching for. When a video has been posted youtube allows the public to comment on the video so the creator of the video has a general insight into what the public think of it.

Tutorial Eight - How to Post You Tube Videos and Flickr Badges onto Blogger

Want to know how to add a video from you tube on to blogger then check this out



This short video will show the process of how to add a Flickr badge onto your blogger so check it out if you want to know

Tutorial Three: Blogging Part 1

Well this tutorial is actually our first in the computer suite! Plenty to do but where to start?
Now I suspose your curious to know what services blogger offers well.....

1.Blogger- free for anyone to sign up and create a account

2. designing your blog- you are able to choose from a variety of templates, custom colours, fonts and drag-and-drop page elements.

3.able to share and publish personal thoughts and idea- a place where you are able to gather information, ideas and share things that you find interesting or odd with others.

4.Connecting with old friends and making new ones- connecting with friends or strangers (depending on privacy setting) and hearing from people who read your blog and decide to comment.

5.Sharing photos- offers people the chance to post photos to share with friends or family locally or around the world.

6. Able to use your moblie aswell!- blogger offers people the chance to update there thoughts or ideas via their moblie phone providing you have the internet on it.

Another blog host that is rather quite popular is Livejournal.

Thats all for now

Tutorial Two: Digital Cameras

"A new technology is rarely superior to an old on in every feature"
This statement is implying that the old traditional cameras are better than the new aged digital cameras...is this true?
Well they both actually have positive and negative factors about them.

Traditional Camera
Positives
-better quality
-durable
-lets there be an element of susprise when developing the film
Negatives
-the film used to take days to be processed but can now be completed in an hour...still what if you are in a rush?
-have to pay for photos you do not like or even want

Digital Camera
Postives
-able to keep the photos you want and delete the photos you do not want
-able to edit the photos on the digital camera before you print them eg black and white etc
-digital camera came with a usb specifically for the computer so the photos can be transferred from the camera to the computer, this can also be done by using the camera's sim card
Negatives
-becuase a digital camera allows the photos to be seen and edited and so on there is no element of susprise when getting them developed

Digital images can be stored, transferred and manipulated using other communication technology such as webcams, scanners, faxes, cell-phones, digital, video and traditional film cameras.

Ethical issues that may arise with the use of image capturing devices are the OT not getting client's consent to take photo and the photo becoming available to the public. It is important that the OT gets consent from the client to take the photo, explain the purpose and future se of the photo so the client has been fully informed and able to make their decision based on that.

Digital images could and are being used in occupational therapy practice. They provide a great way to keep records, evidence, able to zoom in on the image to identify a potential risk for example, images and videos are able to be emailed to others. An example I will provide is a community OT wanting to do housing modifications - the OT is able to capture the image she wants and put it in her report so the other party is able visually seen what the OT is describing.

Flickr.com offers services for people of all ages, some of these services are a Flickr blog, able to create a profile, upload vidoes or/and photos, and connect with friends online.

Another photo storage website that offers similar services to Flickr.com is facebook.com.

Is there a difference between digital and optical zoom?...well yes there is!
Digital zoom - crops the image to a smaller size, then enlarges the cropped portion to fill the frame. Digital zoom results in a significant loss of quality.
Optical zoom - the lens changes focal lenght and magnification as it is zoomed. The image quality stays higher througout the range of zoom.
All in all optical zoom is better!

What is meant by the term megapixel?
Well firstly what is a pixel?
Pixels are made up of very small squares, when looking at a digital photo they appear smooth and continuous just like a normal photo, pixels are what measures the quality of the photo. So now megapixels,well a megapixel is 1million pixels.

Spooning Around

Tutorial One - Information Technology and Ethical Issues.

Information technology can be defined as "the production, storage and communication of information using computers and micro electrics" (Hank, 1989).
Hank, P. (ed). (1989). Collins Concise Dictionary. Glasgow: Bath Press.

Over the last few years IT has become more popular and now has a common place in societyas it has become apart of our cultural norms.
During this tutorial we discussed IT devices that there are available for us to use in everyday life these ranged from a large variety of search engines, email, downloads to telephones, fax, ipods and TV.

In occupational therapy practice IT is being used to type up clinical notes, do research, send emails, use of mobile phones, faxes and pagers,on fieldworki saw allof those dvices being used regularly. The benefits of using IT in practice are there is more organization, more presentable, easier to read and the information can be easily accessed but in saying this there are also negative points such as the therapist may have a lack of knowledge around IT, when researching not all information is trustworthy, the setting can become dependent on IT and the cost of setting it up.

Ethical implications of sharing information on IT devices are that people can be sharing too much personal information and it can be turned into misuse by others,stalking and accurate information. IT also has positive points such as being able to capture, transfer and communicate information with friends and collugues.

Computer ethics can be defined as "Computer ethics is a branch of practical philosophy which deals with how computing professionals should make decisions regarding professional and social conduct" retrieved 14th February, 2007, from http:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_enthics.

Intellectual property can be defined as "in law intellectual property (IP) is an umbrella term for various legal entitlements which attach to certain types of information, ideas or other intangibles in their expressed form..." retrieved 14th February, 2007, from http:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property.

Social justice can be defined as "social justice mostly refers to an ideal of society, where "justice" refers to ecomonic status rather than to administration of laws". retrieved 14th February, 2007, from http:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_justice. Social justice is about providing fairness and equity within the society we live in.

"Informed consent is a legal condition whereby a person can be said to have given consent based upon an appreciation and understanding of the facts and implications of an action" Retrieved February 14, 2007, from http:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/informed_consent.

It is very important that we have a firm understanding of ITC and the ethical issues invloved with IT, this will benefit our practice and our social lives too because things are always changing and updating and if we as OTs are able to keep up with the new technology we will be able to participate in this world that keeps changing ever so regularly.