Tutorial Eight: Assistive technology

This week we looked at assistive technologies and how they can be used in occupational therapy. We had a guest speaker who showed us a whole range of assistive equipment he uses in practice. I chose the iPad to focus on for this tutorial. 

Provide a definition Assistive Technology (APA reference required). Interpret this definition in your own words.  What might this definition cover (your Cook and Hussey reading may be helpful with this). Assistive Technology refers to “devices, services, strategies and practices that are conceived and applied to ameliorate the problems faced by individuals who have disabilities (Cook & Hussey, 1995). I interpret this to mean that assistive technologies are things that in some way make life easier, more manageable, enjoyable or provide some therapeutic benefit to a person with a disability. Often it will be the case that it will be some type of equipment.

Describe one piece of equipment introduced in the assistive technology tutorial.  Provide information on size, cost and functions. How the equipment increased occupational capacity for the user?  Provide examples here from the tutorial and lecture. Provide an example of the equipments use from online sources.  This can be done by hyper linking to blogs, internet sites, You Tube videos, podcasts etc iPads can currently be purchased for $799 in New Zealand. They come with a range of features including access to the internet and email, Youtube and many more. There are a range of apps including Garageband which allows you to play musical instruments by touching the iPad screen. There are a range of other apps which may be useful in a therapeutic setting. The specifications of the iPad are as follows: 185.7mm X 241.2mm 8.8mm depth 0.601kg weight (Apple, 2011) When Dave Speden came to talk to us about assistive technology he brought along an iPad and said how the musical apps were being used to get his clients (with severe physical disabilities) engaged, it was relatively easy to use and had definite benefits for the clients. The website Blogger.com was also accessed and clients were able to make blogs to talk about their progress and their families were able to keep updated by viewing the blog. The following shows the use of a iPad  by a child with Muscular Dystrophy: http://macdailynews.com/2010/11/01/apples_revolutionary_ipad_a_theraputic_marvel_for_disabled_people/ References           Cook, A. M., & Hussey, S. M. (1995). Assistive technologies: principles and practice. Missouri: Mosby - Year Book, Inc.           Technical Specifications. (2011). Retrieved May 12th, 2011, from Apple: http://www.apple.com/nz/ipad/specs/

Tutorial Five: Video Production Sessions

Below are the tasks and questions we wish to address in this tutorial.  Students are reminded that they will be posting this information to their individual blogs so will need to provide a context for potential readers

Provide a brief summary of the services offered by YouTube. Information can be drawn from the week five tutorial hand out or from online sources.  Youtube is a video sharing website that allows users to upload their own videos and video other people’s videos (About.com, 2011). People upload all sorts of videos, from things they may have made themselves, to clips of movies and television programs, to sports games, to their video blogs, and many more. There are copyright issues that come up when people try to upload full television programs, etc because they are not owned by the user, but somebody needs to actually report this violation (About.com, 2011). As stated, users can upload and view videos, can comment on other videos, subscribe to other users, rate videos, and videos can be embedded on other websites.

Introduce a chosen topic of interest drawn from your fieldwork experience, an OT practice area or a personal occupation.  Find five different sources of online video content that help explain, demonstrate, or provide personal experiences of your topic.  Chosen topics should be discussed first with the lecturer.  All sources should be linked to your blog with a description of relevance provided (in your own words). I will be basing my videos around soccer, how to play, correct techniques, and some favourite videos of mine which show how football is played at the top level. 1)   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO983mNrvww&feature=related This video shows how to strike a ball properly when shooting at goal. 2)    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ1Ng5QfJ3o This video shows a few basic dribbles in football and some tricks and turns. 3)    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Stz-Hu5u5nY&feature=relmfu This video shows how to defend, an important part of football. 4)    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcOujukDqZ0 This video shows Paul Scholes, a player for Manchester United, passing the ball. He is one of the best passers in world football and here is a selection of his best passes. 5)    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEAouJwTYlU This video shows Ryan Giggs, another player for Manchester United, scoring his 10 best goals. These videos combined give a picture of the fundamentals of football, how to play and how they are performed at the top level. References                          Youtube explained - overview of the google video sharing tool. (2011). Retrieved May 12th, 2011, from About: http://google.about.com/od/moreaboutgoogleaps/p/youtubeprofile.htm

Tutorial Six: The internet and online communities

 This tutorial looked at online communities, how they work, ethical considerations and a bit of a comparison between online communities and traditional communities. I decided to focus on online footballing communities.

Introduce a chosen topic of interest drawn from your fieldwork experience, an OT practice area or a personal occupation.  Search online for at least 3 communities that relate to this topic and address the following questions and tasks.  Chosen topics should be discussed first with the lecturer. 

Provide the web addresses and a hyper link for the three online communities you have chosen http://www.yellowfever.co.nz/forum/default.asp http://www.manutd.com/en/Fanzone.aspx http://footballforums.com/

Provide a brief description of each community What do you think is the intended purpose of the site?  Information can be linked here from the specific sites. Yellow Fever is the fan site of the Wellington Phoenix. Naturally most of the talk revolves around football, the phoenix in particular, but there are plenty of other areas related to football people can talk about – regional football, chants for games, planning, all sorts really. Manutd.com has a fan zone which is very similar to the phoenix in that it is based around football particularly things related to Manchester united. It is a considerably larger forum than Yellow Fever due to Manchester United’s global reach. Football forums is a place where you can go to talk about football as well, it is also quite a large community so the focus tends to be on larger international teams and leagues rather that local stuff.

What services are provided on each site?  How interactive is this site?  How can people contribute? What do they contribute? Yellow Fever – the site is very interactive, people can go into any forum and comment and is set up in a clear way grouping similar forums so you can find what you want easily. People contribute by typing their opinions, posting pictures, links to other sites, etc. Manutd.com – also a very interactive website, pictures are very common, and often banter and taking the mickey out of other teams happens a lot. People contribute altered pictures to convey what they think or to humorously put down other teams. Football forums is again very interactive and similar to the other two forums, people contribute pictures and their opinions, and the site is set up well to allow easy navigation.

Consider material presented in the online package.   Make comment on why people choose to contribute to each community.  What is it they are seeking? Is information shared one way or reciprocal? Yellow Fever – people contribute to this website for a number of reasons, to show support for the phoenix, to voice their opinions on things football related, and to know what others think. I think sometimes they are seeking approval or sometimes they are seeking to be the person who is a bit controversial. This could be supporting opposing teams or just seeing something differently from the majority. There is always the opportunity for conversation to be reciprocal but just depends on whether other people are interested in an opinion conveyed. Manutd.com – people have very strong views on this website and topics range from match discussions, to potential player purchases, to banner ideas, and much more. In some cases there is a common goal (banner ideas) and people seek approval from this. I think people also want to convey their footballing knowledge. Again an interesting opinion will be responded to but it is not always the case. Football forums are similar to Manutd.com in terms of size and intensity of opinions, but since people are coming from different footballing backgrounds (supporting different teams) there is more disagreement. People want others to know that they are right and vice versa. Again people want to convey their opinions and show their knowledge. Conversations again are reciprocal but not always.

Cut and paste an example of the type of topics being discussed (you may have to provide a context to your excerpt). The champions league final is coming up and someone has proposed the ideal starting 11 players if they could be joined. It is typical to have this hypothetical discussion, and people are often willing to contribute and defend their opinion. I was talking with my mates about this at the weekend, and it gives me a real cause for optimism looking towards the big game at Wembely. Basically we all pretty much agreed on this team.                                          GK. Van Der Saar RB. Alves           CB. Ferdinand               CB. Vidic              LB. Evra                           CM. Xavi                        CM. Iniesta  RWF. Messi                                                                      LWF. Pedro                                            SS. Rooney                                           CF. Hernandez I know this is not necesarily the most balanced XI, but it was picked on a mixture of the season's form.. and their current abilities. We have 6 from United, and 5 from Barca.. I personally would have picked Park to play LW but my mates who are mostly neutrals convinced me Pedro is much more of a goal threat and has had his best season ever at Barca. My main reason for Optimism is that when weighing up the squads there is no doubting the quality Barca have.. Xavi and Iniesta are among the best in the business and Messi is quite possibly THE best in the business at the moment.. but would you swap Rio and Vida for any CB pairing in the world? would you swap Rooney and Hernandez for any strike pairing? In the 3 of the 4 key area's of the pitch (Goalkeeper, Defence, Attack) I belive we are stronger than Barca.. though anybody has to admit in midfield we are probaly quite a bit behind them (Talking Reds, 2011) Note: the above section was typed rather than a screenshot as it was not loading properly onto this post. Lots of people have responded to this and proposed their own teams, and this is the norm for this forum.

Considering material presented during the course and comment on the potential ethical issues that may arise in this community e.g. lack of identity and accountability. There definitely is a lack of accountability in these forums and other similar things like facebook and twitter. People can do and say things without the consequences of real life and can hide behind a computer screen. While not everybody has bad intentions when using these types of websites, it is naive to think that every will adhere to the rules set in place. The threat of having your account shut down is not really a threat to someone who doesn’t care about it. It certainly doesn’t carry the same weight as in an actual community where you are held accountable for your actions. I think online communities have their benefits but are dangerous when relied upon too heavily, as with most technologies. They should never be confused with the real world.

Consider material presented in the online package and comment on the benefits these communities provides over traditional geographical community. One benefit is that people who actually live in the same city but who don’t know each other can connect and exchange a range of information. Things like asking about a nice restaurant to go to, or the nearest supermarket can be easily found out through an online community.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment what this community lacks or can not provide which traditional communities can. I believe online communities can’t provide anything close to what traditional communities can. Sure they can be helpful and you can have relationships with people online, and I wouldn’t say these are invalid, they can definitely be a comfort to people, but again the danger is becoming too reliant on it. In real life communities, people can actively help if you need it, and you can fully get to know people, not the best version they choose to show online. Traditional communities have the benefit of geographical closeness, so things can be organised in a range of settings, whereas online things can only happen online. References            Talking Reds. (2011, May 10th). Retrieved May 11th, 2011, from Manutd.com: http://origin-community.manutd.com/forums/p/166373/1519974.aspx#1519974

Tutorial Two: Digital Imaging

This tutorial looked at digital imaging, its use for transferring information and how it may be done, and ethical issues surrounding digital imaging. We also had to take some photos to make a Flickr Badge.

Below are the questions we wish to address in this tutorial.  Students are reminded that they will be posting this information to their individual blogs so will need to provide a context for potential readers

List some of the ways that digital images are stored transferred and manipulated using information technology. Provide examples of the hardware and software you are familiar with Prove at least three examples of the use of digital imaging to provide information and recording.  This can be done by hyper linking to blogs, internet sites, You Tube videos, podcasts etc.  You need to provide an explanation for each example, using your own words.  Some examples will be provided on the course blog and during tutorial sessions. Hardware I am familiar with: Cell phones iPods, iPads, iPhones Laptops Digital cameras Computers Software I am familiar with: Photoshop Windows media player VLC Microsoft office 1)    Digital imaging can be used to provide news and information through television and through the internet. News of the day is posted often in video or picture format on most news websites, so people can go to these websites to found out what has been happening. Here is an example: http://www.3news.co.nz/Key-will-campaign-on-KiwiSaver-changes/tabid/370/articleID/210676/Default.aspx   This use of digital imaging allows fast updates and current news to be viewed around the world. 2)    Youtube is a website that allows users to upload videos containing all sorts of information, things they are interested in, their views and opinions, virtually anything can be uploaded. People often use Youtube to video blog for various reasons, here is an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jExjAcyhgco . In this case, the guy in the video is talking about a video he is hoping to make and about Blizzcon. He has almost 500,000 subscribers to his videos, so using digital imaging he is able to let his subscribers know what is going on. 3)    Bands often use Myspace as a way to promote their music, both large worldwide bands and bands starting out. People may upload a new video to Myspace in the hope of raising their profile. Here is an example: http://www.myspace.com/radiohead . in this case Radiohead has used digital imaging to show a concert version of a song people may not have seen. This feature can be updated to put on new videos as required.

“A new technology is rarely superior to an old one in every feature” ·         Briefly discuss this statement in relation to digital camera technology.  What would you consider to be some of the pluses and minuses digital camera technology holds in relation to more traditional film based cameras? I would definitely say that digital cameras are superior to film based cameras for a number of reasons. With the film based cameras you had to be very careful about not exposing the film to the sun otherwise the picture would be damaged. There isn’t this concern with digital cameras. Digital cameras allow you to take as many photos as you like and the best ones can be chosen whereas with film based cameras you don’t have that convenience. There are different settings on digital cameras which allow you to deal with different weather and lighting conditions whereas some film based cameras require very good lighting for a good picture. In these regards digital cameras are superior. But they are inferior in some ways. As the images are stored on memory cards if anything happens to the card or the camera (of the computer they get stored to) the computers may be lost forever. Film based cameras produce an actual photograph. This can be done with digital cameras too but it is pretty expensive. I think digital cameras take away the skill required to take a good picture, and I don’t think they capture a moment as well. You often see people take a dozen photos of a group of friends because someone doesn’t like their hair or how they look. With the film based cameras you don’t have the ‘luxury’ of looking back on the photos until they get developed but this means you just take a picture and it is genuine and real and in the moment. I don’t believe digital cameras can always capture a moment like a film based camera may. There is anticipation and reward in waiting for a film to be developed, with digital cameras it is just too easy.

Given the prevalence of image capturing and distribution using IT, what ethical issues may arise with their use? ·         Provide at least 2 examples here 1)    People may be captured in photos either intentionally or unintentionally and may not want to be in the photo. There is an ethical issue there because everyone should have the right to say whether or not their picture is taken. 2)     They don’t know what their picture will be used for so they have the right to say whether or not they have their picture taken, but permission is rarely asked.

Briefly discuss some of the ways that digital images could, or are, being used in occupational therapy practice ·         Include reference and links to any web sites, or blogs you might come across Digital images could be used to compare cases between occupational therapists, to get other opinions from others about a client’s progress etc. For example an OT based in physical rehab could take a video one week of a patient and take one a few weeks later to show progress to other OT’s. This could also be used as a motivational tool for the patient as actually seeing improvement can be a motivational tool. References           HuskyStarcraft. (2010, October 17th). Pre blizzcon 2010 blog. Retrieved May 11th, 2011, from Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jExjAcyhgco           Key will campaign on KiwiSaver changes - Video. (2011, May 11th). Retrieved May 11th, 2011, from 3 News: http://www.3news.co.nz/Key-will-campaign-on-KiwiSaver-changes/tabid/370/articleID/210676/Default.aspx           Radiohead. (2011, April 12th). Retrieved May 11th, 2011, from Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/radiohead

Tasks associated with this tutorial

• Students are expected to demonstrate their competence in using a digital camera, and tripod, capturing 5 images which they will display on their blog
• Students are expected to open a Flickr account and up load the photos they have captured
• Students are expected to link their Flickr photos to their blog by creating a photo badge (depending on time constrains this task may be completed in a latter tutorial)
• Students should keep a copy of all login and password codes.  The lecturer will provide sheets where these can be recorded and will hold a copy.