Tutorial Eight: Assistive Technology

Cook & Hussey (2000) define an assistive device as "any item, piece of equipment or product system whether acquired commerically off the shelf, modified or customised that is used to increase or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities."

This means that an assistive technology device is a piece of equipment that can help someone who may not have full capabilities to do something e.g. an elderly lady may use a walking frame because she may need it to balance and also to help her carry items around with her during the day.

Vibrating Alarm Clocks
This is an assistive device that assists deaf or heavy sleepers to wake in the morning. It works by having a small circle device that is placed under the pillow or bed and when the alarm goes off the small circle part vibrates. This device can also come with all sorts of flashing lights to help the person even more to wake up.

The cost of them is between $30-$60 and the size of them is of a normal alarm clock size so it doesn't look any different.

Product Review: Sonic Boom Alarm Clock
This video demonstates what the alarm clock can do and how to use it.

Tutorial Seven: Linking to blogs

Anonymous said...
Hi
I'm currently studying to be an occupational therapist and one of my papers is an opinion piece to do with eldery care. I hadn't of thought of the use of a Wii would be so beneficial for aged care. This is a great idea also for them as they can avoid those hazards outside and be able to participate in everyday exercise

April 19, 2011 4:58 AM

http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6742573982876028982&postID=4409869696774739721

This is the record of the comment that I had posted on a blog that took my interest. This blog explores the nintendo Wii and how it is used in elderly care and can be beneficial for them. This took my interest as one of my papers is about elderly care, and this was an advanced way for elderly to keep active.

Tutorial Six: Internet and Online Communities

There are many online communities that are available on the internet. The three that I am going to mention are the popular Facebook, Twitter and Blogger.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/
Blogger: http://www.blogger.com/

Facebook:
"Is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004. As of January 2011, Facebook has more than 600 million active users." Retrieved March 29th 2011 from, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook
This website is designed to connect you with family and friends from all over the world. You can upload photos, publish a status of what is on your mind or what you are doing, it allows you to comment on other photos that they have displayed and also allows you to connect with others that have similar interests. This site allows you to create events and invite your family and friends. It also lets you know when family and friends birthdays are coming up. This site is easy to use and easy to access. You can access this site on you desktop computer, laptop, regular mobile phone, iphone or android phone.

Twitter:
"Twitter is a real-time information network that connects you to the latest information about what you find interesting. Simply find the public streams you find most compelling and follow the conversations. At the heart of Twitter are small bursts of information called 'Tweets'. Each Tweet is 140 characters in length." Retrieved March 29th 2011, from http://twitter.com/about
This site is also used all over the world like facebook. It comes in array of languages such as English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish.
It is very accessible, you can receive tweets on your mobile phone through out the day and you can access it on you desktop computer, laptop, iphone, android phone and regular mobile phone. Twitter also allows you to display photos and videos.

Blogger
Creating a blog is very easy. It has many features you can customise your blog, add photos and videos, join other blogs and follow blogs of your interests.
I think the purpose of this community is for individuals to express their own views & opinions or just like facebook and twitter to show others of what your thinking & what is going on in thier life. I feel this community gives the individual more to contribute to. You can expand more on your views unlike on twitter where you can just put a quick tweet out.

Searching through other blogs the information that is shared seems to be one way. The individuals that share the information arn't looking for others to comment, the blog they set up is just about their interests. In comparison Facebook and Twitter it is very common for others to comment on either a status or a photo that you may have on these online communities. I have found a group on Facebook that was of my interest and it is called 'OT LOVE OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY'. http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/love.OT
On this page there is suggestions of theraputic activities for burns victims, photos of the happenings in OT, the people who have joined the group have asked questions and given advice to others in the group.

Privacy is an important ethical issue for all of these online communities, because I have my own Facebook account and my own blog I know that you can make your profiles private and only available to your family and friends. This is important to do if you don't want everyone and anyone looking at your profile.

Communtity "is a group of interacting organisms sharing a populated environment. In human communities, intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, risks and a number of other conditions may be preset and common affectinf he identity of the participants and their degree of cohesiveness." Retrieved April 6th 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community.
The benefits that these online communities have over a traditional geographical community is that you are able to visually see what your friends and family have been up to if they are travelling around the world. You can also keep in contact with them for free of charge as there is no cost to joining these communities. But if you were to call them on the phone it may cost you alot.

Limitations to these online communities maybe that you don't physically talk to them because you can just go to their profile and see what they have been doing. You lose that closeness of talking face-to-face.

Tutorial Five: Video Production Sessions

"YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, and view videos" Retrieved 25th March 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube.

Created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005.
"YouTube allows billions of people to discover, watch and share originally-created videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform, and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small. See our company timeline for more information on our company history." Retrieved 25th March 2011, from http://www.youtube.com/t/about_youtube

I use YouTube when I want to view a new music video or if my friends have recommended a funny video to watch.

I have chosen hand therapy as my interest from my fieldwork experiences. This topic had interested me because I enjoyed making and experimenting with the hand splints. People who may require hadn therapy are people with arthritis, fractures, dislocations, sprains, strains, nerve injuries and compressions.

These are five videos from YouTube related to hand therapy:
1.

New London Occupational, Physical and Hand Therapy.
This video is about a husband and wife's therapy service. They show their combined knowledge and skills and explain in this video what the service provides. It also explains in depth how and what hand therapy is used for.


2.

Therapy Ball Hand & Wrist Exercises Demonstrations
This video has no talking just the hand exercises. There is some recommendations in a caption below the video and they recommend to start with a soft ball and work your way through to a harder ball as you progress with hand strength.

3.

Hand Exercise & Grip Strength with HandMaster Plus
This video is demonstrating a helpful tool to gain grip strength and to strengthen your hand muscles.

4.

Splinting By An Occupational Therapist Part 2
This video is also a demonstration of how to splint a clients hand.

5.

Jerry Fisher Hand Therapy Session
This video is of Jerry Fisher doing an upper extremity functional test. He may be doing this because of losing strength in his arm and hand after a stroke and this is one of the many test to conduct to observe improvements.

*IN THE BAG*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=&feature=player_embedded
This is the movie that I helped make in 2010, Enjoy!

This task required us to make a short video. The topic required us to make up a problem and then how we had overcome that problem. In this short video the character Baggy could not see and was stumbling all over the place. Baggy who was fed up and annoyed sat down one day and thought of a solution. Baggy had cut some eye holes in her paper bag. She was then very happy that she could walk around without stumbling all over the place.

Tutorial Two: Digital Imaging

List some of the ways that digital images are stored, transferred and manipulated using information technology.
Examples of hardware: computer keyboard, mouse, speakers screen and hard-drive
Examples of software: microsoft word, microsoft excel

Three examples of digital imaging:

• Flickr
• You Tube
• blogging

"A new technology is rarely superior to an old one in every feature"
What would the positives and negatives digital camera technology holds in relation to more traditional film based cameras?
Positive

1. Being able to take photos and deleting them straight away if you don't like them
2. Being able to take alot more photos than a traditional camera
3. Having different camera options more available to use

Negative

1. Storing the photos for a period of time and never developing them
2. Risk of losing them on the computer
3. To store a lot of photos for a digital camera you need a computer to store them on

Given the prevalence of image capturing and distribution using IT, what ethical issues may arise with their use?

• Not having consent to make the digital images that have been captured made public
• confidentiality

Briefly discuss some of the ways that digital images could, or are, being used in occupational therapy practice.

• housing modifications
• taking photos of the clients positioning
• digital images are being used to make pamphlets or presentations for the public or other health professionals.

Tutorial One: Information Technology and Ethical Issues

This first posting is to explain some definitions that have relation to information technology. Also it will discuss some of the ethical issues that arise with information technology and other technological devices.

Information Technology: "It refers to anything to computing technology, such as networking, hardware, software, the Internet or the people that work with these technologies."
Retrieved February 24th 2011, from www.techterms.com/definition/it
This definition covers anything technical device that can store information on it for a period of time e.g. computers, laptops, mobile phones and digital cameras.

Considering the definition of IT. How is this form of technology prevalent in our society? How common place has it become?
I use some form of IT everday in my life. I use my cellphone to keep in contact with friends and family also to communicate with my boss. I use the internet to be informed with current events and what my course schedule will be like for the week coming. Many other people will do exactly the same as me to keep in contact with others over the day. Majority of people have a cellphone and most also have a laptop or computer to their work on or check emails.

The IT devices I feel comfortable using are my cellphone, laptop and a digital camera.

Thinking about my fieldwork experiences
How is IT used in Occupational  Therapy practice?
IT is used in OT when they go on a homevisit the OT may take a camera to take photos of a housing modification or a clients positioning that may need to altered. In the community settings the OT's often take cellphones with them so that others can contact them while they are out on a visit or if they need make a phone call themselves.

Issues that may exist around OT's adoption of IT systems and tools could be that when we store information about a client on a computer there may not be a written hard copy meaning if the computer crashes then the notes and information may become lost forever. But if there was a hard copy then that information can be stored away in a filing system that can be accessed by others.

Ethical implications that may arise from capturing, sharing and transferring of information via IT devices can be issues around chinese whispers, mis-intepreting information given because you aren't talking to the person face to face. Also risk of information not being private.

Intellectual Property: (IP) "refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic workds, and symbols, names, images and designs used in commerce."
Retreived February 27th 2011, from www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/
In OT practice we draw on others theories to back up on what we doing (theoretical reasoning), to justify our work. Their techniques that they developed are IP. Using information technology we can adapt or improve previous theories.

Social Justice: "Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognised the dignity of every human being."
Retrieved February 24th 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_justice 
In relation to OT practice confidentiality is very important as we obtain and store personal information about clients so keeping that information private is valuing the clients human rights and their dignity.

Informed Consent: "is a phase often used in law to indicate that the consent a person gives meets certain minimum standards. An informed consent can be said to have been given based upon a clear appreciation and understanding of the facts, implications and future consequences of an action."
Retrieved February 24th 2011, from www.wikipedia.org/wiki/informed_consent
At the beginning of each assessment that you conduct on a client you ask for their consent to do so, majority of the time the client will comply and proceed with the assessment. 

Tutorial Eight: Assitive technology

Tutorial Seven: Linking to blogs of interest and exchanging comments

Tutorial Six: The internet and online communities

Tutorial Five: Video Production Sessions

Tutorial Four: Video Production Sessions

Tutorial Three: Blog Creation Tasks

Tutorial Two: Digital Imaging

Tutorial One: Information Technology and Ethical Issues

This first posting is to define the terms that I will be discussing in the rest of the posts throughout the blog.

Information Technology: "and is pronounced I.T. It refers to anything related to computing technology, such as networking, hardware, software, the Internet or the people that work with these technologies. Many companies now have IT departments for managing the computers, networks, and other technical areas of their businesses."