Tut Eight Technical Description

Tutorial Eight: Assistive technology

Provide a definition of Assistive technology (your Cook and Hussey reading may be helpful with this). Assistive Technology is the use of a piece of equipment that can be either specifically modified or bought off the self that is designed to work with individuals with a disability, in order to improve or increase their functional capabilities.

Describe one piece of equipment introduced in the assistive technology tutorial. Provide information on size, cost and functions. The Sunny Sunshine Switch!! No child can keep from touching this spectacular switch/toy. When used as a toy, the easiest touch will reward the child with colored lights, vibration and three different soothing tunes in sync with 8 different colored blinking lights. If a toy or device is plugged in, the Sunny Sunshine will activate it when touched. Size: 14"L x 14"W x 8"H. Requires 6 AA Batteries. Cost: $82.95 http://enablingdevices.com/catalog/toys_for_disabled_children/music-vibration-lights-sound-effect-toys/sunny-sunshine-switch

How does your chosen piece of equipment increased functional capacity for the user? Provide examples here from the tutorial and lecture. The child using this device is rewarded for the lightest touch, which promotes function by encouraging them to reach out for it again and again. It also aids children in group activities or individual participation by acting as a switch that is engaged in something they are doing. Here function is increased as they are able to be responsible for something in the group happening.

Tut Seven Technical Desription

Tutorial Seven: Posting You Tube Videos and Flickr Badges to Blogs: Explaining the process

Task One: Explain the step by step process required to embed You Tube videos into your Blog . Consider using screen captures to provide a visual representation of these steps. Firstly you need to log onto YouTube and locate the video you are wanting. Beside the video the website gives you a URL that you copy and paste into a post on your blog. After adding a title and description you just need to post onto your blog.

Task Two: Explain the step by step process required to embed a Flickr Badge into your Blog . Consider using screen captures to provide a visual representation of these steps. Log onto your flikr account and click on tools at bottom of page. Follow step by step instructions until end where the URL comes up and copy this. Open your blog account and customize. Under elements you click on script and paste the URL into there. After naming you badge, save and post to blog.

Tut Six Technical Desription

Tutorial Six: The internet and online communities

Either search online for a community which interest you or choose one of the provided online communities to investigate. Make sure your selected a community that comprises some form of online forum, discussion page or chat room. You may also wish to see if your community has a Wikipedia entry.

Provide the web address and the name of the community you are investigating Tree Hugger: http://www.treehugger.com/

What is the brief or focus of this community TreeHugger is a media outlet that is dedicated to incorporating ideas of sustainability into mainstream society. They strive to be a one-stop shop for green news, solutions and product information. They provide information to the public through a daily blog, newsletters, video segments and radio shows.

What services are provided? How interactive is this site? How can people contribute? Advice on green news, solutions and product information. Very interactive, includes links to videos of interviews and methods of living green. People can contact any of the 36 writers via the site for contributions or further information. People can also contribute to the open discussion forums held by the site.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on why people choose to contribute to this community. What is it they are seeking? This site aids people in becoming more ‘green’ and in networking people together who are on the same crusade. People join this online community to share their attitudes and innovations online. Tips, advice and news on what is happening in this area around the world is shared between writers, subscribers and members of the internet surfing community. I think that people who regularly use this site are searching for a network of people who are full of information that they find useful in their everyday lives and who they can share their experiences and ideas with.

Cut and paste an example of the type of topics being discussed (you may have to provide a context to your excerpt). ‘The Go Green Initiative’s School of the Week: Pleasanton Middle School in Pleasanton, CA!’ Well folks, it seems the student Panthers at Pleasanton Middle School in California are going "wild" for food scraps. They began in January putting together a lunchtime food scrapping effort that is truly amazing, with ten different stations set up around the lunch area so that students can separate their food and paper waste into large green cans, recycle their cans and bottles into special receptacles, and throw the small amount of remaining trash out the old-fashioned way. And so far the results from our Go Green Initiative school of the week have been incredible! Japan Post announces plans to convert entire mail delivery fleet to EVs. Japan Post announced on June 2nd that they intend to replace their entire fleet of 21,000 mail collection and delivery trucks with Electric Vehicles (EVs) over the next eight years. Despite the high price of EVs, this will apparently translate into savings of several billion yen when compared to the projected cost of continuing to use increasingly expensive gasoline. It doesn’t stop there.

Considering material presented during the course and make comment on the potential ethical issues that may arise in this community e.g. lack of identity and accountability. In this site anyone can access the public forums however you need to register to take part in asking and answering questions. To register the user must agree to the visitor’s agreement and the privacy policy set out by the Discovery Communications who govern the site. In addition the to the formal policy the forum has a group of moderators selected from the community who are responsible for keeping the forum friendly, polite and on topic. All of this decreases the risk of ethical issues becoming present as it lays grounds to what can be said while leaving plenty of room for individual comment. It also holds the individual accountable for what is said as warnings are issued when material is removed by the moderators

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on the benefits this community holds over traditional notions of community e.g. communities reliant on geographic proximity This community is different to a tradition community as members can come from anywhere. The site is not internationally censored and includes relevant information from all parts of the globe.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment what this community lacks or can not provide which traditional communities can. This community can not provide members with the physical aspects that a traditional community has. There is no physical interaction between the members rather it is more a virtual one.

Work Fast, Play Hard

Dedicated to the forth street balloons 5th May - 28th May

This video was made by myself and three other class mates. the idea was to reflect an aspect of participation. As this was quite a broad topic and we basically just wanted to play in the balloons at my flat we decided to keep as much video time as possible for this activity. In retrospect we would have given the photos more time to flick through as they go too fast for our liking. But the balloons were fun.

Tut Four and Five Technical Description

Tutorial Four and Five: Video Production Sessions

Task One: Follow instructions and work in a small group to plan and produce and edit a 30 second short.

Task Two: Set up a U Tube account

Task Three: Follow instructions to posting your video on U Tube.

Task Four (Blog Posting): Provide a brief summary of the services offered by U Tube. Information can be drawn from the week five tutorial hand out. YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips. Unregistered users can watch most videos on the site, while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos

Task Five (Blog Posting): Provide a brief account (1-2 paragraphs) on how the use of planning (storyboarding and scripting aided your groups short film. Storyboarding and scripting helped my group to decide what the theme and path our story would take. We were able to talk through and document all of our ideas and then put the together in a reasonable order. From that we were able to look at what clips would be still frames and what would be short movies. For the movie piece we wrote what would be said and when. We also wrote a story line for the still frames even though these would not be seen visually in the film itself, but by doing this we were able to make sure our pictures followed each other in a logical order.

Tut Three Technical Description

Tutorial Three: Blog Creation Tasks

Task One: Follow instructions to set up a account with Blogger This will involve setting up a Google account (make note of your user name and password)

Task Two: Follow instructions to complete the following Blog construction tasks Choose a Blog Template (this can be changed later if you wish) Provide a Blog title (this will need to incorporate your name and the course title Participation in Occupation 1) Provide a Blog outline. This is a short statement outlining the purpose of the Blog (this information should come from the course outline and assessment guidelines for Participation in Occupation 1). Complete your Blog profile (you need to include your age, gender, industry, occupation and location) Up load a photo to your Blog profile

Task Three: Follow instructions to start posting content. Your first two post should be taken from the technical descriptions for tutorials one and two.

Task Four: Provide a brief summary of the services offered by Blogger (this will be your third posting. Information can be drawn from the attached hand out). In addition to this name one other Blog host. Blogger is a site that enables people to keep an online diary. It also enables people to collaborate all of their links to other sites. For example links to their photos on Flickr and videos on You Tube. It enables other people to follow them through whatever route is displayed through their blog.

Task Five: Upload 5 photos from tutorial 5 onto your flickr account.

Any remaining time can be spent · Exploring Blogs hosted by Blogger and other services (e.g.myspace) · Setting up a personal Blog · Organising your flickr account into groups

Tut Two Technical Description

Tutorial Two: Digital Camera use and applications

“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? Newer cameras have the ability to be multifunctional, for example they are able to take still pictures as well as movie frames. However in some digital cameras the technology used to zoom, and transfer onto computer or file cause a loss of definition, although on the other side of that they are able to zoom further.

List some of the ways that digital images can be stored transferred and manipulated using other communications technology. Images can be stored either on the memory card of the camera or transferred to a file in a computer. From the computer you are able to zoom, distort, change colours and increase or decrease the overall size and look of the image.

Given the prevalence of image capturing devices, and thinking about the issues discussed in tutorial one, consider what sort of ethical issues may arise with their use. Due to their prevalence and the ease of use these devices may overtake conventional methods of data gathering and storage of information. For example, when an interview is taped rather than the interviewer having to pay attention and write information down and also using computer files to store information rather than having hard copies. The danger there of course is if the system crashes and data is not backed up somewhere or no hard copy was made.

Briefly discuss some of the ways that digital images could, or are, being used in occupational therapy practice. To document a home visit in order to show proof in a report of what changes need to be made. To document trips or special moments in a client’s therapy, in order to create a diary of their progress. To capture images of ROM or something similar to compare with later in treatment.

Provide a brief summary of the services offered by Flickr.com Flickr is an image and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community platform. In addition to being a popular Web site for users to share personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers as a photo repository. Its popularity has been fueled by its organization tools, which allow photos to be tagged and browsed by folksonomic means. As of November 2007, it hosts more than two billion images. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flickr: Retrieved 26 May 2008

Name one other photo storage website which offers a service similar to Flickr.com Photobucket is also a site which allows photos to be stored and shared via the internet.

Explain what the difference is between a digital and an optical zoom Optical zoom works just like a zoom lens on a film camera. The lens changes focal length and magnification as it is zoomed. Image quality stays high throughout the zoom range. Digital zoom simply crops the image to a smaller size, then enlarges the cropped portion to fill the frame again. Digital zoom results in a significant loss of quality as is clear from the examples below.

Explain what is meant by the term mega pixel A mega pixel is one million pixels. Pixels are what make up the picture. The bigger picture that is being printed then the bigger pixel count you are going to want in order for a clear picture to be produced

Tut One Technical Description

Tutorial One: Information Technology and Ethical Issues

Provide a definition of Information Technology/Information Communications Technology (APA reference required) Information Technology is the use of computers, telecomunications, etc in electronic processing, storing, retreiving, and sending information Allen, R. (consultant editor). (2004). The penguin english dictionary. London: Penguin Books

Consider the definition of IT you have provided. How is this form of technology prevalent in our society? How common place has it become? The use of computers and telecommunications has become common place in our society as technology has increased. It is now common place for every school, workplace and home to use computers as a way of storage (ie – photos), and most prominently as a way of sending and retrieving information in the form of email etc.

What IT devices or system do you feel comfortable and competent using? I feel competent using computers, most of the time. For example I am competent with the basics – word; internet; powerpoint etc. I am competent using video cameras and digital cameras. And of course cell phones. All these things are purely due to personal experiences.

Thinking about your own fieldwork experiences consider how IT is being used in Occupational Therapy practice? My main encounters with IT in fieldwork are computer systems used for taking notes and entering assessment data. Also digital cameras which were used to document ward trips. These provided the ward with something memorable patients could take away with them on discharge.

What ethical implications arise from the capturing, sharing and transferring of information via IT devices (e.g. mobile phones) or systems (e.g. internet) For fieldwork there is the worry about just how private it is and who the information can be accessed by. The internet has proven many times not to be as secure as people often think. The information provided about clients on the internet systems is personal and would be detrimental in the wrong hands.

Provide a definition of Computer Ethics (APA reference required) Computer ethics is a branch of practical philosophy which deals with how computing professionals should make decisions regarding professional and social conduct. Retrieved February 14, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_ethics

Provide a definition of Intellectual Property (APA reference required) 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. The holder of this legal entitlement is generally entitled to exercise various exclusive rights in relation to the subject matter of the IP. The term intellectual property reflects the idea that this subject matter is the product of the mind or the intellect, and that IP rights may be protected at law in the same way as any other form of property. However, the use of the term and the concepts it is said to embody are the subject of some controversy Retrieved February 14, 2007, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property

Provide a definition of Social Justice (APA reference required) Social justice mostly refers to an ideal of society, where "justice" refers to economic status rather than to the administration of laws. It is based on the idea of a society which gives individuals and groups fair treatment and a just share of the benefits of society, although what is "fair treatment" and a "just share" must remain unclear or subject to interpretation. Retreived Februry 14, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_justice

Provide a definition of Informed Consent (APA reference required) 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

In your own words briefly summarise why (or why not) a great understanding of ITC and the ethical issues it encompasses will help us in our practice and daily lives. Having an aweness of the ethical issues of ITC will help us as we will be able to make an informed judgement on what is appropriate to use the devices and systems for. This will minimise the risk of troubles arising in our practice and daily lives.

Well....the second lesson was just as interesting...

Played around with photos, movies and colours today!! Although I think James may have had to spend more time telling us which of our videos were not relevant lol, oh well I guess he has a point when he mentions that fainting goats isn't entirely relevant to OT.

My very first BLOG

wahoo, and here i thought that i was technologically challenged!!!!But yet...look at me go :) Yay!! I must say this is a very nice class for a friday arvo, very relaxing and therapeutic. Wicki!!
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