Tutorial 8:Assistive Technology

Provide a definition for Assistive Technology:

“Assistive technology refers to a broad range of devices, services, strategies and practices that are conceived and applied to ameliorate the problems faced by individuals who have disabilities.” (Cook & Hussey, 2000).

 

For me Assistive technology means any form of technology which helps an individual perform a task better.

 

Describe one piece of equipment introduced in the assistive technology tutorial:

 

Talking Photo Albums

Image from Star Educational Limited.

Record your stories, timetables or messages with our Talking Photo Album. Simply insert Drawings or photographs inot the plastic wallets and record up to a 5 min message per page

• 20 pages that hold up a 5x7" image
• Re-record your message as many times as you want
• Built in speaker
• Drawings or photographs can be changed as often as required and your messages can be re-recorded when needed.
• Each individual voice message can be played back at any time, simply with a push of a button.

Price: $109.00

Combine literacy and ICT with this Talking Photo Album. It supports speaking and listening on the new literacy framework especially focusing on photo sequences, presentations, hiding and revealing pictures and word recognition.
Record your stories, timetables or messages with a Talking Photo Album. Simply insert drawings or photographs into the plastic wallets and record up to a 10 second message on every page to support the image / text

References:

http://www.sitech.co.nz/product_details/c/280/p/205

http://www.starmobility.co.nz/products/special-education/talking-photo-album/

Cook, A. M. & Hussey, S. M. (1996). Assistive technologies: Principles and practice. USA: Mosby

Tutorial 6: The internet and online communities

Provide the Web addresses for the online communities:
1: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=traumatic+brain+injury&aq=0&oq=traumatic

2: http://www.braininjuryforum.com/wordpress/

Provide a breif description of each community:

1: Is an online community of you tube videos to provide accounts of helpful tips or personal stories.
2:  I a forum for people to read blogs on traumatic brain injury and post and recieve comments on posts.

Consider material presented in the online package:

• People choose to contribute to each community to share and recieve information on traumatic brain injuries and share their stories and information they know hoping to help other who need it.   

The following video is a traumatic brain injury rehab session which I enjoyed watching.

Tutorial 3: Blog Creation Tasks

In this weeks tutorial we were set four tasks

Task one:
To create Blog (including setting up a Google account) and Flickr accounts.

Task two included:

• Choosing a Blog template
• Providing a Blog title
• Providing a Blog outline
• Completing a Blog profile (including uploading a photo of ourselves or one that represents us.

Task three included starting to post content which were to be taken from the technical descriptions one (information technology and ethical issues) and two (Digital Imaging).
Task four included uploading photos taken from tutorial 2 onto our flickr accounts.

Tutorial 2: Digital Imaging

The purpose of this blog is to explain some of the things that are used along side digital imagery, exlore the positive and negatives between digital cameras and traditional film based cameras. I will also address the ethical issues that may arise with the use of digital capturing and the distribution using IT, and discuss some of the ways digital images could be used in Occupational Therapy practice.

List some if the ways that digital images are stored transferred and manipulated using IT 

Hardware:

• USB flash drives
• Compact disk (CD)
• Digital vesitile disk (DVD)
• Hard drive
• Microphone
• Printer
• Mouse
• Keyboard
• Graphics card

Software:

• Video games
• Word processors (exel, microsoft word etc)
• Photoshops
• Internet explorer
• Virus protections e.g Firewalls

Examples of the use of digital imaging that provide information and recording include use of webcams, video cameras, digital cameras. Webcams can be used to produce live recordings via the internet which can be viewed by others on the internet on programmes such as skype, and can be used to capture pictures whilst sitting at a computer, and for quick uploads. Digital cameras produce digital images of scenes that are located anywhere and uploaded to a computer at a later date, most digital cameras also produce videos if put on to the movie setting but are there for mainly short snipits of video. Video cameras capture any length of film and are a better quality than a digital camera. The footage is then later uploaded to a computer to be edited and uploaded elsewhere.

Pluses and minuses of digital camera technology in relation to traditional film based cameras:

Pluses: - Photos can be previewed and deleated it the camera

- Only required photos can be uploaded to another device such as computers

- With photoshops, photos can be edited with texts and looks (e.g black and white, sepia)

Ethical issues that may arise with the use of image capturing and distribution using IT can include privacy, for example posting a specific photo of a person / people on the internet with no informed consent. Photos on certain sites could be taken by an unknown person and could possibly later be passed off as their own.

Some of the ways occupational therapists could use digital images in OT practice include;

• The use of documentation to monitor a clients progress ( used in physical tasks)
• Evidence

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/examples-of-computer-hardware.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_software



Tutorial 1: Information Technology and Ethical Issues

The focus of this first posting is to define and explain terms including Information Technology, Information Communications Technology, Intellectual property, social justice and informed consent, and to explain the use, problems and benifits of technology in Occupational Therapy.

Information Technology (IT) is the use of computers, telecommunications etc to store, retrieve and send information. Information communications technology is often used to refer to the merging of audio-visual and telephone networks with computer networks through a single cabling or link system. I feel quite comfortable using most systems of IT including cameras, computers, mobile phones etc.

How is IT being used in Occupational Therapy practice? Technology offers occupational therapists new types of handiwork and enabling devices, which are being drawn from a virtual evvironment. accordingly, Occupational therapists need to acknowledge the opportunities afforded by modern developments, and occupational therapy departments should reflect these changes and consider exchanging therapeutic cones for computers and video game consoles (Verdonck et al 2007) IT and ITC is becoming meaningful everyday occupations, for almost everyone including Occupational Therapy clients, therefore they are potential therapy tools. They can be used in many ways such as to improve a clients funtional independence and as a therapeutic tool in many environments.

Some of the ethical implications that may arise from IT devices may include

• Social Justice which refers to an ideal of society where 'justice' refers to economic status rather than to administration of rules.
• Informed consent which is a legal condition whereby a person can be said to have given consent based upon an appreciation and understanding of facts.

These may arise in OT practice when capturing images, sharing and transferring information, which all relate to confidentallity.

References:

Information and communications technology. (2011, March). Retrieved March, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_and_communication_Technologies

Verdonck, M. C., & Ryan, S. (2008, June). Mainstream Technology as an Occupational Therapy Tool: Technophobe or Technogeek? British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 71(6), 253-256.

Tutorial 4: Video production Sessions

We were set the task in groups to plan and make a 30 second film and edit it using windows live movie maker.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.