Tutorial Seven: Assistive Technology

Assistive Technology can be defined as:

• "any item, peice of equipment or product system whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increaseor improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities." (Public Law (PL) 100-407, Technical Assistance to the States Act, in Cook, A.M. & Hussey, S.M. (1995). Assistive technology: principles and practice. Mosby: Missouri

We had a tutorial session in which looked at loads of pieces of assistive technology. It was great fun. We had the opportunity to try out things like:

• adaptive switches to turn on/off electrical devices
• devices that record voices
  
• adaptive computer software (simpler than the usual)
• adapted mouse for computer (bigger roller balls and buttons)
• different keyboards (large, coloured keys, less keys etc).
  
• devices that you can program commands in for household items (e.g. one device controls heater, tv, stereo etc.).
  

Here's some more detail about one device we looked at, called a "GoTalk" This information comes from Star Educational's website, who are leading providers of assistive tech in NZ.

The GoTalk is a device in which messages can be recorded to corresponding pads on the device. The person using the GoTalk just has to have the ability to choose and press the pad, and then the message will be replayed.

They are quite robust, which is great for a person with limited motor control. They come in various sizes-from the simplest with 4 cells, to the largest with 24 cells. The cells have the abilty to record multiple messages, up to 5 per cell. Therfore, even with just the 4 cell GoTalk, about 20 messages can be stored.

The prices range from $390 to $495, which may seem like a lot of money at first, but is a small price to pay to help somebody communicate efficiently!!

This simple piece of assistive technology will make a huge difference to any user's life who has trouble communicating. Their functional capacity willl be enhanced by the fact that with the GoTalk, the chance that thier wishes will be carried out is increased. They may have needs that were not previously being met-for example, if someone is in a wheelchair and wantsto go to their room yet has limited function to mobilise themself there-they could us etheir GoTalk to express this wish. The person would also be able to join in on more things, e.g. activities, by verbalising their wish to do something e.g. help with dinner, or hit a drum in music group!

Tutorial Eight: Blogging Part Two

This blogging session details how to embed a youtube video into a blog, and also how to embed a flickr photobadge into a blog.

The best way to describe this is in video format! I will see if I can put some videos on to explain the processes:

Embedding a youtube video (this is a bit dry but explains it well!)

Embedding a flickr badge:
Here's another video about embedding a badge that shows flickr photos: (It doesn't realay make sense to me,but blogger help has an explanation also which says a similar thing.)

Tutorial Six: Exploring online communities

Online communities are a place where people connect to one another. People can join, gain info, discuss issues, share ideas/other things, sell/buy things, or just generally keep in touch.

We all like to keep in touch with one another, and these days online communities are an important part of our lives. It's easy to become"friends" with each other on communities like facebook, and online communities can provide company for people who are isolated sometimes. There's a really good example of how online communites can bring people together in this video: an organisation called "The Nickolai Organisation (NO)"... they have taken it one step further and actually met up in person :)

ONline communities are also great at providing us with information... I've added "foodlovers.co.nz" as it's a great place to get ideas for recipes etc!!!!

On "foodlovers.co.nz", people contribute to forums about food, wine, etc. There is also loads of info about recipes etc.

People join foodlovers.co because it's an easy way to acess information without leaving the home. If you're in the kitchen and need to know a conversion for a measurement, alternate for a missing ingredient, what wine will go with your meal, stuck for an idea for dinner-just pop online to get information or inspiration-it's easier than leaving the house to go to the library!!!

• Here's an example of one of the forums, in which people are discussing whether Chardonnay or Sav Blanc is sweeter: (something close to my heart!!!)

Which is sweeter Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc

Posted by: kathie3461 (IP Logged)

Date: February 23, 2009 08:41AM

I do realize that their is no real set rule here, but I was hoping to get a rule of thumb as to which is sweeter or which is the drier of the two if this is possible?

Reply To This Message•Quote This Message

Re: Which is sweeter Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc

Posted by: chris carrad (IP Logged)

Date: February 25, 2009 01:22PM

Technically they're both dry if done properly. However many new world wineries add sugar to give mouth feel and texture, and also make their wines more attractive to the greater public. Aussie Chardonnays can contain up to 17 g/L Resudual sugar, which really means it is SWEET!!. Most people say 'I don't like sweet wine, I'll have a Chardonnay / Sauvignon instead'. However most of them talk dry, but in fact drink sweet.
In answer to your question, they are infact about the same, with Chard being a wee touch drier, however the sweetness level may vary from wine to wine and NZ tends to be drier than Aus.

chris

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Re: Which is sweeter Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc

Posted by: kathie3461 (IP Logged)

Date: February 26, 2009 08:32AM

Thankyou for that Chris, unfortunately for me two connaiseurs created a heathen drink wise and I did not inherit they savy taste buds.

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Re: Which is sweeter Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc

Posted by: chris carrad (IP Logged)

Date: February 26, 2009 11:23AM

Hi Kathie,

Hope you find one to your taste. I always say the best way to know wines is to taste them, so whenever you are offered a taste, ie supermarkets etc, take the opportunity. Don't feel pressured into buying and if you don't like it tell them, it will help them in their feed back as well to improve their product.

good luck

chris

Ethical issues that present themselves when using online communities are:

• ethics: people can pretty much say whatever they want and not be held accountable.
• people are also non-identifiable, so there are no "real" people on there as such.
• following on from the second point=how much information should we reveal about ourselves online? Is it safe to reveal a lot? Or should be be wary about posting our personal information? Here's an article from stuff.co.nz about a survey that is being done with young people, to record their "digital footprint"-how much info they post online. Apparently, one in two students had posted sensitive information about themselves without thinking of the consequences.
  
• There are also some interesting stories out there that claim being part of online communities (specifically facebook) can lower student's grades. Perhaps the thinking behind this is that we check our profiles too much rather than studying. It is certainly obvious from going into the Uni library just how many people are checking their facebook whilst meant to be 'studying'. ANyway, this is an area that needs more research, and an issue for another debate!
  

The middle point I stated about 'no real people' on there, also reiterates that although being part of an online community gives us access to information that would otherwise be harder to come by, it does not provide for other human needs-the basic need to have face to face contact with other people. Therfore, it does not provide a traditional sense of "community". INstead of joining a discussion forum, we could join a cooking class, and see people face to face each week, rather than looking things up online all the time!!!

Tutorials Four and Five: Videos

Here's a really really cool video that we made about "Overcoming Adversity"... don't ya just hate it when you forget your spoon for your yoghurt?!!!



We made this video for a couple of our tutorials that concentrated on "films". We learnt about techniques for filming (like using a tripod, different ranges of shots etc), editing films using imovie on the mac computers, and posting them to youtube.

Like I said, the theme was "Overcoming Adversity". First we had to think of an idea, and then plan it out using storyboarding. That helped us to think about the actual story and how we would tell it. We had to think about what type of shots we would use and where, and close ups to show detail such as facial expressions.

Then came the shooting, I think we pretty much stuck to the script, but view it yourself and see what yo think :)

Using the imovie feature on the macs proved to be relatively easy once we'd gotten the hang of it, we even managed to cut down more than 10minutes of filming to 1 1/2 minutes of produced film! And added some random music to it as well :).

After it had been converted to quicktime format, we could post our masterpiece onto youtube. Youtube's services are free to watch and utelise, and anybody can post video's onto it aslong as you have created an account. The general public view the videos and can comment if they want to. Our video has had 22 views so far, and unfortunatley the music has been disabled by youtube but oh well, we still had fun makin it :).

Tutorial Three: Blogging Part One.

This tutorial we started to get into our blogs and set them up. This video found on youtube describes the aspects of blogs on blogger.com, and goes through using the settings.



Blogger promotes itself as a "personal diary", in which people can share their thoughts with the world. You create your own profile, post photo's, link to other websites that you are interested in. They promote themselves as being really easy to use and quick to set up. Which I've found they are :).

Another blog host with whom people can set up blogs is:

TravelPod.com, which is aimed specifically to travellers in order for them to post photos, chart trips on maps etc.

Tutorial Two: Digital Imaging

For this second tutorial we looked at capturing digital images and storing them online. We then uploaded some of them to our blogs (see my really cool flicker badge on the right!)

Images these days can be captured, stored, manipulated and transferred by many means: cameras, video cameras, laptops, camera phones, and CCTV cameras to name a few.

It is more common to have a digital camera these days rather than a film camera, but this doesn't necessarily mean that they are better. Film cameras have the advantage of being:

• simpler to use,
• more durable,
• used to have better quality pictures,
• way more exciting to receive the packet of pictures back from the chemist after they had been developed!!!!

Digital cameras have the advantage of:

• it's made it easier to share, manipulate and distribute the images.
• easy to keep in touch quickly with friends and family from overseas, by emailing pictures or viewing them online.

A disadvantage of digital cameras surrounds the storage of the images. It is easier to leave them on the computer/camera rather than printing them out. This leaves us with the issue of safety of our images-if our computers get stolen we have no backup. Even backing up our images on CD's has a limited life-of the actual CD-being approximately 15 years. (Plus, it's way more fun and personal to sit around looking at an album, rather than a laptop looking at the holiday pics!!)

One of the large ethical issues that we have to consider when using digital images is informed consent. As outlined in the previous posting, people have to know that their picture is being taken and where it will end up. Digital pictures are easily copied, and if posted onto common sites (eg Facebook), one has to be careful who has access to them to avoid them being downloaded by unknown people and being used for means otherwise intended.

As Occupational Therapists, practice is starting to include the use of digital cameras in a multitude of ways:

• taking pictures of outings to put together a scrapbook with clients,
• taking pictures of client's houses in order to place them into a report for application of funding,
• digital images are being used to promote Occupational Therapy as a profession, for example, The New Zealand Association of Occupational Therapy encourage therapists to send in images of what they are dong to celebrate the national "Occupational Therapy Week".
  

One way that digital photo's can be shared with the world easily is by using a website called "flickr.com". Their homepage boasts that flickr is used to: "share your photos. watch the world. share and stay in touch. upload and organise...". Apparently they have approximately 5,000 uploads per minute!! You have to join up and create an account, then can post pictures onto flickr. Click the link to check out flickr's blog.

Another way to share digital images with the world is by using certain brands of software that come on your computer. "Picasa", a standard software for storing digital pictures on pc's, has created a way for users to share their albums online with family and friends. You just need to sign up with a google account, and then you can post your pics, create photo gifts, edit your pics, and invite friends and family to view them. Too easy!!!

Terminology:
One of the things to be aware of when using digital cameras are the differences in the zooms:

• Digital zoom will "grab" a part of an image and blow it up with the same ratio as the original picture. It does not give such a high quality of picture as optical zoom.
• Optical zoom is the better kind of zoom. The lens will move in and out on the camera and will produce a higher quality finished image.
• You can see in this picture examples of digital VS optical zoom: (picture retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Digital_zoom_example.png 29/05/09). The first box is the original picture, the second box is digital zoom, and the third box is optical zoom. Note the difference in quality.
  

Also, the term megapixel (MP) can be compared to tiles on a mosaic. One pixel is an individual tile, and a megapixel is one million pixels. Pixels have sesors which "pick up light". Generally about 7.2MP is decent enough for a camera to give good quality enlargements.

Tutorial One: Information Technology and the ethical issues surrounding it!

This was our first tutorial for Participation in Occupational Therapy. We were looking at the ethical issues surrounding information technology, for example, what issues are involved when using IT to distribute information.

For a starter, let's decide what the term"Information technology" means:

• "Information technology" can be defined as "the production, storage, and communication of information using computers and electronic technology". (Collins English Dictionary, 2nd Edition, 2006)

So for humans in this digital age, this pretty much comes into play every day of our lives!!

Most things we use to get information in our lives are electronic or will have computers involved in producing or storing their information. Take the TV for example, in the news, they will employ digital technology to gain their information from overseas, and use digital technology to transmit the news to us. Another example is the World Wide Web... a lot of us turn to the web to gain information about a HUGE range of topics!!! (whether or not it is reliable information!!) Another example is studying these days... we are expected as students to be pretty up to date with technology, and if we aren't-woe betide us, it makes our lives that much harder!!! It's very common to have lecture notes posted online, and we are expected to know how to resource reliable literature off databases online, and also, submit our assisnments to lecturers electronically :) That's a lot of learning if you aren't feeling competent in the world of Information Technology!!!

Luckily for me, I feel like as long as I try to keep up with the digital world, and use new technology, I can pick it up and use it pretty easily. Sometimes it's a bit frustrating, like when my USB stick decided it didn't want to work the day before assignments were due! It's also a bit frustrating when it seems that the digital way is harder than the "old" way, like sometimes submitting assignments online is not quite as satisfying as dropping them safely into the lecturer's pigeon hole-there's the added stress of thinking "did it work??"

This blog is an excellent example of using new technology in order to keep up with the times, I will learn loads over the next few months as a result of doing this!

In Occupational Therapy practice, Information Technology is utelised in lots of ways. Ways I have seen so far are:

• directing clients to websites for them to educate themselves,


• Occupational Therapists have to submit competencies online each year to the OT Board of NZ in order to keep their practicing certificates,


• presenting inservices to one another by means of powerpoint etc,


• ordering equipment online, or seeing what is available in the equipment store,


• providing clients who have limited access to the community resources for online learning (Open Polytechnic etc),


• taking pictures of outings to put together a scrapbook with clients,


• taking pictures of client's houses in order to place them into a report.

I'm sure there are loads more, that I haven't seen yet (ar maybe have seen, yet have not "noticed", because IT is so commonplace these days I don't think twice about it!)

Since this blog posting's focus is on ethics as a whole, lets' look at the definition of Computer Ethics. Computer ethics has been around as a concept since the 1970's, but only recently in the 90's has it been integrated into professional settings. As defined on wikipedia:

• Computer ethics is a practical philosophical issue which guides how computing professionals should make decisions regarding professional and social conduct. (Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_ethics, 20th May 2009).

There are models that people looking at computer ethics can follow to identify issues and take action to solve them.

One obvious ethical issue when using Information Technology to capture, share, and transmit information is that we need to be careful to gain informed consent to publish information/pictures.

• Informed consent is a legal term in which a person has given their consent, after the terms, facts, and implications of the action has been explained to them. (Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informed_consent, May 16th, 2009.)

In Occupational Therapy, sometimes the person with whom we are working may not be able to make their informed consent clear to us. Therefore we must carefully think about what/whom we are taking pictures of, and the context in which they will be used (public, private use etc).

Another issue when using Information Technology is that we have to be careful to give credit to the owners of the material we use. It can be easy to "copy and paste" material off websites without using references, and to do this would be a breach of Intellectual Property Rights.

• Intellectual Property is a legal concept that covers the ownership of material, as belonging to the owner. It can be applied to creations of the mind, like designs, phrases, symbols, music, art etc. The law controls certain aspects of intellectual property rights, in the form of patents, copyrights etc etc. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property, 16th May, 2009).

Therefore, in order not to breach the owner's intellectual property rights, we must always provide a reference as to where the information we are using comes from!

Also, another issue to think about when using information technonoly, is Social Justice, which wikepedia defines as:

• a concept in society which justice is achieved in all aspects of a society, rather than merely the administration of law. Social justice is a term which gives all members and groups in sociaty fair treatment, and an equal share of the benefits in societies. (Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_justice, May 20th, 2009).

I suppose in relation to Infromation technology, social justice is referring to "the digital divide", in which some societies are better off because they have easier access to IT and therefore their societies' "advance" quicker than those who don't have such easy access.

Here's a very interesting article from BBC News about the digital divide, and how some UK companies are working together to bridge it by introducing technolgyto places like remote Indian communities and the sub-Sahara in Africa. The technology they are introducing includes AV material, e-science (to help guide agricultural practice), and community flat screens (from which information can be transmitted to mobile phones-in places where the mobile ph network is too expensive or hard to access).

In conclusion, as OT's, a greater understanding of IT and the ethical issues surrounding it will lead us to being able to participating in this ever-changing world of our's successfully.