Tutorial Six: The internet and online communities

An online community is place for people to come together by using the internet.  You can benefit greatly from being a member to an online community.  It is about people having an easier and faster way of cumming together to talk about about their experience in something and having the support.  Using an online community has advantages such as being able to access it from home without having to travel.  Instead of face-to-face communication you communicate through messaging online which is preferred by some people.  The community is always there to access whenever you want or need to.  The web is a more compact way of keeping track of event and activities.  online communities are becoming more popular as technology is developing and people are relying on the internet more for things.

For my first placement i was at rehabilitation center for people who had mental and physical disabilities. I met people who had suffered different levels of brain injuries, people who had lifelong conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis and people who had suffered strokes.  Brain injuries was an area that was particularly interesting to me.  Especially since i had a friend who had suffered a brain injury and it was interesting to learn more about it and the effects it had on the individuals and their lives.

The first online community is about women who were traumatic brain injury survivors.  It provided information about how to join, content, resources, sponsors and events.  It is intended for these women who have suffered a traumatic brain injury to help them develop a sense of dignity, self worth and skills required for social interactions and getting back into the community.  Signing up to this

community you are connected to other women who have survived traumatic brain injuries.  It is a

 network of support.   

http://www.brainsong.org/      

http://www.commoncraft.com/archives/000208.html

Tutorial Seven: Linking to blogs of interest and exchnaging comments

There are many blogs out there about occupational therapy (OT).  It is a source of communication between occupational therapists who want to find out information about something or just to be in contact with other occupational therapists around the world.  There are also blogs promoting the profession as well.  Occupational therapy is a growing profession and there are many blogs being set up by occupational therapists to help explain who they are what they do.  These next five blog sites cover education about OT ,  people and their experience of being OTs.  

http://oteducation.wordpress.com/

http://otnotes.blogspot.co.nz/ 

http://otstudents.blogspot.co.nz/ 

http://occupationaltherapyreflect.wordpress.com/ 

  

http://abctherapeutics.blogspot.co.nz/

Tutorial Eight: Assistive Technology

The definition of Assistive technology is the large range of devices, services and strategies that are used to improve the life of those living with disabilities.  It can be described as a piece of equipment or system that can be bought or modified and is used to improve functional capabilities for those individuals with disabilities.  An important component of assistive technology is that each piece of technology is used to suit an individual and no same piece of technology is used the same way because each individual has their own unique needs. (cook & Hussey, 2000).

In my own words assistive technology is the use of a type of technology system that is going to assist a person who has a disability.  It is used to improve the functional abilities for individuals living with disabilities.  There are many types of technology and they are bought, modified or customized to suit different individuals with their disabilities. 

One piece of equipment that was introduces was the Apple iPad tablet computer.  The cost of the iPad depends on the GB size so it can vary from about $729.00 to $1029.  There are additional costs to this technology such as the cover for the iPad, the iPad dock etc.  This iPad is a touch screen but you can purchase a keyboard for it if needed.  This technology can be connected to the internet, it has camera and video functions, you can store many applications (apps) on it, you can play games and listen to music as well.  The iPad has can be used to teach people with fine motor skills and you can get many apps that can help people with a wide range of disabilities.  It can be a communication tool for those people who have speech deficits. 

This video shows the advantages of an iPad for a child with Autism who cannot speak.  She uses the iPad as a way of communication.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWli1-84CNQ&feature=related 

This video is about iPads and how they help children with Autism be heard.  It is a communication tool for these children.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXnqToAwqiE 

Assistive Technologies: Principles and Practice : Cook, A.M., & Hussey, S.M. (2000). Assistive technologies: principles and practice. St Louis: Mosby

Tutorial Five: Video Production Session

My first placement was at a rehabilitation center for people aged 16-65 who have neurological conditions and/or physical disabilities.  The patients range from having brain injuries to strokes to Multiple sclerosis or paralysis.  I especially took interest in people who had brain injuries. These next five videos will be focusing on brain injuries.

This first video explains about the brain and how it works.  It talks about how the chemicals and electrical signals in the brain and  how they get damaged after an accident involving your head. It talk about the symptoms you get after sustaining the injury.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55u5Ivx31og

The second video explains explains the different types of the brain that gets damages from a head injury.  With each different part of the brain the video explains the different types of symptoms the person would be experiencing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlYiDxNcMdc

This Third video is about a man who sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Looking at this video you can clearly see the effects of TBI.  This man tells his personal experience of living with a TBI.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0QdFhrtwtw

The Fourth video is about TBI.  It explains in good detail about the causes, effects and the classifications of brain injuries.  It looks at the different levels of brain injuries.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wl4-nNOGJ0

This  fifth video is about a woman who sustained a head injury after falling down a glacier.  She fractured her skull and had other serious injuries as well.  She talks about how occupational therapists had helped her so much in her recovery and how they helped to get her back to her life and having her independence.  The thing that worried her the most was not being able to participate in  the things she loved such as cooking and running.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jstD81Chc4E

Tutorial Four: Video Production Session

 Video Production
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrGNKdKR0BM

The concept that our film is based on is Occupational Deprivation.  Occupational deprivation is a new concept where people are excluded from chances to engage in occupations due to circumstances that are out of their control.  (Christiansen & Townsend, 2010) states that not all people get equal opportunities to participate in occupation that they would chose to engage in or in occupations that have individual, familiar or cultural meaning.  The factors that cause occupational deprivation include social, economic, environmental, geographic and cultural circumstances.

The students had a choice of four concepts these included occupational justice, occupational disruption, occupational transition and occupational deprivation.  Our group chose to make the film about occupational deprivation.  This film emphasizes the issue of occupational deprivation by showing how frustrating it is for an individual in a wheelchair.  We had a person in a wheelchair go to different areas of the Otago Polytechnic such as the toilets, access out of the building in case of a fire emergency and the access in the library focusing on reaching for a book on a higher shelf.  The film was done in black and white.  the film was a silent film but we included dramatic music to go with the frustration and seriousness of occupational deprivation for an individual in a wheelchair.

Christiansen, C.H., & Townsend, E.A. (2010). Occupational deprivation: Understanding limited 
participation. Introduction to occupation. The art and science of living. (2nd Ed), New Jersey, Pearson Education, Inc  

Tutorial Two: Occupational Engagement, Doing, Being, Becoming and Belonging.

My chosen occupation is art.  Art is something that is made by a human. There are many 

types of art activities that a person can engage in.  These include, painting, drawing,

 photography, film and sculpture. Art is subjective and holds different meaning to each 

individual person. My fieldwork two placement was at IDEA services which ran Art Space and I was 

involved with intellectually disabled people were involved in art activities.  I could see how 
important this service was for the people who came here. It gave them the chance to be part of a 
community and participate in something that they really enjoyed.  It gave them a chance to work 
together and I could really see the concept of doing, being, becoming and belonging in this service.

Concepts of doing, being, belonging and becoming. 

The concept of doing means being involved in purposeful, goal-oriented activities that have personal 

meaning to each individual.  Wilcock, (1998) talks about how people spend their whole lives 

participating in occupations that they don't just have to do but they want to do.  

Being is reflecting, appreciating and savoring moments in our lives. Wilcock, (1998) describes being 
as existing and living. 

Belonging means being involved in social interactions and having support when being involved in 

occupations. 

The concept of becoming talks about people seeing themselves in the future. making choices and
 being involved in occupational activities can help with deciding with what they want to become.  

Slide 1: Title

Slide 2: Description

Slide 3: Art Picture

Slide 4: Person "doing" art

Slide 5: Photo of some boxes that i have made

Slide 6: Box lid and bottom that i made

Slide 7: Silhouette being done of me on the street in St Petersburg, Russia

Slide 8: The finished product. Very impressive.

Slide 9: Some Pastels of mine

Slide 10: Painting of a bird that my friend did.

Slide 11: Contemporary art i did at school

Slide 12: My art equipment

Slide 13: More art equipment

Slide 14: People at Art Space with T-shirt art. "Belonging"

Slide 15: More art done by the people at Art Space

Slide 16: Picture of two kids and a good quote "art is all around us. Art is life expressed"

Slide 17: Children Drawing. Doing, being, belonging.

Some ethical considerations Include referencing the pictures that i got from the internet 
because it is not my work. I have also used some of my own photos so ethical 
considerations is not an issue. 

Here is my presintation  

Sorry i was not able to fix the font of this post.  Hope it is still readable.

  Presentation1po1.pptx Hammell, K.W. (2004). Dimensions of meaning in the occupations of daily life. Canadian Journal of Occupational therapy. 71, 296-303. Wilcock, A.A. (1998). Reflections on doing, being and becoming. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 65, 248-256.     

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Tutorial One: Information Technology and Ethical Issues

Information Technology (IT) has moved from use in a workplace like a bank or hospital to become a household phrase.  IT defines an industry which covers computing, networking and software to produce, manage, retrieve, send and store information.  Information Communication Technology (ICT) consists of IT as well as telecommunication media (television, radio, telephone).  It also covers the merging of audio visual and telephone networks with computer networks.  ICT brings some disadvantages including cyber bullying and phishing.  

http://www.wisegeek/what-is-information-technology.htm

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

Information Technology allows us to create, edit, transfer and store information and manipulate it when you want to.  The use of IT can apply in business and communication and if we add communications to this technology it opens up a multitude of ways of communicating with people and interacting with businesses, games, shopping, and social sites.  an example of this is a shopping site such as ASOS.   

http://www.asos.com/?hrd=1

The use if computers in technology influences most people's lives and has significant impacts the way they live.  for example many smart phones allow people to pin point exactly where they are in the world and get instructions for where they want to go.  The other side is that their phone can be tracked to identify exactly where they have been.  Another example is the use of Moodle to support interactive online learning.  IT supports people's daily activities for example you can go on the internet and get step-by-step video instructions while cooking. (Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals)

http://www.jamieoliver.com/jamies-30-minutes-meals/

Some IT devices and systems that i feel comfortable with include remote controls that have signalling in them so that you are able to control your television from far away.  Some limits with this is learning how to use it and often you have more than one remote control and therefore it can get confusing which one to use for what such as the television, dvd player, video player.  Another device is the sell phone.  These days almost everyone has a sell phone and it has become the main type of communication with friends.  My computer is a system that i use everyday of my life.  Especially with studying i have to access my Moddle sight everyday to study and check for updates and information.  I am not completely confident using the computer.  It is very technical but there is no way of avoiding it.  There is some things I enjoy about computers which is shopping online and being able to find out almost anything you want to know and it is great for social networking such as Facebook and also for games. The television is another great system.  Although i feel I can waste many hours in a day watching television.  

Technology is constantly changing and being updated.  The therapist has to have the ability to choose the appropriate technology out of many and to adapt it for the particular client's needs.  Occupational Therapists need to know about how the technology works and how to use it properly so that the client can get the most out of the technology. iPad is a very interactive tool in Occupational practice.  It already has use in supporting communication with clients with speech disabilities and for child clients developing fine motor skills and language such as autistic children.  Another technology is augmented or virtual reality,  an example of this is the Wii games where someone could play virtual tennis or other types of games.  This technology could be used to improve or teach client's physical skill.

The ethical issues can be around personal confidentiality once you have put something out on the internet it is out of your control what happens to it.  Making sure that information is not being altered.  There has to be ways of protecting information such as credit card numbers so that others can not use it.  The internet has great information on it but there is lots of bad and inappropriate sites and there is spamming with emails, cyber bullying on sell phones as well.  There can be a potential loss of individuality and privacy through social network websites such as Facebook.

Information and communication technology. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org     

         /wiki/information_and_communications_technology

What is Information technology?  Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek/what-is-information-

          technology.htm