Tutorial Eight: Assistive technology

According to (Cook & Hussey, 2000), assistive technology is referred to broad range of devices, services, strategies, and practices that are conceived and applied to ameliorate to problems faced by individuals who have disabilities. 
(Cook, A.M., & Hussey, S.M. (2000). Assistive technologies: principles and practice. St Louis: Mosby)

One piece of equipment introduced in the assistive technology tutorial was the GoTalk 20+ 

Features:
• 20 message buttons, each 28mm x 28mm • Five recording levels
• 15 minutes of memory
• 100 message capacity
• Five independent "core message" keys
• Great sound quality
• Built-in overlay storage
• Built-in keyguard
• Digital volume control
• Built-in handle
• Lightweight (650g)
• Size 230mm x 305mm x 286mm
• Uses 2 x AA batteries (not included)
• One year warranty

Gotalk 20+ is an assistive tool that supplements or replaces speech and writing when these are temporarily or permanently impaired and inadequate to meet all or some of a person's communication needs. Use of Gotalk 20+ involves selecting messages from a set of possibilities. The user can use these elements alone or in combination in order to communicate a variety of messages

Price (inc GST) $495.00 

CLICK HERE

iPad

The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc. primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. Its size and weight falls between those of contemporary smartphones and laptop computers. The iPad runs the same operating system as the iPod Touch and iPhone—and can run its own applications as well as iPhone applications. Without modification, and with the exception of websites, it will only run programs approved by Apple and distributed via its online store.

Like iPhone and iPod Touch, the iPad is controlled by a multitouch display—a departure from most previous tablet computers, which used a pressure-triggered stylus—as well as a virtual onscreen keyboard in lieu of a physical keyboard. The iPad uses a Wi-Fi data connection to browse the Internet, load and stream media, and install software.

The iPad has several uses in the classroom, and has been praised as a valuable tool for homeschooling. Soon after the iPad was released, it was reported that 81% of the top book apps were for children. The iPad has also been called a revolutionary tool to help children with autism learn how to communicate and socialize more easily.

 The ipad contains several activities for autistic children to participate in. 

For Example, 

Proloquo2Go  

Is a must have application that provides you with a full-featured augmentative and alternative communication solution for autistic children who have difficulty speaking. It contains text-to-speech voices, up-to-date symbols, powerful automatic conjugations, a default vocabulary and much more. Proloquo2Go is considered as a good alternative against buying an expensive AAC device. Even SLPs, teachers and parents recommend it for children and adults with autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, developmental disabilities, apraxia, ALS, stroke or traumatic brain injury. Proloque2Go app for iPhone and iPad is available for $189.99.

 The ipad is going to be the technology I am going to apply for.

Tutorial Six: The Internet and Online Communities

Provide the web addresses and a hyper link for the three online communities you have chosen

Click on the below communities for access to site.

Facebook 

Facebook is a free-access social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people.Basically, you send messages to people, upload pictures, join groups, comment on pictures, chat to your friends, find friends on there from say primary school and add them and chat to them, etc. It is also safe because your not completely open to communication, not just anyone can talk to you and know one can see your profile unless you've accepted them as a friend. If someone wants to contact you, they firstly have to send you a "Friend Request" which you will receive and have the choice to either accept it or decline it. You can easily delete people from your Friends too if you decide that a person is hassling you or upsetting you, or even report people for abuse. Also any explicit content on profiles is removed by moderators and the profile it was found on is deleted.

Skype

Skype is a software program that allows users to make telephone calls over the Internet. Calls to other users of the service are free of charge, while calls to landlines and cell phones can be made for a fee. Additional features include instant messaging, file transfer and video conferencing.

Basically there's a server. You each connect to it. You talk, your voice (digitized, in packets) is sent to the server, then to their computer, where he/she hears it. When they talks the same thing happens in reverse. It's fast, but not instantaneous.

Skype has experienced rapid growth in popular usage since the launch of its services. It was acquired by eBay in September 2005 for $2.6 billion.

Twitter

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read each others' updates, known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters, displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to other users - known as followers - who have subscribed to them. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications. The service is free over the Internet, but using SMS may incur phone service provider fees

So basically on twitter you update your status as many times as you want saying what you're doing or thinking. You can follow people on twitter and post comments on their status. It is just simply a website to post what you are doing at the moment. You can also follow people on it to see what they are constantly doing. 

Digital Imaging- Theme- Gardens around Dunedin

Tutorial Three: Blog Creation Tasks

This tutorial was about setting up a Blogger account. We had to choose a Blog title and a Blog outline. Basically we had to design our Blog by choosing a template and gadgets etc. We also had to create a flicker account. Its all pretty technical stuff. We also learned how to create new posts for our technical descriptions. Highlight for me from this exercise was choosing the back ground picture for our our Blogger, playing around with the games and applications was rather addictive. Main purpose of Blogger is to give people an easy way to share our thoughts — about current events, what's going on in our life, or anything else we'd care to discuss with the world. In this case it is used to further our understanding of technology and how it is beneficial to Occupational Therapists. 

Tutorial Two: Digital Camera use and applications

In this tutorial, we demonstrated the competence in using a digital camera and tripod. We had to choose a theme and capture 5 images which we will display them on our blog. The theme i have chosen is gardens around Dunedin.

List some of the ways that digital images are stored transferred and manipulated using information technology.

There are many ways that digital images can be stored/transferred and manipulated by using other communication technology. Such as computer hard drive, Digital camera, CDs, Email, Social networking website, USB, Internet, Photo sharing sights such as Flicker, Facebook, Digital photo, Edited Program's- Photoshop.

“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?

There are advantages and disadvantages to both film photography and digital photography. In relation to digital camera technology, neither is better on an absolute basis. Film and digital cameras do different things better, and neither is going away. Although film based camera will decline in areas where digital camera excels but the choice depends on the user’s application. Here are some of the pluses & minuses digital camera technology holds in relation to traditional film camera:

  

Advantages of digital cameras

The advantages of digital photography over traditional film include:

·     Higher initial cost

·     Instant review of pictures, with no wait for the film to be developed: if there's a problem with a picture, the photographer can immediately correct the problem and take another picture.

·     Minimal ongoing costs for those wishing to capture hundreds of photographs for digital uses, such as computer storage and e-mailing, but not printing.

·     If one already owns a newer computer, permanent storage on digital media is considerably cheaper than film.

·     Photos may be copied from one digital medium to another without any degradation.

·     Pictures do not need to be scanned before viewing them on a computer.

·     Ability to print photos using a computer and consumer-grade printer. 

·     Ability to capture and store hundreds of photographs on the same media device within the digital camera; by contrast, a film camera would require regular changing of film (typically after every 24 or 36 shots).

 Disadvantages of Digital Camera's

·      The photos taken are not valued as much as they are very accessible

·       A cheap digital camera costs about $200, while a basic compact film camera costs $150. If you want a digital camera with additional features, it can run up to $700. Digital cameras store photographs on small removable cards. Each one of these cards costs anywhere from $50 to $100 depending upon capacity. Whereas a roll of film cost around $10, but you can only take approx 30 photos.

·       Digital cameras are small computers that take photographs. Even the fairly simple ones come with many buttons, menus, options and settings. Camera manufacturers like to boast that their camera has more features than their competitor's. More features means controls that you will have to learn.

·       Most digital cameras use rechargeable batteries that are just for that model camera. Digital cameras are battery hogs. If you own a film camera now, you may have had to change the batteries once in a couple years. Digital camera batteries will be drained if you take lots of photos. Backup rechargeable batteries are a necessity.

·      Advantages and disadvantages of film camera

·      Lower initial cost

·      Better at capturing detail in whites and blacks (dynamic range)

·      More forgiving of minor focusing issues

·      More forgiving of exposure problems

·      Film is still higher resolution

·     Cameras are generally heavier

·     Film can take up a lot of space.

·     Film is a continuing cost

·     Film must be developed before viewing

·     Unless you have a darkroom, you are dependent on the lab to edit your images.

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

·         Provide at least 2 examples here

The ethical issues that may arise when using digital image could be that consent must be gained from the people involved, so their privacy is not invaded. Taking pictures of property is known as Stealing intellectual property, there could also be a cultural issue such as taking a picture of a Maori statue could be offensive to them.

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

Occupational therapists need to embrace the use of mainstream technology in their quest to ensure that therapy remains current and meaningful to their clients. Technology can be useful to improve both functional independence and occupational performance. This opinion piece introduces how occupational therapists can apply mainstream technologies, including information and communication technologies such as the internet, computer software, portable devices and computer games, in their everyday interventions.

During this tutorial, we were asked to sign up for a flicker account and upload the photos we took. We are also expected to link the Flickr photos to our blog by creating a photo badge. Flickr.com is a free online photo management and sharing application. Their main service is to get photos and videos to people who matter to us.

There are many other photo storage websites which offers a similar service to flickr.com, facebook, myspace, bebo, msn and bebo are all very popular amongst young and old today.

Tutorial 1: Information Technology and Ethical Issues

In this tutorial, we talked about our own experiences with technologies in our spare time and during placement. We also looked at information technology and the ethical issues that surrounds IT. Here are the terms we have to define:

Information Technology- It refers to anything related to computing technology, such as networking, hardware, software, the Internet, or the people that work with these technologies. (Tech Terms Dictionary, 2006)

Information Communications Technology- The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) defines communication technology as connection by way of "radio, television, wire, satellite, or cable." However, this only describes current communication technology; the history of instant communication traces back to smoke signals in ancient Greece. People use various types of communication technology for various purposes, and communicators often include advertisements with messages. Modern communication technology led to globalization, which industrialized some countries and left others behind. (Lyke, 2010) 

Computer Ethics 

Computer ethics- is set of moral principles that regulate the use of computers. Some common issues of computer ethics include intellectual property rights (such as copyrighted electronic content), privacy concerns, and how computers affect society. (Tech Terms Dictionary, 2006)

Intellectual Property - Refers to the ownership of intangible & non-physical goods. This includes idea, names, designs, symbols, artwork, writings and other creations. It also refers to digital media such as audio and video clips that can be downloaded online. (Tech Terms, 2006)

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 recognizes the dignity of every human being. (Wikipedia the free Encyclopedia, 2011)

Informed Consent- Is a phrase often used in the law to indicate that the consent a person gives meets certain minimum standards. And 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. In order to give informed consent, the individual must have adequate reasoning faculties and be in possession of all relevant facts at the time consent is given. (Wikipedia the free Encyclopedia, 2011)

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Consider the definition of IT you have provided. How is this form of technology prevalent in our society? How common place has it become?

Technology is used to enhance human beings physically and intellectually, however many people are discovering that technology is a two-edged sword; the benefits are equally balanced by the downsides. It is said that particular jobs will inevitably disappear as a result of technological advancements threatening the importance of the job. Today, many jobs such as ATMs replace bank tellers, answering machines replace operators, and insightful descriptions of the product on Internet shopping sites replace salesmen. Many have considered the downsides to technology and decided that IT advancements are not all beneficial to society. Even though machines and technology have replaced the jobs that were once done by human beings, the jobs have not been eliminated; they are merely changed in a way that humans no longer carry on the task. 

Technology has also changed jobs in a way so that it makes it easier to human beings to do their work. An example is how humans exploit the usefulness of machines to mass-produce products and food. Engineers are also hired to develop ways in order to enhance the already existing technology. Despite social issues surrounding the idea of computers replacing humans, many people would agree that if a job is taken over by a machine that is incapable of independent thought, the job is not suitable for a human being who have the ability to do so. Technology helps eradicate useless jobs and decreases labor costs, but it also creates new jobs. An example of this is the manufacturing of the actual technology and the computer specialists hired to put the technology to use. (BookRags, 2000-2006)

What IT devices or system do you feel comfortable and competent using?

Computers

Digital Camera's and Videos

Mobile Phone

Radio/Stereo

I pods

I phones

E-mail

PlayStation

DVD Player

Thinking about your own fieldwork experiences consider how IT is being used in Occupational Therapy practice?

Sometimes it was difficult to understand what the condition of a patient is by reading past medical notes so computers were used to look up information on diseases and illnesses to further the understanding of a clients current condition. 
Camera’s were used to take photo’s of a place that needs to be modified e.g. have ramps installed, have wet area shower installed.
Phones were used to ring clients to book appointments with them for home visits or find out information that we needed to know.

What ethical implications arise from the capturing, sharing and transferring of information via IT devices (e.g. mobile phones) or systems (e.g. internet)

Information technology has heightened ethical concerns, taxed existing social arrangements, and made some laws obsolete or severely crippled. Information technologies and systems have also created new opportunities for criminal behavior and mischief. 

The doubling of computing power every 18 months has made it possible for most organizations to use information systems for their core production processes. As a result, our dependence on systems and our vulnerability to system errors and poor data quality have increased. The very same information systems that lead to high levels of productivity also create opportunities for abuse. Social rules and laws have not yet adjusted to this dependence. Standards for ensuring the accuracy and reliability of information systems are not universally accepted or enforced. Think of all the ways we generate computer information about ourselves—credit card purchases; telephone calls; magazine subscriptions; video rentals; mail-order purchases; banking records; local, state, and federal government records (including court and police records); and visits to Web sites to read Web materials, use search engines, and write blogs. Put together and mined properly, this information could reveal not only your credit information but also your driving habits, your tastes, your associations, intended purchases, political views, and interests. What you thought was private, in fact, can quickly become public. Anyone can change or access the information that we put on the internet. (Wikipedia, 2011)

References


- BookRags. The Role Technology Plays in Today's Society: Student Essays. Retrieved from  March 6, 2011, from http://www.bookrags.com/essay-2005/6/1/0125/75136

 Lyke, A. (2010). Communication Technology Definition. eHow contributor. Retrieved from March 6, 2011,  

http://www.ehow.com/about_6766569_communication-technology-definition.html

- Tech Terms Dictionary. IT (Information Technology).(2006).Retrieved March 4, 2011 from http://www.techterms.com/definition/it

- Tech Terms Dictionary. Computer Ethics.(2006).Retrieved March 4, 2011 from http://www.techterms.com/definition/computerethics

- Tech Terms Dictionary. Intellectual Property.(2006).Retrieved March 4, 2011 from http://www.techterms.com/definition/intellectualproperty

- Wikipedia the free Encyclopedia. Social Justice. (2010). Retrieved from March 4, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_justice

- Wikipedia the free Encyclopedia. Informed Consent. (2010). Retrieved from March 4, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informed_consent