Tutorial Six: The Internet and Online Communities

This week we have been looking at online communities. An online comminity that most of use are familiar with is facebook. The link for this is: http://www.facebook.com/

Facebook has a focus of having the ability to meet friends and keep up with what they are doing. The reader has the ability to do this by reading their blog, looking at their profile, photos and sending them messages.

Facebook provides many different services including being able to share personal information, photos as well email privately and post public messages onto their wall. When posting messages on their wall all of their friends can see and read it whereas id it is privately sent only the person whos blog it is can read it. Facebook also offers the ability to connect to different groups for example I am a member of the group called 'L'Arche Cape Breton' in this group I can connect to others that have been there as people join groups which they have been part of or are passionate about. Facebook also provides live chat with other friends that are online, a space where you can write what is on your mind, games that you can play and challenge friends in and to bet each others scores and it also has a range quizes.

People may choose to contribute to this community because it is sense of community and they may get increased recognition. They also what to connect up with lost friends from previous work places, school or if they have friends overseas it is a free easy way to stay in contact by email, chat, reading their blog and by looking at their pictures.

Topics discussed mainly resolve around what is happening in the person's personal life - keeping up to date with what they have been up to as well as if people move it gives their friends the ability to keep up to date with recieving their new phone number and address.

• Ethical issues that need to be considered include:
  uploading of photos of other people without their concent is not allowed. The content in the photos may be inappropriate or the people who are in the photos may not want to have their photos all over facebook.


• Users are give out personal information that anyone can see and use espically if the person's profile is not private - private being only friends can view the profile.


• Anyone can add you which means people may accept people they do not know and this could result in a serious threat to the individual who added the person espically if they are younger users.

Benefits that online communities hold over traditional communities include:

• They can compliment real life communities
• They can provide connections over long distances instantly
• They often dont have monetary cost
• Ability to monitor and regulate users
• Ability to connect with people with similar interests/needs/concern
  

Issues that online communities have that traditional communities don't include things such as:

• Misuse
• Rapid growth which may result in unwanted changes
• A lot of people have access - sometimes can not be controlled and people maybe hacking, being abusive or inappropriate.
• Delusional reliance on virtual communities.

Reference:
personal web pages. (n.d.). retrieved May 28, 2009 from http://personalweb.about.com/od/
makefriendsonfacebook/a/whatisfacebook.html

Tutorial Seven: Assistive Technology

In tutorial seven we looked at a range of different assistive technology including computer devices - keyboards and mice, buttons used for questioning and answering for those who are non verbal and switches that can be used for a range of house hold items such as turning on and off food processes and heaters.

Assistive technology refers to a wide range of devices, services, strategies, and practices that are used to decrease the problems people with a disability have with doing daily tasks and leisure activities (Cook & Hussey, 2000).

One peice of equipment that we looked at in the tutorial was the matias 508 keyboard. This is a standard keyboard that allows one or two handed touch typing. Using the space bay gives access to alternate keys that mirror the other hald of a standard keyboard. The occupant presses the spacebar once for one handed typing and twice for two handed typing.

The size of the keyboard is the same as a standard keyboard which is approximitly 461 x 154.7 x 19.3mm

The cost for the matias keyboard is around $280.00

The keyboard is appropriate for those who have a single hand amputee and/or a motor disability on one side.

A person that uses this keyboard only needs one hand to type and both left and right haned use is avaliable with the keyboard. A key feacture of the keyboard is that a person using the keyboard does not need to get there hand over the whole keyboard which increases spead and decreases fatigue.

The keyboard can be found at http://www.star-educational.co.nz/view_details.php?detail=true&cat=35&subcat=&id=97

A useful site for finding other assistive technology is:
http://www.star-educational.co.nz/

Reference:

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

Tutorial One: Information technology

Information technology is "the production, storage and communication of information using computers and microelectronics (Hanks, 1989).

Information technology (IT) has become very common place over time. Most of the technology (listed below) was not even around 20 years ago or was only just developing. IT is and will continue to develop.

There is a range of IT devices and systems which I am confident using, these include:

• Computers/laptops
• cellphones
• Ipods
• Telephone
• Internet - social networking (face book), email, blackboard, banking, searching
• Scanners
• Camera

Looking back on field work experiences that i have had already there is a lot of IT that is being used in practice

• Power wheelchairs - easier to clients to stay mobile and maintain independent


• Adaptive equipment - is used to assist clients with everyday tasks


• Laptops/computers - used for internet - searching, emailing, ordering


• phones/cellphones - to keep in and make contact with staff members and clients for updates and making appointments.

Ethical implications that arise from IT are:

• It is less personal - there is a lot less face to face interactions between people such as team members and team members to clients and/or clients family. There is more interaction through text messaging and email.


• People have the ability to look up information or get issues off their mind without being seen by friends, family and the general public as well as looking at what others have to say.


• People can produce fake identities and older people can look at younger boys/girls.

Computer ethics are a branch of practical philosophy which deals with how computing professionals should make decisions regarding professional and social conduct.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/computer_ethics

Intellectual Property is used for various legal entitlements which attach to certain types of information, ideas and other intangibles in their expressed form. Intellectual property reflects the idea that this subject matter is the product of the mind of the intellect and that intellectual property rights may be protected at law in the same way as any other form of property.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/intellectual_property

Social justice is based on the idea of society which gives individuals and groups fair treatment and just share of the benefits of society. Although what is 'fair treatment' and 'just share' must remain unclear or subject to interpretation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/social_justice

Informed consent is a legal condition where an individual can be said to have given consent based upon an appreciation and understanding of the facts and implication of an action.

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

It is important in our practice as an occupational therapist (OT) that we understand IT. IT is used in everyday life for OT's using such things as email and cell/telephone to contact clients and communicate with team members, computer documents to write client notes and reports and also with clients to create a teaching tool such as making a CV OT showing websites of useful information.

Problems can occur with IT such as the computer crashing which can lead to delays in accessing clients information. Ethical issues to consider include once on the internet it is more readily accessible to anyone worldwide. Hackers can get into your systems and find personal information on clients such as their client notes, history, address and phone numbers etc... You can use firewalls and virus protection to try and prevent this but it not always 100% successful.

Reference:
Hanks, P. (ed). (1989). Collins Concise Dictonary. Glasgow: Bath press

Tutorial Three: Blog creation Tasks

Blogger is a space where individuals can create their own blog fr free. When you have a blog you can write down your thoughts and feelings or keep family and friends up to date with what you have been up to. The user can decide who can see the blog which helps with protecting yourself.
Blogger allows you to create a profile, design your page with colours and fonts and post things such as photos from flickr and videos from you tube.
Another blog host online is www.wordpress.com.

If you are interested in setting up an account on blogger.com you can use this you tube video to help.



Reference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnploFsS_tY&feature=channel_page. Retrieved May 26, 2009

Tutorial Eight: Posting You Tube Videos and flickr badges to blog: Explaining the process

Uploading videos can be shown through the steps provided in this video from you tube:



Uploading Flickr Badges can be shown through the steps provided in this video from you tube:



Reference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3l0feGWTi0. Retrieved May 26, 2009.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJgS8Skb-HM YouTube - Flickr Badge. Retrieved May 26,2009

Tutorial Four and Five: Video production

You Tube is they tool we used to upload our videos. It is a website that allows you to share your videos with the world. Anyone can watch videos on you tube which range from music clips, television clips, movie clips, amateur content as well as original videos. If you wan to upload videos you must fist become a registered user. If any video you upload contains inappropriate content or breach the copyright laws it will not be uploaded.

A key feature of you tube is its ability to be uploaded to other sites such as blogger and facebook. Each video has a code for embedding that you copy and paste. If the owner of the video does not want it to be copied they can request the embedding to be disabled.

In our class we were asked to make videos to upload onto you tube and then onto our blogs. An important part of this was the planning of the short film. We used storyboarding and scripting for our planning. As a group we had a range of ideas we needed to consider which we brain stormed, we then came up with an idea that we had all experienced at one time or another which was problems with 'parking on campus'. We then went through the different steps of out idea, drew pictures and wrote what we would do at each of the clips (storyboarding). This helped the process of videoing hugely as we knew what we wanted to shoot at each stage within the short time frame and being organised was essential. If we hadn't planned what we wanted to video we would have wasted a lot of time planning this and would not have been able to complete the short film.

Parking on Campus

Welcome - The first post

Hello all!

Welcome to my blog that I have created as part of a paper in my occupational therapy degree. This blog will have a range of different posts about internet, videos, digital cameras and photos, ethical issues and also other posts along the way. Although I have had some experience on blogging in sites such and Bebo and Facebook I am very new to having a blog page so it is a new experience for myself as I go. Please bare with me :)

Enjoy!