Tutorial 8

Provide a definition of Assistive technology
Cook and Hussey (2000) describe the term assistive technology as a broad range of devices, sercvices, strategies, and practices that are conceived and applied to ameliorate the problems faced by individuals who have disabilities.

or

Any item, piece of equipment or product system whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized that is used to increase or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities.

Describe one piece of equipment introduced in the assistive technology tutorial. Provide information on size, cost and functions.

The Gooshy step talking sequencer is a type of switch. It is $117.96 US dollars which is $153.73 New Zealand dollars.
Size- 10 1/4 inches x 7 1/4 inches x 3 inches.
It requires 4 AA batteries to work
Can be used for the non speaking child or adult.
It allows:

• pre recorded messages to be played
• sequencing
• Testing
• directions
• multiplications
• memorization
• medical instructions
• story telling
• sing a longs

How does your chosen piece of equipment increase functional capacity for the user?

It is initially a good switch to learn the basic skill of switching. It is attractive through colour, texture (gel like pad), vibrations, lights, music. Essentially this assistive device is teaching the user the core skills of switching which will eventually give the user more options in there life and a bit more independence through decision making etc.

To engage the user, you can use a play aspect because it is a toy adapted switch and then the user can move onto other switches which teach education skills through switching, for example a problem will appear, the user has to switch the answer and if correct the music, vibration and lights will go off (reward).

Tutorial 7

Task One: Explain the step by step process required to embed You Tube videos into your Blog . Consider using screen captures to provide a visual representation of these steps.

Task Two: Explain the step by step process required to embed a Flickr Badge into your Blog . Consider using screen captures to provide a visual representation of these steps.

1- Click on the link “Tools” which is at the bottom of the page in small blue font under the help section.

2- Click on the link “Build a Badge” which is on the right hand side of the page.

3- Select which type of badge you would like to use and click on the ‘Next: Choose content’ link.

4- Select where you would like to get your photos from and click on the ‘Next’ option.

5- Select which colours you would like to have on your badge: background, border, text, links. Click on NEXT: Preview and get code

6- Copy the code which is in the text box.

7- Open up your blog page and select customise, add page element, select the configure html/java script, paste the code into content text box, write in a title

8- Select Save changes and view blog

9- Your badge should now be on your blog.

Tutorial 6

Provide the web address and the name of the community you are investigating

http://www.bebo.com/

What is the brief or focus of this community?

Bebo is an backronym for blog early, blog often. It is an online media social network for people of all ages and all over the world. Bebo enables interaction through publicly or privately displaying messages on the users page. You can keep your page public where anyone can view your page or privately where only your direct friends who you choose to accept can have access to your page.

What services are provided? How interactive is this site? How can people contribute?

Each profile must include two specific modules, a comment section where other users can leave a message, and a list of the user's friends. Users can select from many more modules to add such as adding clips from you tube, photos and pictures on the white board, you can make on line polls, quizzes, and blogs which can be quite useful. When I was in America I used to write on my blog so my friends and family can see what I have been up to.

People can contribute by leaving comments, taking your quiz, drawing pictures on your ‘white board,’ joining groups to connect you with others who have joined the group e.g bring back chicken mccheese, that guy fan club, etc.

The user can choose how interactive they would like there site to be by either keeping there profile private so only direct friends can interact or by making there blog public where others can contact them but you do not have to choose to accept there friendship.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on why people choose to contribute to this community? What is it they are seeking?

The personal reason I chose to contribute in this community is to be able to stay in touch with my friends who are in a different part of the country. I am able to communicate with them or simply check out there page and view there photos they have posted and see what fun they have been up to. I think a lot of people use bebo for this reason.

Other people may be seeking friendship from other people and wanting to get to know other people in there own area. Relationships may also be formed over bebo but it isn’t something I would recommend to do due to the fact you never know how safe and truthful it may be and it is not uncommon for people to form fake profile pages and build friendships to young teenagers who are vulnerable.

Cut and paste an example of the type of topics being discussed (you may have to provide a context to your excerpt).

http://www.bebo.com/thegapyear this page is based on 6 people each from a different country (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, UK, Canada and USA). You can see videos on there travels and what they have been up to so take a look and see what it is all about.

Here is an example of one of the comments that has been left on my page-

“just sitting here wasting precious study time on the procrastination tool of death: bebo, when i realised i haven't talked to you in YONKERS!
how the heck are ya? and whats been happening?”

Considering material presented during the course and make comment on the potential ethical issues that may arise in this community e.g. lack of identity and accountability.

Just recently there has been a lot of speculation over the safety of young teenagers who have been accessing bebo and meeting up in public. For example, the young girl from Christchurch who went missing

There are policies in place to try and prevent these events from happening, http://www.bebo.com/Safety.jsp is a short animated clip explaining how to be safe on bebo and if your under 13 you must have a parent or guardian who is responsible for you. If you are being bullied there is a report abuse link to notify the people who run bebo.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on the benefits this community holds over traditional notions of community e.g. communities reliant on geographic proximity.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment what this community lacks or can not provide which traditional communities can.

Video made representing Dunedins student culture

Tutorial 4 and 5

Tutorial Four and Five: Video Production Sessions

Task One: Follow instructions and work in a small group to plan and produce and edit a 30 second short.

Task Two: Set up a U Tube account

Task Three: Follow instructions to posting your video on U Tube.

Task Four (Blog Posting): Provide a brief summary of the services offered by U Tube. Information can be drawn from the week five tutorial hand out.

You tube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips. The services you tube offer include sharing of; video content, movie clips, tv clips, music videos and video blogging. You tube is a service which is free to unregistered users and is currently a non profitable organisation. Registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos. You tube is easy to navigate and related videos will appear to the right hand side once you have entered a search. Feedback and ratings are listed under the video’s link. Overall You tube is easy to navigate and offers a service for viewers all over the world to share there experiences or communicate with there friends and family.

Retrieved May 19, 2009, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube


Task Five (Blog Posting): Provide a brief account (1-2 paragraphs) on how the use of planning (storyboarding and scripting aided your groups short film.

A story board is a visual aid of the different shots and ideas your film will entail in order. The story board was a good indication on what shots our group would like to take for our film. It set the theme of ‘student flats’ and the ideas we would like to capture which represented our interpretation of the Dunedin student life. During the photo taking process we did refer to the boards but also took photos of ideas we came upon. Generally we stuck to the story board but changed a couple of shots which weren’t applicable to take photos of at the time.

Due to time constraints of the tutorial we had to take our shots and film within an allocated time period to allow time to edit back at Polytech. We decided to take shots of Campus wonderful, the Leith river, Student flat and any broken bottles which represented the ‘Student life.’ This planning allowed us to have enough time to capture the shots that were in our story board and return back to campus to edit our film on the ‘Student life.’

Tutorial 3- about blogger

The services offered by blogger are completely free for the user and this websites enables you to post information down that you would like to share with others. You are able to connect with friends and make your blog public so others from all over the world can view what you have to say. Another new service which is now offered to bloggers involves mobile phones. You can now send blogs into your website via your cell phone. You can display photos on your blog and you tube videos. Articles, other blogs and web pages which are important to you can be made as a link so others can just click onto it and be taken to it.
Blogs can be about whatever you would like to share so don't hold back they are easy to set up and use. So get blogging.

Tutorial 2- Digital cameras and use applications

Tutorial Two: Digital Camera use and applications

“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?

Positives
You can see if you have captured the image you wanted
It can hold and take a lot more photos
There are black and white, sepia, colour, sport, night, automatic settings
Can delete images independently or all together to create more space once loaded onto computer
Can increase the megabytes in camera (memory card)
Photos can be stored on CD, computer or printed at shops
Cheaper to run long term due to the fact you don’t have to purchase films.

Negatives
Traditional film cameras have a better quality due to the fact you can open or close the shutter to determine the amount of light.
Optical zoom is better then digital zoom
Better quality in definition
Film cameras allow better effects such as the ability to overexposure and time lapses.
Film cameras can change there lens for example using a wide angle lens, fish eye lens

Retrieved May 14, 2007 from, http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-some-benefits-of-using-film-cameras.htm
List some of the ways that digital images can be stored transferred and manipulated using other communications technology.

Attached to files through email
Photo shop
Stored on CD’s, laptops, computers, USB (memory sticks).
Put on websites, chat rooms
Given the prevalence of image capturing devices, and thinking about the issues discussed in tutorial one, consider what sort of ethical issues may arise with their use.
When taking photos of others you may need permission to publish these photo’s or to use them.
Issues may arise when you post them on websites, chat rooms, email them to friends and if you do not gain consent for photo’s of house modifications etc you may be breaching patient confidentiality.

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

House modifications
Car modifications
Correct positioning
Use of equipment
Making a file displaying equipment available

Provide a brief summary of the services offered by Flickr.com

Flickr offers a website where people from around the world can share their photos and videos either publically or privately.

The photos or videos can be put onto the system via: the web, from mobile devices, user’s home computers, and whatever software they are using to manage content.

The photos or videos can be outputted to other areas via RSS website, email and posting to blogs.

Retrieved May 14, 2007 from, http://www.flickr.com/about/

Name one other photo storage website which offers a service similar to Flickr.com

Ringo

Explain what the difference is between a digital and an optical zoom

Optical zoom lens changes focal length and magnification as it is zoomed.

Digital zoom crops image to a smaller size, then enlarges image to fit the frame. It loses quality.

Explain what is meant by the term mega pixel

Pixels are what contains the light. A mega pixel is one million pixel.