Part one for Participation in Occupation assesments is to create a blog. This blog includes my completed technical tasks as well as posting set tasks on occupational perspectives.
Weaving is a craft carried out in many cultures for different uses and meanings. It can be done as a part as a craft group or on you own. I chose this as a way of occupational engagement as it is a way to feel as though there is a belonging to a group. I first saw weaving in my most recent placement, Craft and Care (Fieldwork 2) I witnessed the weaving of mats used for things as place mats and shower mats. Craft and Care, like weaving, is where the elderly come together and engage in an occupation that has meaning. There's a sense of belonging and feeling as though they're occupying their time by doing something useful rather than not contributing.
Hamell (2004) states "Being" as the ‘time taken to reflect, be introspective or meditative, (re)discover the self, savour the moment, appreciate nature, art or music in a complimentive manner and to enjoy being with special people.'
Becoming ‘Describes the idea that people can envision future selves and possible lives, explore new opportunities about who they wish to become over the course of their biographies and how their lives might be experienced as worthwhile, (Hammell, 2004) and lastly, Belong is a ‘social interaction, mutual support and friendship, and the sense of being included’. (Hammell, 2004)
Brief descriptions of each image is in the slideshow.
Ethical Considerations
I took my own photos during my fieldwork experience and due to ethical considerations of others I made sure to verbally receive consent from each individual in the photographs and made sure they knew I would be using them for learning purposes.
I then made the ethical consideration that if these participants were uncomfortable I would make sure not to take any photos of them and the ones who were OK with it had photos taken that were highly appropriate and non discriminative.
Another consideration of ethics I made were around the pictures taken off the Internet. I made sure these were authentic and from an appropriate site (weaving instruction web page etc) and not from a social web page where it would not be OK to copyright the pictures.
References
Hammell, K.W. (2004). Dimensions of meaning in the occupations of daily life. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 71 (5).
This is my first post on my OT blog so bare with me.
In tutorial one we discussed information technology and ethical issues, this will be the focus for this blog. Personally I have always been great with technology, if I am unable to work something first go, I will usually fiddle around untill I figure it out. For example in my first placement as an OT in Tauranga I was in the office most of the day, kind of board, untill the techy OT asked me if I could help her organise the apps (applications I further leanrt) she had just uploaded onto their brand new Ipads. I knew nothing about how to use them and admitted this but as soon as I got ahold of one I had become an expert and continued to coach the rest of the office in a meeting the next morning. I dont think I have ever read the instruction manual for a phone, printer or even the laptop I am using right now. It almost feel fluent to be able to work technology for me.
Information Technology or I.T, refers to anything related to computing technology, such as networking, hardware, software, the Internet, or the people that work with these technologies. Many companies now have IT departments for managing the computers, networks, and other technical areas of their businesses.
It is classified by the Free Dictionary (2009) as, "The development, installation, and implementation of computer systems and applications." I interpret this to be how technology organises and communicates information electronically.
In considering the definition I have provided of I.T, I thought about how common place the use of technology has become. If we take the word "computer" in the definition and presume this in a generalisation, we are looking at every type of technology which organises information, this can range from the "computer" in our cell phone, to the "computer" in our fridge. These computers are getting more and more complex in todays society and allowing for more information to be stored.
Nowdays you can find the use of I.T anywhere. Literally anywhere, the simplist things are becoming a playground for new ways to incorperate technology into our everyday lives. No need to get the morning paper anymore when we can just jump online to our local Waikato Times.
While talking to a friend who had just been over seas he mentioned the amazing "talking shower" which he had experienced, I wondered how fast they would come to New Zealand.
Here is a quick demonstration I found on Youtube of how it works:
This just amazes me! Type your own password and knows (after programming it in) what temperature and speed you like your shower at, then it shows how you can change the settings for pressure and which jets you would like turned on.
When talking to my parents they expressed how amazed they were that the cell phone has become so compact, complex and how many different things it can now do. My mother didn't even know she could connect to the internet on cell phones now and was just blown away. Taking this is in I then wondered what it will be like when I am thier age, will the 'talking shower' be the 'norm' in everyones house, will it turn into a full on robot that cleans your body for you? Who knows.
All I knows is, I.T is becoming more and more a common place in our daily lives. Everyones using is in most hours of our day.
I feel confident and comfortable using most I.T devices or systems that are avalible to me. I am often called apon in my family to help with any general I.T problems they have. Being from Hamilton and doing an Otago course means I benefited well from the blended learning we do. I would say I do 60% of work for my course is online. This is my number one purposeful occupation to do with technology in my current life stage. Outside of studying I also enage in purposefull occupations through I.T such as social networking. I use Facebook and believe I wouldn't be able to keep in touch with friend and family as well as I do without it. I have kept in touch with people I dont think I could have if I didn't have Facebook and this is very inportant to me. Like every other teenager would say, my cellphone is also a big part of my life which allows me to engage in purposeful occupations. Through the use of my cellphone I am able to organise things with the touch of a few buttons. With a simple call I am able to let people know my wherabouts or call on a friend to catch up.
In the comfort side of I.T I do not have a problem using anything, although there may be some things I am unable to do. Its not that I cant do it, just that I haven't attempted to or been taught how. Recently my class mate Dave informed me of a whole new world I hadn't discovered... on my own laptop. I was sure I knew everything there was until he taught me how to delete "cookies" and "defragment" my disk and even went on to tell me my antivirus was a bad choice. He then showed me a free and more effective choice of antivirus simply downloaded off the internet... saved me another $100 which would've been spent on Norton Antivirus. This just goes to show that I will never know everything there is to know about I.T and its forever evolving world.
In my introduction to this post I shared the story of my first fieldwork where I helped out the Technology Occupational Therapist. There are so many ways in wich I.T is used in OT and new things are being found. I was sorting the applications on the Ipads into categories which may be used for different clients. One folder I made was for visually imparied children, which used colours and shapes on simple apps. There was a folder for the congitively impaired which I then sorted into folders such as maths equations and punctuations etc... A visit I did with my supervisor on that placement was to a special unit in an intermediate school. I could help but stare and be amazed at a wheelchair one of the children was in. He was fully able to move the wheelchair own his own even though he had a very little amount of movement. He was able to change the setting with his fingers which then allowed him to ellectically move the wheelchair purely on the small movements in his head, amazing. Check this out:
There are many many more ways I.T can benefit in OT, but I had also wondered if there were any possible issues around the adoption of I.T systems and tools, I researched this and found only positive outcomes to bringing I.T into OT. My concern would be if an OT didnt have a good understanding of an I.T system or tool.
A good understanding of I.T woul be required if an OT decided to use it in practice to enable occupation. For one, we cannot teach a client about how and why we are using a certain I.T tool if we do not know oursleves! By understanding how a system works we will be truely able to assess if it is what the client really needs.
Back to I.T in general, in class we discussed a few ethical considerations that arise from I.T. There is millions and millions or capturing, sharing and transfering ot information via I.T devices every day. Although I thought Facebook was a great way to catch up with long lost friends, does this mean we are getting less personal? The lack of privacy is also what I would suggest as an ethical issue. Once a photo is uploaded onto Facebook any one can copy and send these. Personally I would say that I feel a little invaded when friend upload pictures of me which I wouldnt want on Facebook, on the other hand I am a big fan of collecting memories through photos.
Social networking is also known for 'cyber bulling' where people are able to say things they wouldnt usually and post it on someones site. Teenagers become more vulnerble to cyber bulling on social networks as everyone they are 'friends' with can see and comment anything on their home page. There has been many cases where is has gone too far.
This is a Youtube clip where Dannielle miller discusses Social network bullying and how Facebook aided in Daani Sanders taking her own life.
