tutorial 8

Tutorial Eight: Assistive technology

Provide a definition of Assistive technology (your Cook and Hussey reading may be helpful with this). Assistive Technology is equipment or products that are altered or designed especially to increase or improve an individual’s functional capacity or ability. It is the link which enables the person to access the everyday things in life an able bodied person accesses. An example might be an adapted mouse for a computer for a person with fine motor control difficulties.

Describe one piece of equipment introduced in the assistive technology tutorial. Provide information on size, cost and functions. Ring around Bells (Picture can be seen at: http://specialed.umf.maine.edu/Switch%20Toys/ringaroundbells.htm) This toy is excellent for children learning to switch. It is activated on an external switch which makes the colourful bells sound a musical scale. The bells are precesion tuned to provide clear sounds.

How does your chosen piece of equipment increased functional capacity for the user? Provide examples here from the tutorial and lecture. This toy is fantastic for music therapy and is a good motivator for children learning to switch. It is a fun way to learn some switching and gives a sense of control to the child learning.

Tutorial 7

Tutorial Seven: Posting You Tube Videos and Flickr Badges to Blogs: Explaining the process

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. To embed a video from YouTube....... just copy the code from the "Embed" box on the video's YouTube page. You can find the "Embed" box in the "About This Video" box when you're watching the video. You can also get the code from the "Embed HTML" box on the "Edit Video" page if the video belongs to your YouTube account. To embed a YouTube video within a blog post, first click "Edit HTML" from within the post editor. Next, paste the video's code into the body of your post. That's it!

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. go to tools click on build a badge choose flash badge then click choose photos choose layout and colour of badge copy code for the flash badge In blogger page go to template in postings section go to add page element then add code click publish

Tutorial 6

Tutorial Six: The internet and online communities

Either search online for a community which interest you or choose one of the provided online communities to investigate. Make sure your selected a community that comprises some form of online forum, discussion page or chat room. You may also wish to see if your community has a Wikipedia entry.

Provide the web address and the name of the community you are investigating Book Crossing http://www.bookcrossing.com/

What is the brief or focus of this community At Book Crossing, you can register any book you have on the site, and then set the book free to travel the world and find new readers. You register on the site as a member and can leave your book anywhere, on a park bench or in a coffee shop. Then by fate anyone can then pick up your book and read your message in the book and enter it onto the website. You can watch your book being traced all over the world even. The focus of this community is loving books and sharing them.

What services are provided? How interactive is this site? How can people contribute? As a member of book crossing you can make announcements, ask questions, share book release techniques, rave about new books and authors, chit-chat, and in general make friends with like-minded readers from around the world in the online forums. Another service is email discussion groups where you can express your opinions and views and post ideas and beta-versions of various Book Crossing projects, to get some valued feedback. You can also start an official crossing zone. Pick a favourite location such as a classroom, a park bench, a bookshop to release and find books on a regular basis.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on why people choose to contribute to this community. What is it they are seeking? People choose to use this online community to connect with other people who have an interest in books and sharing. There is the excitement of connecting with other people all over the world with tracking a book of yours or finding someone else’s book, and sharing some views on it through the online community.

Cut and paste an example of the type of topics being discussed (you may have to provide a context to your excerpt). Posted by silverpepper (164/157) 6 days ago (5/29/2008 3:16:51 PM BX time) "Talk Before Sleep" by Elizabeth Berg - I need some help with a poem in the book This book deals with cancer and female friendships. There is a poem in the book that I'd like to pass on to the daughter of a friend of mine who recently died of cancer. I inadvertently released the book before I copied the poem. Can anyone out there help me find this poem? It would be greatly appreciated. Posted by waternixie (403/184) 1 wk ago (5/27/2008 2:32:07 PM BX time) This was a book I caught... ...not a book I had released. But I found it on the bargain rack of a used bookstore in Seattle in 2007 and bought it and read it. It had been registered someplace in the midwest(Nebraska, I think) in Nov. 2004. How it got where it was is a mystery, but I'm sure that the original bookcrosser had given up on hearing anything about it. As far as books I register go, the worst culprits seem to be people in my meetup group who take home books and don't journal them for many months. Posted by retc (412/368) 6 days ago (5/29/2008 9:45:59 PM BX time) The Memory Keeper's Daughter Just finished this book for my book club. It was absolutely wonderful and I highly recommend it. It was about a woman who has twins, a girl with Down's and a boy with no disabilities, and the father gives the baby with Down's away while the mother is under ether and tells mom the baby died. It was really riveting.

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. These online communities can create a great place for people to connect, unite and share ideas and parts of their lives together. There is a sense of belonging and contribution on offer. However they also can be misused. These misuses can be anything from online criminals to the problem of people spending too much time in a virtual world and too little in reality. Adult material could be left where a child may find it and there could be security issues around where you leave your book e.g. an airport. The validity of the information being shared can be in question and copyrights can be misused.

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 The benefits of this online community include a sense of belonging, a fun occupation, a connection with others and the world and the excitement of fate, you never quite know where your book may end up. It’s open to anyone and is relatively easy to learn to navigate around. It would be really good for those who may be housebound due to illness or injury, being able to connect with other adults with the similar interest.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment what this community lacks or can not provide which traditional communities can. This community of book crossing while entertaining and informative is mostly up to chance. Whether you find a book or not is up to fate. The community relies on people being responsible about where and how they choose to leave their books and can’t really control this.

Work fast, play hard

This video was made with three fellow classmates. We were given a storyboard to plan our video and were set loose with a camera. The theme was anything to do with occupation. We decided that we would focus on the balance of work and play. The balloons were super fun.

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. Any one can log on and watch most videos on the site. You need to register to be able to watch certain videos such as clips with adult content which you also have to be 18 years old to do. If you want to upload a video then you need to log in or register to create an account. Wirth this account you can save your favorite videos and share with other users.

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.


Storyboarding is a series of drawings of the proposed film. It was really useful in planning our short video for this task. Because working in a group meant that everyone had different ideas it was helpful to plan out what was going into it and being able to estimate the time it would take. Knowing where we had to go and what to film for each part saved time and kept us on task.

We planned six drawings of what we wanted in out short film which included a montage of photographs and a short video of us at the end playing in the balloons. Although in the spare of the moment we did take some extra photos it was great to look back at our storyboard to see where and what we were doing next.

Tutorial Three: Blog Creation Tasks

Task One: Follow instructions to set up a account with Blogger

This will involve setting up a Google account (make note of your user name and password)

Task Two: Follow instructions to complete the following Blog construction tasks

Choose a Blog Template (this can be changed later if you wish)
Provide a Blog title (this will need to incorporate your name and the course title Participation in Occupation )
Provide a Blog outline. This is a short statement outlining the purpose of the Blog (this information should come from the course outline and assessment guidelines for Participation in Occupation 1).
Complete your Blog profile (you need to include your age, gender, industry, occupation and location)
Up load a photo to your Blog profile

Task Three: Follow instructions to start posting content. Your first two post should be taken from the technical descriptions for tutorials one and two.

Task Four: Provide a brief summary of the services offered by Blogger (this will be your third posting. Information can be drawn from the attached hand out). In addition to this name one other Blog host.

A Blog is a Collaborative space which can be filled in any way. From a diary to a collection of photos and images. Blogger offers a number of options to organize your homepage and the content in it. This includes the following:


Publish your thoughts
A blog gives you your own voice on the web. It's a place to collect and share things that you find interesting— whether it's your political commentary, a personal diary, or links to web sites you want to remember.
Many people use a blog just to organize their own thoughts, while others command influential, worldwide audiences of thousands. Professional and amateur journalists use blogs to publish breaking news, while personal journalers reveal inner thoughts.
Whatever you have to say, Blogger can help you say it.
Engage your friends
Blogging is about more than just putting your thoughts on the web. It's about connecting with and hearing from anyone who reads your work and cares to respond. With Blogger, you control who can read and write to your blog — let just a few friends or the entire world see what you have to say!
Blogger Comments let anyone, anywhere, offer feedback on your posts. You can choose whether you want to allow comments on a post-by-post basis, and you can delete any comments you don't like.
Access Controls let you decide who can read and who can write to your blog. You can use a group blog with multiple authors as an excellent communication tool for small teams, families and other groups. Or as a single author, you can create a private online space for collecting news, links, and ideas, to keep to yourself or share with as many readers as you want.
Blogger Profiles let you find people and blogs that share your interests. Your Blogger Profile, where you can list your blogs, your interests, and more, lets people find you (but only if you want to be found).


Design your blog
Whether you're starting your blog or just think it's time to give your existing blog a facelift, Blogger's user-friendly editing tools help you easily design a great-looking page.
Templates — Our collection of templates will get you started with an attractive site right away without you having to learn any HTML, though Blogger also allows you to edit your blog's HTML code whenever you want.
Custom colors and fonts — When you're ready to take the next step, you can further customize our templates to create a design that perfectly reflects you and your blog.
Drag-and-drop page elements — Blogger's simple drag-and-drop system lets you easily decide exactly where your posts, profiles, archives and other parts of your blog should live on the page.
Post photos
Sometimes you just want to share a photo. There's a button for uploading photos in the Blogger interface. Just click the photo button to upload a photo from your computer. If the photo you'd like to put on your blog is already on the web that's fine too. Just tell us where it is.
You can also send camera phone photos straight to your blog while you're on-the-go with Blogger Mobile.
Go Mobile
Blogger Mobile lets you send photos and text straight to your blog while you're on-the-go. All you need to do is send a message to go@blogger.com from your phone. You don't even need a Blogger account. The message itself is enough to create a brand new blog and post whatever photo and text you've sent.
Later, if your want to claim your mobile blog or switch your posts to another blog, just sign in to go.blogger.com and use the claim code Blogger sent to your phone.
While Blogger Mobile is currently only available in the US, you can always send posts to your blog using Mail-to-Blogger.

Get started
The fastest way to understand blogging is to try it out. We've worked really hard to make it really easy for you. Just click the link below, and you can be part of the phenomenon that's transforming web and media to a participatory activity in less than five minutes. Seriously.
What will happen then? Who knows. It might be fun, though.
And remember: Blogger is totally free, and if you have trouble, just click the Help button from any screen, and you can find the answer you're looking for—or even ask our dedicated support staff

Task Five: Upload 5 photos from tutorial 5 onto your flickr account.
Any remaining time can be spent
· Exploring Blogs hosted by Blogger and other services (e.g.myspace)
· Setting up a personal Blog
· Organising your flickr account into groups

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?

While digital camera’s may seem fantastic with new technology, the more traditional film cameras still have their place. The digital in this sense is not better in every way.

Since there is essentially no film cost, the digital camera allows you to shoot whimsically over and over until you get it right. The cost never enters into your thinking. You see the picture in colour on an LCD screen before you take it and also immediately after you take it. You can shoot for ten minutes, review what you just shot, then shoot for another ten minutes. This immediate feedback makes the digital camera a plus.
In relation to more traditional film based cameras digital takes away from the fine art, and the mystery in the film. You never know really how your picture will turn out. There is the art of developing films which is something more exciting and skilful than the instant appearance of a photo on your digital screen. The traditional still photography can and should add to and extend the tradition of fine art.

List some of the ways that digital images can be stored transferred and manipulated using other communications technology.

Pictures can be loaded from the camera to computer. Once the pictures are on the computer, they can be cropped, enlarged, shrunk, and formatted to the consumer’s desire. The pictures that are wanted can be printed out and the pictures that are not wanted can be deleted or saved on the computer or disk. Pictures can also be transferred to a CD.
The pictures can also be transferred onto photo sharing websites such as photo bucket or facebook which friends and family can look at online.

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.

There is a responsibility to maintain as much consent for use of photos taken. A person’s confidentiality and the right to privacy should be considered when taking images.









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

Digital cameras are useful for taking images for persons with communication difficulties. The picture exchange system for children is an example of where digital images are used to give choices or as a communication. The child can use a photo of an activity from their weekend as a way of show and tell in a class situation.
Photographs could be taken of clients or their homes for references in reports such as applying for extensions on an existing home for someone with a disability.

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


Flickr is an image and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community platform. It was one of the earliest Web 2.0 applications. In addition to being a popular Web site for users to share personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers as a photo repository. Its popularity has been fueled by its organization tools, which allow photos to be tagged and browsed by folksonomic means. As of November 2007, it hosts more than two billion images

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


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

Photo bucket



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

Most cameras have both optical zoom and digital zoom. Optical zoom works just like a zoom lens on a film camera. The lens changes focal length and magnification as it is zoomed. Image quality stays high throughout the zoom range. Digital zoom simply crops the image to a smaller size, then enlarges the cropped portion to fill the frame again. Digital zoom results in a significant loss of quality as is clear from the examples below. It's pretty much a last resort, and if you don't have it in camera, you can do a similar job using almost any image editing program.

Explain what is meant by the term mega pixel

A mega pixel is a million pixels. Pixels are the smallest piece of information in an image. They are often represented using dots or squares. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel).