Tutorial Eight

This is a video that explains the step by step process to embed You Tube videos into a blog.



This is a video that explains the step by step process to embed a Fickr Badge into your blog.

Tutorial Seven

Assitive Technology



Cook and Hussey (2000) defines assistive technology as a “broad range of devices, services, strategies, and practices that are conceived and applied to ameliorate the problems faced by individuals who have disabilities” (p. 5).

During this tutorial, we were introduced to a number of assistive equipment.
I was really impressed by the Gotalks, which are battery powered communication devices used for people who cannot communicate well by speaking. The way it works is that another person records the messages – any messages the user is likely to need. Then an overlay of pictures (or words or symbols) is created and slid into the Gotalk, and then the user can “talk” simply by pressing on a picture to play a message.
The Gotalks come in different sizes. The pocket version has 4 cells and the bigger versions have 9 or 24 cells. Each one has 5 levels of messages and a row of single level core messages.

The smaller versions are around $300 - $400 and the larger ones are around $800.

This assistive device is ideal for anyone with autism, down syndrome, severe cerebral palsy or retardation or any condition which limits speech

(the above information was taken from the Star Alliance product catalogue)


The use of the assistive device will increase the functional capacity of the user. Using the Gotalk could enable its user to do many things independently. For example Catching a bus to go into town to do some shopping on their own. To catch the bus they could have a recorded message on their Gotalk to tell the bus driver where they want to go.

Tutorial Six

The Internet and Online Communities

In this tutorial, I joined up to the Petstar online community, www.petstar.co.nz

This is a New Zealand based online community where "eccentric" pet lovers can create alter egos for their pets. This online community allows them create pet profiles and make friends with other pets.

The services that are provided include:

• Ability to contribute pictures and stories about their pets, create a profile for their pet




• Sharing of information about the care of animals, news articles




• rate other pets




• Directory for animal services




• Can advertise animals to buy and sell




• send messages to other members of the community

People choose to contribute to this community because they have an interest and a love for their pets. As I identified before, this online community allows the member to create a profile for their pet and create a personality for their pet.

This is an example of the topics being discussed in this online community:

A news article "we are what we eat -so now are our pets"(This news article a slightly long to add to this blog posting so I will summarise what the article covers). This article discusses the idea of feeding your pets healthy food, maybe even putting them on a vegan diet. The article includes statistics about the pet food industry and that more and more pet owners are choosing to feed their pets gourmet pet food.

This online community does not appear to have any potential ethical issues however there are many other online communities in which ethical issues may arise. Participating in an online community does not come with the consequences of traditional social interaction. Some members will use an online community to bully other people. This especially occurs between teenagers and because they are at a delicate time in their development, this bullying may seriously affect their self esteem along with other things.

This online community gives its members the ability to connect with other people of similar interests as well as providing connections over great distances instantly. The traditional community does not generally provide opportunities to make profiles for your pets. Most people may view this as an odd occupation therefore this online community provides a safe environment for people to be themselves and enjoy their interests.

Like other online communities this community lacks the face to face social interaction that the a traditional community can provide.

Tutorial Four and Five

In this tutorial, we learnt how to upload a video clip onto the youtube website and then post the video on our blogs.


Youtube provides a number of services:

• watch other peoples posted videos


• rate videos and provide comments


• customise the homepage


• post your own videos - broadcast yourself or your views and ideas
  
• post videos from youtube onto other websites i.e. social networking sites

In tutorial 5, we planned and produced a short video clip. This can be viewed under the post dated 11th May 2009.

Storyboarding is a series of drawings of proposed film, as it will appear on the screen. This process enabled our group to plan the film very carefully (tutorial notes). Through the process of storyboarding, we developed the character and what direction the story would go. When we began shooting the film, we used to story board to set up and film the individual scenes. Using the storyboard meant that filming of the individual scenes went smoothly and happened within the time requirements.

The script is a vehicle by which the thoughts and ideas of the author are transmitted to the audience (tutorial notes, 2009). Even though we created a silent movie, alongside the storyboard we wrote short descriptions of movement, facial expressions, positions and movement of the camera and any extra notes that could not be described in the drawings.

This is a video created by second year Occupational Therapy students after receiving the brief "overcoming adversity"!