Tutorial One Continued- Information Technology in Reference to Fieldwork Placement and Occupational Therapy

In my first year of Occupational Therapy i was involved in two placements. My month long placement was in  Older Persons Health and my second placement (which was longitutional placement) was in a youth metal health setting based in a school.

In my Older Persons Health placement i was able see the involvement of technology in the setting. This ranged form using the phone to then using the computer to document information. But as this setting was within a hospital the OT still had to view files that were blinded in folders. May be in close future all patient information will be logged onto the computer to save looking through patients notes after notes.

In my second placement technology was also used. This was in the use of computers and music, but more for the clients for an educational purpose or even calming purposes.

In Creek, Lougher & Van Bruggen (2008) talks about how the development of information technology is used widely as Occupational Therapist. Specifically it talked about how
information technology has made recording patient data easier and can be also accessed easier. Also it is evident that Occupational Therapists use Information Technology for research to further there degree or knowledge (Hagedorn, 2001). These can be through different websites like http://www.books.google.com/ where you are able to view books online. Also http://scholar.google.com/ where a selection of online books, magazine and journal articles can be read. It is now evident that it is very beneficial for Occupational Therapy to be educated in the use of information technology. It helps OT's to ensure that they can adapt to change in technology in the future, to efficiently utilise the technology and also to critically apply their knowledge to maximize their client's ability to use and accept new technologies (Schaoer & Pervan, 2004)

Also you can view the blog on the top right of my page called TechnoOT by VirtualOT or go to http://techots.blogspot.com/

What issues exist around Occupational Therapy adoption of information technology systems and tools?
Issues that may exist around OT's adoption of IT systems and tools may be that they become too reliant on it. This may cause problems in the future as technology, as brilliant as it is also has glitches. This is because information can be lost, in parts or even in whole or if things are not saved properly it can also be lost. All very inconvenient, and if the information is not backed up test may be necessarily repeated.

IT as being a potential tool for practice-
I think that the use of IT is incredibly useful in the practice of daily lives. It is useful in the way to know all the basic of how to use it in relation to jobs and schooling etc as it can assist in making life easier and produce work quicker. Also in general internet is great when you may need a quick recipe or want to research a topic as it only takes a matter of seconds to find. Also there are links to this within my 5 top blogs published on my page ans also one blog, occupational therapy issue is specifically related to New Zealand and its Occupational Therapists.


Soooo.... By having a good understanding of Information Technology in our lives can help us in our practice of daily life. This can be in the way of communicating networks via internet or phone that enable us to contact people quickly and effectively so we are up to date on what is happening. Also the use of the internet is big now in the way of education via skype and other online communicative devices. Information Technology in relation to people with disabilities is also seen to help enable or compensate for a loss that they may have in order for them to be able to carry out their lives with as much independance as possible.


But what ethical implications may arise from capturing, sharing and transferring of information via IT devices or systems?
Ethical issue that were discussed in class were mainly around the use of internet and the implications. These were in reference to mainly online communities and chat rooms used inappropriately  to exploit people or even encourage inappropriate behaviours. Also privacy can be broken as pictures and videos can be leeked onto the internet for everyone to see. These can be seen when the intellectual property, social justice  and informed concent are broken.

Intellectual property is a right, typically granted by the govenment to protect property. This is usally seen in the form of copyrights and trademarks. (Holland etal, 2007) So this is a way in which people are able to keep their work authentic and prevent it being stolen, or having someone claim the work as their own. Examples of these are the brand Mac that is copyrighted so for someone elce to use this some label and name on their product is illegal, even though still fakes are being produced all over the world. Thinking of this aspect in practice is greatly important with appropriately referencing work and not coping off others. Also by examining copyright details of work can determine the reliability of the work you are referencing (Holland etal, 2007)

Social justice  is described as establishing just for not only for the individual, but the society. It is based in the concept of giving fair treatment to all in society and all access to benefits available in society (Capeheart & Milovanovic, 2007) The use of social justice in information technology can be evident in the aspect of digital divide. Digital divide is described as the divide between people who have access to the computers, the internet and technology compared to the people that dont. So without this access to technology, these people then are distancing themselves from the 'online communities' that are now being created through the vast amouts of people that have access to technology (http://www.wikipedia.com/). This relates to information technology and OT as people with this digital divide may be excluded from information that otherwise they may have access to if they had this technology.

Informed concent is descrided as the given concent of someone after they are aware of all the facts and implications of the action and have a full understanding of it (http://www.wikipedia.com/).  In relation to this and information technology in occupation therapy, concent is critical for many aspects. For example picture that go on the internet all need concent and also files that an OT may use on a patient cant be given to any old person without the clients informed concent.

References:

Hagedorn, R. (2001). Foundation for practice in occupational therapy (3rd ed.). Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.

Creek. J., Lougher. L., Van Bruggen. H. (2008). Occupational therapy and mental health (4th ed.) Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.

Schaper, L., Pervan, A. (2004). A model for information and communication technology, acceptance and utilisation by occupational therapist. Australia: Curtain University of Technology

Holland, C.J., Canuso, V.A., Reed, D., Lee, S., Kimmel, A.L., Peterson, W. (2007) Intellectual property. USA: Entrepreneur Media Legal Guide

Capeheart, L., Milovanovic, D. (2007) Social justice: Theories, issues and movements. USA

Digital divide. (2011) Retireved from  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_divide

Informed concent (2011) Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informed_consent

Tutorial One: Information Technology

This blog is about information technology, definitions of what it is, its vast range of uses for this technology and the ethical issues that come along with it. 
Information Technology (IT) is defined as, "anything related to computing technology, such as networking, hardware, software, the Internet, or the people that work with these technologies". (http://www.techterms.com/)

Technology has evolved greatly over time. Ranging from the first tools man made, to now computers, ipads, ipods, cameras / video cameras, 3D televisions and cellphones that have GPS's incoded within them. With this large variety of technology people are able to connect and communicate with each other any time any place. Also with the creation of the internet rhen has given more opportunity for communication. This can be seen through online devices like skype (internet calling) which is also being used in schools for distance learning. The largest phenomenon over the internet currently would have to be the online networks. These include twitter, myspace and then facebook, who have roughly 600,000,000,000 people who have an account. I am personally on facebook and think that it is great for opportunity to communicate with friends and contact old school friends to see what they are currently doing.

This is a video showing the pace of the new developments in technology, a bit scary really.



Information Technology is becoming more prevelant in society. Banergee (2002) explained that how Information Technology is becoming more popular and starting to spead even over the more rural areas. The article even states how the technology has seen to grealty increase literacy rates and is becoming more of a, 'need' than 'want'.

I personally have been ok at adapting to new technologies and playing round to i find the solution so i think that new technology is good. I can work cellphones, cameras and gaming consoles well. However it can be the most frustrating thing in the world! Computers for example can decide they randomly want to turn off and all your work is suddenly gone. But, in my opinion are the most useful devides in the world. So i am confident using computers, but with all the new upgrades occuring i am slowly falling away from being 'optimistic' and  falling into the catergory of 'pessimistic' towards technology, its just all so expensive! So limitation of my use of IT would be the rapid pace at which upgrades are occuring and also the cost of these. How ever with the need for this knowledge on IT increasing, it then motivates me to expand on my knowlegde.

Here is a link to a webpage that provides blogs and links to other websites in relation to information technology. You may have to look around to find things of interest but very useful all the same. http://galido.net/blog/ If you are having trouble finding information its helpful to click on Category on the right side of the page under archives.TechnOT by VirtualOT

Also you can view the blog TechnOT by VirtualOT this link can be found on my blog under 5 top OT blogs in the top right corner.
References:

The tech terms computer directory (2011). Information technology. Retrieved  from
              http://www.techterms.com/

Banerjee, U.K. (2002). Information technology for common man. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company