My first posting focuses on information technology and ethical issues.
The definition I found for information technology
According to Princeton University (2011), information technology is the branch of engineering that deals with the use of computers and telecommunications to retrieve and store and transmit information.
So in my own words I understand information technology to be work to do with things to do with technology such as such as computers and technical gadgets. This would cover things like cameras, phones, internet and things like that.
Today information technology is extremely important as our whole society revolves around it. Everyday majority of people come into contact with many types of information technology. A high number of people have an account with many different social networking sites such as Facebook , Flickr and blogger. Other websites such as you tube which allows you to view and post up videos. Also there are a number of search engines which allows a person to search the internet by using key words. Google is a very popular search engine.
The information technology devices I feel comfortable and competent using are my computer, internet, mobile phone, PlayStation and camera. I feel competent with these because I know how to use them as I have been using these different devices for a long time. Things that limit my use of IT would be that I am not very good at setting new things up. Such as different cords with TV’s and surround sounds and things like that because I don’t really understand them.
IT is being used in occupational therapy practice as a type of treatment tool or an enabling agent. The internet is considered as a virtual environment in which the person can engage in occupations like they can do their shopping on line such as doing their grocery shopping online and then having it delivered to their home. The internet is also used as the client is able to do desired research on the conditions that they may have. Also other things used in occupational therapy is wee and other play station games. Wee is a game that the client can get up and move to which is a healthy way of getting in some exercise for the client. Also OT’s use a driving simulator to assess people who go in for driving assessments to see if they will be safe on the road or not.
Issues that exist around occupational therapists using IT in their therapy is that there is a need to be aware of different dangers when working with clients. There can be negative effects, there have been aggression and addiction associated with computer gaming. Also there is a lot of information on the internet and this information can be dangerous if it gets into the wrong hands. Such as a client with anorexia may Google it and find out other different methods of ways to stay skinny it may be quite dangerous for them.
As mentioned in the start of this section the different ways of using IT in occupational therapy practice I think that this will only get more and more intense as in the IT will become more of a common thing in day to day life and that it will be developed into different types of therapy with the things developed being more meaningful towards different clients with their different disabilities.
I think that IT will help us in our OT practice as it is such a huge part of our lives today that it will only grow bigger and better as time goes on.
Ethical issues that may arise from capturing, sharing and transferring of information via IT. The information that is transferred may not be safe from hackers and other people that may see it that don’t have permission to see it. Stalkers are quite common and sometimes I don’t really feel safe putting something up such as pictures on the internet in fear of who might see them. Also when other people put photos up of other people and that person might not have given them permission to put the photos up. So the privacy for the person in the photo has not been taken into account. Another ethical issue is the ownership of these photos so who they belong to.
According to Wikipedia (2011), Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law. In my own words I understand this to be when people have the right to sharing what they want to share. An example when relating it to occupational therapy is when you APA reference things that you find in book or on the internet it is other people’s words and so APA says that this informs people that the work was from someone else. It also links into copyright and the owner ship of things. According to Wikipedia (2011), social justice is refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity. So in my own words I think this means the social norms that are accepted into society all being treated equally no matter how rich, poor or disabled that person may be. So with occupational therapy it may be that people with a lack of social justice are the people that aren’t accepted into society maybe because they have impairments or a disability.
According to Wikipedia (2011), Informed consent is a phrase often used in law to indicate that the consent a person gives meets certain minimum standards. An informed consent can be said to have been given based upon a clear appreciation and understanding of the facts, implications, and future consequences of an action. So it means that there are things that a person’s needs to get permission to do. In occupational therapy this may refer to when a therapist needs consent to take photos in a client’s home. The therapist needs to make the client fully aware of the situation and its only when the client says yes that the occupational therapist can go ahead and do it.
Reference
Princeton University. (2011). Word net search. Received on the 21.2.11 from http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=information%20technology
Wikipedia. (2011). Intellectual property. Retrieved on the 17.2.2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property
Wikipedia. (2011). Informed consent. Retrieved on the 17.2.2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/informed_consent
Wikipedia. (2011). Social Justice. Retrieved on the 17.2.2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/social_justice
