I just wanted to take a few moments to thank all of you for a great learning experience! I will never be able to look at a robot again without thinking of all of you! :-p A special thank-you to Maha and Louise for treating us to such a feast! I'm going to miss you, and I hope that our paths will cross again soon. Wishing you all a happy holiday season!
Rehabilitation and Games As some of you know, in my 'other' life (when I am not a student), I am an occupational therapist. It has been awhile since I have worked clinically as most of my practice these days is centred around teaching the next generation of therapists! :-) However, I do try to stay up to date with what is going on in terms of effective assessment and treatment for some of the types of patients/clients that I used to work with.
When we have our discussions about whether technology is 'good' or 'bad' (I don't mean to over-simplify), I often find myself trying to think from the perspective of someone with a disability, or as a therapist trying to help that person recover, live, and function independently. Technology has so much to offer in these situations, yet at the same time it can also create a 'dependence' on the device(s), that may well defeat the very independence that is the goal.
I wanted to start first by sharing some videos of the use of 'games' for treatment. The first one gives a brief overview of how the Wii can be used to help engage patients in therapy:
If that short clip piqued your interest, you might also be interested in this clip about individuals who have had a stroke:
The study they refer to is published in the journal Stroke (from the American Stroke Association) and was conducted at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto. Here is a link to the "official"abstract:
There are lots of examples of games and other assistive technologies being used in rehabilitation. I've been struggling with whether I should make this the topic of my presentation, but I don't want to bore you with too much information or 'therapy-talk'!! If you'd like to know more, then let me know and I'll post some additional information. :-)
QR codes
I was inspired by Steph's November 6th blog to try to create my own QR code. So here it is:
I hope it works! Thanks Steph for the great tip.....although I wonder if I'm just getting caught-up in technique?:-)
I'm going to try this again since Louise was having trouble with the first recording. Hopefully it will work this time! It should be linking to the SoundCloud website, and then you will need to click on the play button to activate the track.
I found this old digital drawing my daughter completed about 9 years ago. I think it was one of the first times she had used the Paint program. As we struggle with whether technology is 'good' for kids, it's nice to remember that they find ways to express themselves no matter what the medium.
Anyway, I'm sending you this digital smile because we didn't get to see each other this week, and it seems like a long time since we've been together. Have a great weekend.
Tuesday, 8 November 2011
Back to Marshall McLuhan...
A friend of mine posted this video on her blog. Although it is centred around the messages women and girls receive from the media, there are lots of underlying references to McLuhan and the powerful men who control the media... Warning - some of the language and pictures are explicit. If any of you have the Oprah Winfrey Network network you can watch the full documentary on November 12, 2011.
