My first post is to show my knowledge of IT, its definition, and my own thoughts on the meaning and its influence in society. I’ll describe the IT that I am familiar with and the sorts of IT that are used in practice as an occupational therapist. The ethical problems that arouse with the posting and transferring of information over technological devices will also be explored in this post. I will describe both published definitions of important terms and also my own personal thoughts on these expressions often surrounding technology and its ethical issues.
Let’s start off with what information technology (IT) really is. According to oxford’s online dictionary it is the use of systems for storing, retrieving and sending information (2011). This is a very generic definition which in turn covers the main reasons we use IT. The storing or saving of information, retrieving information through the use of the internet and sending information through email or social networks to keep in touch. The common system used for all of these things is the computer, however we can now use cell phones, Ipods and save things to pen drives and hard drives in this day and age.
Students of all ages are using IT as an aid to education through online learning or making our lives easier through our quick electronic library, the internet. In many schools throughout New Zealand owning a laptop is compulsory, schools without this rule generally have many computers owned by the school that are open for anyone to use. We as students at Otago polytechnic are being educated first hand through technology with the technique of “blended delivery.” This involves having online learning packages and lectures. Online learning has become a common thing recently in Christchurch after the earthquake with many courses being entirely taught online, until buildings and rooms are safe and available. With this type of learning on the rise the need for devices to store and save information has also risen. Hard drives and USB sticks are a common device to back up save and store necessary word documents or work for vocation as well as music and movies for someone’s leisure time.
IT has both enabled and become a barrier to communication through the sending and retrieving of information. With the touch of a few buttons we can now send and receive information to communicate with friends and family all over the world either by texting, emailing or social networking sites on the internet. This ease of communication within New Zealand and with the rest of the world has for the most part had a positive effect on our isolated country. However is it becoming too common in society? With the lack of face to face communication dangers arise and basic people skills may be lost.
Leisure activities are being transferred to the technological world. Instead of children playing sport outside they can now play on consol devices in front of the television. Shopaholics like me don’t even need to leave the house to spend our money, in reality who would when buying and selling over the internet is easier and often cheaper. Perhaps the most horrendous example of online leisure activities are the games that allow individuals to have a virtual life online. This in particular is worrying because their virtual life is taking over or replacing their current life in the real world.
I feel comfortable enough working on a range of different technical devices. Some that I usedaily are my computer and of course cell phone both of which are a necessity in my life rather than for personal entertainment purposes. Personally I use these for learning, researching, shopping and the most commonly for communication whether through texting calling, Skype or social networks like facebook. My camera and iPod are the technical devices that a wanted but didn’t really need, I rarely remember to take my camera to capture moments, however my iPod has been more useful for listening to music and surfing the internet.
The reasons I feel confident with this technology is because of the ease of its use. With the use of touch screens on cameras cell phones and iPods navigating around the devices is now much simpler.
The need to use such technology daily helps motivate us to actually learn how to use it through practice and doing. Having this pressure on us making us either turn to technology or else get left behind. This pressure to embrace IT is often through the media, peers or schools and tertiary institutes. Even though I say I am competent with IT, with the pressures and stress it causes it also makes me a tad uncomfortable.
IT is not only useful in everyday life but in the practice of occupational therapy, I’m sure as I get more experience in the field I will get to know more about the ways in which it is used, but for now I can share what I have learnt.
A way in which OT’s use technology is for assistance with clients, a very common client group they are used with are with are non verbal communicators. This is when technology plays a part through communication devices that clients just need to touch that say what they want or need. Switches are also used, these can be used for yes/no or to enable clients without the fine motor skills to still perform tasks. Computer games and software all come in handy when educating clients. Teaching through playing online games is often an entertaining technique used in intervention. Websites like http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/ mean that clients can be educated in a fun way that makes then think they are not even learning.
On my own fieldwork experience I saw technology used to take and keep clients medical notes on computers. Computers were also used for research when something came up that I or even the members in the team didn’t understand or have knowledge on. The most exciting use of technology that I got to play with was the computer and software used for a practice driving test. This enabled the OT to assess a driver to make sure they were safe to drive before taking them out onto the road. Needless to say I spent some time playing on this technology and found it to be a lot harder than driving a real car – (just to point out my results were within the normal population!) The assessment tested the clients concentration and coordination which are both vitally important when driving.
Some issues that may arise with the adopting of IT are the prices of many products and also the rapid changing of them. These could be costing the workplace, the OT or even the client themselves hundreds if not thousands of dollars for useful equipment. With the quick pace that IT is evolving the technology soon gets old and items superior to them are released.
New Zealanders are at the awkward stage where some have taken the step into IT land and others haven’t. This means sharing of notes can be difficult some may be hand written others all digital. Differences in OT practice may change also with some using IT equipment and when referred on to others in the profession they may not be familiar with it. This can be the same issue with the older population, it will be more difficult for them to come to terms with technology that wasn’t even being imagined during their time. And not to mention the ethical issues that surround the use of IT which will be addressed soon.
I can envisage IT playing a large part in the future of occupational therapy in assessment, intervention and keeping notes. It will be useful for clients at all life stages with any disability. I can see IT being used in practice by educating clients, providing more advanced and useful adaptive equipment and assessments through computer questionnaires and assessments.
I believe that it is very important for us to have a general knowledge of IT and the skills to use it in our daily life and in practice. Right now it is critical for us to use IT to gain our qualification, but in the long term it is essential for us to keep up with technology and not get left in the wake.
IT has made life quicker and easier but with it IT has brought a whole new range of ethical dilemmas.
At the early age people are starting to use IT, the dangers are more frightening than ever. Face to face contact over the internet is very limited and security devices for computers are expensive this means that through our computers we are wide open to computer crime like virus’s hacking, sexual predation and of course fraud. This is what makes safety the most prominent ethical issue shadowing IT.
IT devices and software, the internet in particular is a useful tool of stealing. Whether it be stealing music movies or other people’s ideas for essays it is still stealing under the names of plagiarism and piracy. The individuals that are stealing this way are not dressed in black sneaking around at night they are common people. New software and websites have enabled anyone with a computer and internet to download programmes, software, music and movies. These can then be shared with the ease of plugging in a hard drive to a friend’s computer and copy the files. If you watched the above presentation on you tube then you would have seen that in the 5 minutes that it was running for it said that 694, 000 songs are downloaded illegally.
Privacy is not a word that one would use when thinking about IT devices. Being captured through images, videos even recordings can be shared around the internet or sent via text, this can mean private moments can be shared between millions within a matter of minutes. Social networking sites like Facebook or Bebo enable anyone to look at private pictures videos or comments that are meant to be seen by close friends and family. It is this ease of uploading and sending information through IT devices which we love but it is also what makes it dangerous and unethical.
Need to know definitions when discussing IT and ethics:
Intellectual property is said to be the property that results from original creative thought, as patents, copyright material, and trademarks by online dictionary.com (2011) These original thoughts can range from a personal inventions, pieces of writing or songs to large corporate logos or names(intellectual property office 2011) .
Everyone knows the golden arches of the Mcdonalds Logo, this is the intellectual property of the Mcdonalds restaurant
chain and so belongs to them. In our studies we acknowledge someone else’s intellectual property through referencing which you will see at the bottom of my post.
Social justice is a difficult term to define, Wikipedia refers to social justice as being based on the principals of equality and solidarity to create a society that recognises human rights and the dignity of all humans (Wikipedia 2011). This is about everyone in the world no matter your, ethnicity, age, gender or disability being treated the in the same dignifying way and each and every individual has the exact same rights.
When considering social justice by looking at IT in OT practice, the main point that comes to mind is equal access to IT devices, software and equipment. In practice this may not be the case with all clients. The barriers to IT could be financial, lack of knowledge or even the clients disability enabling them to participate in using IT.
Informed consent is a legal condition where an individual gives consent after understanding all of the facts and implications of any actions. It is often between client/patient and is needed before treatment.
In OT practice this can be a problem if the therapist would like to upload photos of treatment or a blog to record progress in treatment and hasn’t got informed consent to do so. Also a client’s impairment in judgment due to mental illness, intellectual disability etc may mean that the therapist cannot be sure if consent is given or not.
You have now reached the end of my first ever post, thank you for reading and stay tuned for more posts very soon!
References
Intellectual property office. (n.d). What is intellectual property. Retrieved 20/03/11 at (http://www.iponz.govt.nz)
Learning games for kids. (n.d). Retrieved on 23/03/11 at (http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/)
Oxford dictionaries online. (n.d.). Definition of information technology. Retrieved on 20/03/11 at (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com).
Rikowski, R. (2006), Teaching ethical issues in information technology: how and when. London: Southbank University.
Wikipedia the free encyclopaedia (2011), (n.d)Social Justice. Retrieved 20/03/11 at (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_justice)
Word iQ. (n.d). Informed consent: definition. Retrieved 20/03/11 at (http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Informed_consent)
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