Robot Suit HAL

Robot suits have been developed in Japan. They help weak muscles as well as normal muscles of the extremities. So they strengthen the muscles but not the bones. These robots might endanger the osteoporotic bones, particularly the vertebrae.

 Thank you Judy Gnarpe for alerting me to this wonderful rehabilitation device developed in Japan!

Facebook or LinkedIn

I have noticed that LinkedIn has been becoming more popular in occupational therapy circles recently, as people seemed to be inviting me to connect with them, and I could see that they were new to LinkedIn but getting involved quickly.  My contacts rose sharply in the past few months from about 20 to over 80 contacts, with little or no effort on my part.

So, what is the difference between Facebook and LinkedIn?

For me Facebook is a place to be social with friends, family and colleagues.  In Facebook I connect and share information relevant to occupational therapy but I also share information about my home and leisure life. I have my own profile and am a member of many groups that represent the many facets of my life.  I am able to "like" people, places and products, and share photos of life as it happens...


LinkedIn is different from Facebook in many ways.  Firstly, LinkedIn was set up as a business networking tool, not a social networking tool, so it is designed for users to input information about their professional self. Secondly, LinkedIn has strict rules about connecting to others.  The program asks you how you know a person before it lets you connect with them, ie: it is not designed for you to "friend a stranger", it is designed for you to connect with people you already know, or to be introduced to people with whom you have mutual connections.  Thirdly, LinkedIn is not interested in "what you are doing right now", its purpose is to be an online space to develop a profile, where you can upload resources you have developed, include testimonials and join professional discussion groups on topics of your choice.

LinkedIn has 100 million users and Facebook has 500 million users, so right now you have a larger body of people in Facebook who to participate in conversations with. LinkedIn is starting to develop more as an asynchronous discussion space, but not yet at the level that Facebook has achieved.


So, what do OTs use LinkedIn for?  In a poll using Facebook I asked OT contacts what they use LinkedIn for.  The picture here is a "screen shot" of the answers, with a summary on the left.

The results of my Facebook poll which had responses from 52 people (number responding to each category of question in brackets)

1. To build my business/professional network (20)
2. I don't really/Don't use LinkedIn (15)
3. To share professional profile tools (blog, portfolio) (3)
4. To recommend others (2)
5. Keep up to date in my network's role/job (1 vote)
6. To get recommended by others (1)
7. Still working out its usefulness/still finding out about it (1)

What do these results mean?   It appears that among my Facebook contact group LinkedIn is still a novel online tool which some are using effectively, but most are just becoming aware of.  The Technology Acceptance Model (Davis et al., 1989) suggests that technology must be both useful and easy to use in order for people to be willing to adopt it.  Perhaps LinkedIn is perceived as not as easy to use as Facebook and therefore not as useful for making quick connections in our rapidly developing online OT world. 

The questions I pose are:

1. In what ways is LinkedIn potentially more useful than Facebook to occupational therapists?
2. What are the benefits if we build profiles in each of these online spaces?  
3. Can LinkedIn be used as a tool to demonstrate ongoing professional development?

Getting the most out of Twitter as a health care professional!

Two years ago I said that I thought Twitter was taking it too far in the online world and I seriously couldn't see a role for it in my life...  I have changed my tune! 

One year ago I tried to use Twitter more often, but found it daunting because I wasn't using an appropriate tool to get the most out of it.

Now I finally understand the role Twitter can play for healthcare professionals as I finally found a program to collect Tweets, organize them in topics and also found ways to share  my Tweets in other forums such as Facebook, my Blog and LinkedIn.  So now that it is part of my routine I thought I was ready to share some tips on getting started on Twitter and getting Twitter to work for you! 

Tip 1. Think about your online persona, have a reason to start Tweeting.   

Decide what you will Tweet about.  I mostly Tweet about OT, Higher Education, Online Technology, Assistive Technology and topics broadly related to these, (sometimes I stray away and Tweet about how my football team is going, maybe I could use a separate identity for that?)

My Twitter Profile

Tip 2. Create a professional profile in your Twitter account.  Choose an online identity (or name) that represents you.  I chose VirtualOT and use it for all my professional online activities.  Having a consistent online presence helps people to start forming a relationship with you, soon they start to send you information because they know your interests.  

Customize your Twitter profile to give a professional impression! a)  Write a brief, professional and relevant bio (it is ok to include some personal information, just keep it to what you would tell a patient/client in real life), b) Upload a picture or avatar that represents you professionally, and c) Customize your page’s background and colours.  You can do all of these things through the settings tool bar, then select 'design' for the background, 'profile' for your profile etc. 

Tip 3.  Learn the lingo (language).  Thanks to @enableOT for the foundation of this list on OT4OT wiki

@:  Use this to inform a person that you are directing a Tweet towards them (e.g. @VirtualOT). 

Find people:  This means “find people to follow”. 

Follow/Following:  By following someone you will see all his or her tweets on your page.  You can choose to follow anyone who allows it; sometimes you will get a message saying they need to approve you.

Hashtags #:  The hashtag is used to tag a topic.  For example in OT we use #OT. 

Profile: Customized information about you that others will see on Twitter.

Tweets:  The term given to the bite-sized messages of 140 characters you send out.  Tweets can be public, private, or even direct messages.  You can only receive direct messages from people you follow and vice versa.  Re-tweets (RT's):  This is when a tweet is forwarded by another user.

Tweeps: People who use Twitter (sometimes also means people you met on Twitter).

Twittersphere:  The virtual world of Twitter.

Example Tweet using bitly (reduced URL)

Tip 4.  Be concise and informative.  You only have 140 characters to use for each Tweet, so be concise!  Think of Twitter as a virtual notice board with the capacity to leave notes or questions for individuals or groups about a topic.  Most health care Twitter use this forum post information, look for answers or brainstorm a problem.   Examples include looking for a resource, a supplier or to share news on funding changes for OT services.  If you need to add a website URL these can be very long.  To get around this use bitly or tinyurl to shrink the url address so it can fit in your 140 characters more easily.

Example Tweet hashtag #OT

Tip 5. Use #tags - hashtags.  Hashtags have made a huge difference to finding information on Twitter.   These are the best way to have non-followers see your tweets and for followers to notice Tweets of shared importance.  For a current list of Twitter hashtags that are of interest to OTs, see Twitter Hashtags List.  A helpful website is WTH: What the Hashtag, an editable encyclopaedia for hashtags found on Twitter.  Experiment with hashtags as they specify your interests.  You can invent your own hashtags (e.g. we created #OT4OT which is online technology for occupational therapy).

Tweetdeck helps organize top

Tip 6.  Use technology to organize your Tweets! The basic Twitter site will show you a constant feed of information from people you follow.  However there will be people in the "Twitterspehere" posting about topics you are interested in.  You need a way to collect and organize Tweets by topic.  There are a number of Apps for phones and computers to help you organize tweets by topic.  TweetDeck, HootSuite, and TweetCaster help you organize your Twitter account for your phone, desktop computer, iPad, laptop etc.  It can be daunting to work out which App to use, I have settled with Tweetdeck and am happy with its performance.  On my Tweetdeck I leave a search column open at all times for the terms #OT, #Virtual-World-OT-Day, #OccupationalTherapy, and #OT4OT.  I also use these hashtags frequently when chatting with my OT Twitter friends. 

Linking Twitter to Facebook

Tip 7. Set-up an RSS feed—Twitter is an especially powerful networking tool when combined with a blog or Facebook account.  You can set up Twitter to direct Tweets to your Facebook wall (if you want) and you can also set up a feed from Twitter to your blog.  Using these tools you will be able to post information just once and have it available in three different online forums!  Note: Another great way to get more impact from your blog is to set up Networked Blogs in Facebook to re-post blog posts on your Facebook wall.    

@enableOT created an OT list in Twitter

Tip 8. Find people to follow.  To find people you can use findpeople link in Twitter.  Once you follow one person, you can look to see who follows them and then click the “follow” button to add them to the list of people you follow.  There are also directories such as wefollow.com where you can search for people by keyword.  To find other OTs on Twitter start with @enableOTs occupational therapy list and from there you will find many other lists of OTs under areas of practice or topics of interest.  

Tip 9. Be selective about who to follow back—Once you’ve been on Twitter for a while, people will begin to follow you.  Don't feel compelled to follow everyone back, they may even turn out to be a spam-bot or simply a person whose interests don't align with yours. When deciding whether or not to follow-back, look at the user’s profile and see if their profile and interests match yours, read some of their recent Tweets and see if you'd like to "converse" with them.

#FollowFriday is a great tool to find OTs in Twitter

Tip 10. Make use of #FF.  Follow Friday #FF is the hashtag to help people find new Twitter friends. On Fridays "Tweeps" recommend people they think others should be following.  Take advantage of these days, follow the people your friends recommend and then re-tweet the recommendation to let the recommended know that you are now following him or her.  Apps like FollowFridayRanking help keep track of who is being recommended!

Hearing help in the developing world: An unconventional approach

Bill Hodgetts, an audiologist at the University of Alberta, has a big idea!  Bill would like to develop an app that tests hearing and then use the ipod as a hearing device, as a personal amplification system!

He writes:

Hearing loss and deafness affect at least 278 million people worldwide, two thirds of whom live in developing countries with limited care. My idea is to use an iPod touch to test hearing (point of care diagnostics) and then use the same device and headphones as a personal amplification device to give people greater access to the world of sound.

So, if you agree that this is a good idea, please help Bill to get funding by visiting the website and clicking "like"!

The touching voice of autism: A communication App for iPhone, iPad, iTouch

2 March, 2011 4:59PM AEDT
By Rob Harris (Statewide Drive Victoria)

Lisa Domican's creative mind has given her daughter a most valuable gift - a voice.

The mother of two autistic children,

Grace and her mother Lisa Domican (picture from ABC Drive website)

who hails from Ballarat but now lives with her family in Ireland, has developed a picture-based application for smart phones and electronic tablets which help children with autism to communicate.

Ms Domican's son Liam was diagnosed in the Royal Brisbane Hospital in 2000, while Grace was diagnosed by a paediatrician in Ballarat in 2001, just before the family moved abroad.

The technology is tailored to meet the needs of individual children and helps them communicate through pictures on a touch screen.

Ms Domican, who last year was awarded a United Nations award at World Summit Award Mobile for e-Learning and education, named the application Grace app - in honour of her 11-year-old daughter.

"Grace was my research team and the other kids in her school also tested it," Ms Domican said.

"I didn't really have a clue what to do, but I was reading a blog about a developer who making about 5000 euros a week making games. I wrote to him and he said it sounded like a great thing and then we met."

Ms Domican said the application was made available through application stores last year and that she was planning to introduce the technology throughout autistic education around the world.

Grace app will be made available to download for free from April 1 to April 3 as a part of Autism Month.

DailyFeats Launches; New Online and Mobile Platform to Reward People for Doing Good

A press release was emailed to me today about a new program called Daily Feats. This new program enables the user to keep track of and get rewarded by completing daily feats. The feats can be simple, like eating fruit and vegetables, to more complex, signing a petition for action on a human rights issue.

This program has potential to be used by occupational therapists working with clients in keeping track of goals. You can set your goal and then mark off daily achievement of that goal. The tracking of the goal can be seen in this program or it can also be fed to Facebook.

It is interesting to see a growing number of programs being developed that provide extrinsic rewards to the users. It makes me wonder about about the concept of personal causation and volition discussed in the occupational therapy model, MOHO. It makes me wonder about internal and external locus of control.

I am wondering, "Do these online programs help people who need praise and recognition by others?"

So here is the press release and link to the program "Daily Feats"

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - March 3, 2011) - DailyFeats, the online community that rewards and celebrates doing good, today launched its platform for sharing positive actions at www.dailyfeats.com. Built on the principle that "doing good should be rewarding," DailyFeats offers a place for people to do positive actions (known as feats) that foster good health, improve financial security, reduce stress, strengthen communities, enrich connections with family and friends, and more. Members connect with one another locally and around the globe, finding the inspiration and resolve to be healthier and happier while also working toward real rewards.

A feat at DailyFeats is any action that creates good, such as eating whole grains or fruits and veggies; working out or taking the stairs; reading or doing creative projects; volunteering or mentoring; and many more. DailyFeats offers a growing collection of hundreds of feats to choose from, representing a broad range of positive priorities and lifestyles that encompasses the vast diversity of its members.

"DailyFeats is awesome, and it's helping me become a healthier person," said Juan-Ramon Jacobe of Los Angeles, an active member of DailyFeats. "I check in whenever I go out for a hike or bike ride, and lately, I've found myself hiking and cycling more and more, because I know I'm working toward a real reward."

DailyFeats members earn points whenever they do a feat; they earn additional points when their most inspiring or funny accomplishments receive "props" from other members. Points can then be redeemed for savings and rewards sponsored by national brands and local businesses throughout North America. DailyFeats, completely free for members to use, currently has more than 125,000 local rewards available nationwide that anyone can earn for doing good.

DailyFeats is powered by its pioneering rewards and loyalty model, affiliating its supporting organizations with feats that befit their missions. They include respected national brands such as Monster.com and 1-800-FLOWERS.COM®, and nonprofits such as World Wildlife Fund, charity: water, the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, WELL WORLD and the Chopra Foundation, among others. Through DailyFeats, all of these organizations demonstrate a meaningful commitment to positive action.

"DailyFeats came to Monster with a refreshing, spirited and meaningful approach to our social engagement with job seekers that was hard to resist because it synchs up so well with both our mission and the desire to measure our impact," said Janet Swaysland, SVP Global Communications & Social Media at Monster.com.

Festival of Teaching UofA 2011

Since the festival of teaching began in 2008 here at the University of Alberta I have not missed out on presenting, as a way to share with my colleagues the joy of teaching motivated MScOT students. This year I wasn't going to submit an abstract as I just had so much on, but then I thought... "I can't miss out, that will break the link". So I quickly submitted a proposal at the last minute and was delighted to have it accepted.

This year the format is different from the past three. The posters are BANNERS and will be taken around the University and placed in different Faculties throughout the Festival week. On March 10th there will be an opportunity for people to share their stories, in a traditional conference style sharing session at the Telus Centre here at the University, with all the banners up in one location. I imagine it will be quite a beautiful sight.

One of the new things on at this year's festival is the the opportunity to go and visit a class, to sit in and see how others teach! What a great idea that is! I have volunteered also to have people come to my class, and I offered our online class for INTD 410, in Elluminate. It will be interesting to see if we get any interest. I will make sure that I attend at least ONE other class during the Festival week, seeing how others teach can be so motivating to do better.

A.hamilton festival of teaching 2011

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