Friday, May 22, 2009

Tutorial Eight: Assistive technology

Assistive technology:

Assistive technology (AT) is a generic term that includes assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and includes the process used in selecting, locating, and using them. Assistive technology promotes greater independence by enabling people to perform tasks that they were formerly unable to accomplish, or had great difficulty accomplishing, by providing enhancements to or changed methods of interacting with the technology needed to accomplish suck tasks.

A piece of assistive technology i have chosen to talk about is called an 'Ergo Rest Arm Rest'.

An Ergo Rest Arm Rest is an ergonomically designed, adjustable forearm support rest which attaches to the front of the desk. Suitable for left and right-handed use. They cost $49.99 and can come in different size depending on the arm size.
The Ergo Rest comes in two clamp styles to fit desks of different thicknesses: the shallow clamp fits desks between 15-43mm from desk top to underside. The deep clamp option is for desks which have a thickness of between 34-64mm.

It is specially designed for either office and industrial use, such as data terminal and light factory assembling tasks. Ergo Rest is lightweight and easily moveable. The support is made of aluminum alloy and polyamide, and the mouse pad is upholstered with genuine leather.

Easy to install, the Ergo Rest Arm Rest just clamps onto the front of existing desk with a G clamp type fitting and adjusts it position to suit the user's ergonomic requirements. This Ergo Rest forearm support has a separate mouse pad platform for flexible wrist support beside the keyboard.

The Ergo Rest provides particular to mouse users and it can relieve repetitive strain disorders since support is provided away from the wrist to avoid any pressure points in sensitive areas. It also helps prevent muscle fatigue in the neck and shoulders. Additional height adjustment for specific tasks that require wrist support at unusual heights.


Monday, May 11, 2009

DSC00893


DSC00893
Originally uploaded by annalyons89

Tutorial Six: The internet and online communities

Facebook - www.facebook.com

Facebook helps and connect and share with the people in your life.

Facebook is a great way to meet friends and keep up on what they are doing. Once you add a friend to your Facebook friend list you will always know when they are adding things to their blog or updating their profile. Join Facebook groups to meet people like you, or browse the profiles to find new friends. Facebook's classmates and co-worker search is good for finding friends too.

The services that are provided are:

Photo Album:
Add photos and photo albums to your facebook profile.

Blog Merge:
Use the blog feature to create your own simple blog or you can merge your existing blog right into facebook's blog.

Excellent Search and browse:
Search and browse for people on facebook using just about any search features.

The reason why people want to contribute to this community is because it is a good reliable way for social networking. You can keep track of friends and family and seek long lost friends or family members from all around the world. Facebook tells you when your friends are updating their profiles, adding to their blogs or have some other news on their website.

The type of topics being discussed are everyday general events such as how are you? Discussions can however be formal by linking onto friends, family or even business private mail. If you have a competitive side - you can always challenge a keen participant who you can play games with!

The ethical issues that may arise in this community is that anyone who you choose to view your page can at any time. However, if you want to be private about what you have to say to a person you can always choose to private mail them!
You can put on as much information about yourself as you wish..so do not freak out about ex closing information you would rather people now knowing. Overall, the ethical issues behind the facebook community are relativity safe for whoever wants to use it! you have nothing to lose!

Consider Facebooks material there are lots of benefits that this online community holds such as;
* Facebook can provide large amounts of information.
* Facebook can provide connections over great distances instantly.
* Facebook has the ability to connect with people of similar interests/ needs and concerns.
* Facebook can foster understanding and unity.
* Facebok has great speed of information sharing

However, with the good there always has to be the bad. Compared to traditional communities Facebook lacks in digital divide ( who has access) meaning that anyone who you have picked to be your 'friend' can access your account at any time. Due to a rapid growth of the community there are always changes being made (format wise) and advertisements randomly popping up on your screen. There can be cases of misuse by community users. There have been reports of bullying mostly between teenagers, due to the validity of information being shared.

Overall the online community called facebook has a great deal to offer. It can, if used constructively, provide support, entertainment and identify as a supplement to our everyday lives.








Wrong Way

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Tutorial Four and Five

Services offered by YouTube?

Three former Paypal employees created YouTube in February 2005. In November 2006, YouTube was brought by Google for US$1.65 billion!!!
Youtube offers a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips anywhere in the world! No wonder Google brought it for a price they did!

Our group was very good at picking each persons different roles to make the short film. We planned the film by cutting up the film and focusing on little tasks at a time to complete a finished product.Our group choose a simple idea (walking though a door) that was easy to make and very effective to the views eye!

Tutorial Three

Services offered by Blogger:

 A blog gives you your own voice on the web. It is a place to collect and share things that you find interesting no matter what it is..So lets get Creative!!

Wanting to connect with and hear from people who are interested in what you have to say? Anyone who reads your work can respond to what you have to say and the best part about it is you can control who can read it and write on your blog - let just a few friends or the entire world see what you have to say!

Blogger comments let anyone, anywhere, offer feedback on your posts. You can delete any comments that you do not agree with on a post-by-post basis! IT LETS YOU BE THE JUDGE!

Access Control lets you decide who can read and who can write on your blog. You can use group blog with multiple authors as an excellent communication tool for small teams, families and any other groups. Or like myself, as a single author, you can create a private online space for collecting news, links, and ideas, to keep to yourself or share with as many other readers as you want.

Blogger Profiles let you find people and blogs that share the same interest ( but only if you want to be found).

Post Photos is a simple step as clicking a button in the Blogger interface. Just click the photo button to upload a photo from your computer. If you wish to send photos and text straight to your blog while you are out and about. All you need to do is send a message to go@blogger.com from your phone and let the simple instruction guild you.