Tutorial Six

For tutorial six we were asked to choose a topic of interest related to Occupational therapy, we were asked to find three online communities related to this and relate them back to occupational concepts done in week one. My chosen topic is dyspraxia. The first online community I found was ‘wellsphere-health knowledge made personal this site is http://www.wellsphere.com/wellpage/Dyspraxia%20&%20Apraxia’. Secondly I found the online community of the Dyspraxia Foundation, http://www.dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk/index.php this has links to how Occupational therapists help individuals deal with this diagnosis. Thirdly I found a site called net mums where members ask questions and others answer them. A member who’s child had just been diagnosed with Dyspraxia asked the other mums about it on this link here: http://www.netmums.com/coffeehouse/advice-support-40/special-needs-disabilities-support-502/389707-dyspraxia-occupational-therapy.html

We were next asked to provide a brief description of each community I will be answering these questions altogether. These questions were what do you think is the intended purpose of the site?  Information can be linked here from the specific sites. How interactive is this site? How can people contribute? What do they contribute? Make comment on why people choose to contribute to each community. What is it they are seeking? And is information shared one way or reciprocal? Wellsphere say they are is America’s fastest growing health information and technology company.  Their mission is to empower patients and caregivers with the information and applications needed, to permit better health outcomes through the use of their products and services. Professionals contribute by posting articles. This is an interactive site and people can comment like, or recommend the page. They can also view the profile and email the writer of the site and discussion page for discussions. However on the Dyspraxia part of the site no one has commented. People choose to contribute to this community to share and retrieve knowledge; this is what they are seeking. Information is shared one way and people comment on it. The Dyspraxia Foundation aims to support children, families and adults with dyspraxia. It is designed to help or inform parents and children with the condition, support them with their condition and educate others about it. This site is semi interactive, you can become a member and login, you can shop through the site, contact them and you can make a donation but there is no place to make comments etc. People chose to contribute to this site to connect with others like them, to educate others on dyspraxia and to learn more about the condition see Occupational Therapist page http://www.dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk/professionals/pr_occupational.php. This information is shared one way. Net mums is a UK site designed for mothers on the internet to ask each other questions, connect in the community and share experiences of being parents. After logging in any member can ask questions and other member’s answer these with their own experiences. People can contribute to this site through becoming a member and commenting on other’s questions. They use this site to share advice and their experiences as well as making friends and meeting face to face with other members of the site in real life. They share experiences and make new friends through this. Information is reciprocal and in the link above the writers comment on each other’s answers again and again.

After this we were asked to concider material presented in the online package. I believe the concept of occupational disruption is shown through dyspraxia (Developmental Co-ordination Disorder) because the individual will know how to do an action or say a word but will take longer to or not be not be able to co-ordinate themselves to do so. Because of dyspraxia occupational disturbance is found in everyday activities such as the process of catching a ball, handwriting or tying a shoelace. Because of dyspraxia children will experience trouble completing developmental milestones such as crawling, building up vocabulary and getting dressed. This means they are left behind their peers in occupational transitions made in their life. This can cause frustration and for both the individual and their parents/caregivers.

Next we were asked to consider material presented during the course and comment on the potential ethical issues that may arise in this community e.g. lack of identity and accountability. In the first online community I found ‘wellsphere-health knowledge made personal’ ethical issues would arise on the authenticity of the professionals writing on the site. However they have procedures set up so only professionals can post answers on this site to counteract this. In the second site written by the Dyspraxia Foundation only the authors of the site can post anything on it therefore the identity and accountability of the author is certain giving reliability to the site.  In the third site ‘net mums’ where members ask questions and others answer them anyone can set up and an account to answer questions. This makes these answers untrustworthy and the identity of the author is anonymous. Therefore there is no accountability for the authors.

Lastly we were asked to consider material presented in the online package and comment on the benefits and limitations these communities provide relate to traditional geographical communities.  In these communities anyone can join and contribute no matter where in the world they come from, they can learn new information and share knowledge with each other. In other words there are no geographical limits. However there is nothing like seeing someone face to face and there are limits to developing a rapport with someone in these online communities. In these online communities people cannot share food, come together for a meal or simply stop by for a cup of tea like they do in geographical communities also there is more ethical concerns as someone can pretend to be someone completely different to who they are.