Feb 04 2008
3 Blogs, blogs, blogs, who’s to say which one is the best?
At last an exhilarating blog with enthusiasm, invigorating articulation and a sharp tone of voice. Occupational Therapy Otago, http://occupationaltherapyotago.wordpress.com/ is a blog set up in Dunedin, New Zealand by an occupational therapist, Jackie, with over 20 years experience as a clinician and who has recently become an occupational therapy educator. This blogger has a great persona; her blogs keep the reader engaged one blog after the other. Each time more interested and curious to know what the next blog was going to talk about. Unfortunately, Jackie does not write in her blog often enough. Typically entries are inputted once a month, but the blogs posted are so exhilarating that once a month is enough to amuse the wide variety of interested viewers. From parents and patients themselves to occupational therapy students and clinicians, the blogger has intrigued many by her dedication to help others not only through therapy, but more so through her new focus education. Jackie highly recommends the specialty seminars she has attended and of course encourages readers to continue reading her remarkable blogging practices. Not only is her information vital to all who are interested, but she is constantly requesting bloggers to comment on their point of view and opinions in regards to her blog posts.
For the most part, Jackie’s requests are aimed at students in OT programs who could benefit from her academic blog. The comments read are very positive and supportive of her writings. She tends to interest occupational therapy professionals more than other populations. In July 2007, Jackie titles her blog, “Asian Pacific Occupational Therapy Congress”, and defines the differences between typical educational settings for OT’s in China versus those of the UK and other parts of the world. Interestingly enough, China as a whole only has 40 yearly graduates of OT. This is absolutely incredible; a country with the population rising over one billion only having 40 graduates yearly is beyond imaginable. Jackie assumes this disproportion is due to the lack of educators within the field of OT in country of the China.
Every once and a while, parents or patients will comment asking for a professionals help, experience and ideas. Her writing is dedicated towards those who at aware of her Occupational Therapy vocabulary. Those who are not, will understand the blog but maybe question some of the words used in her writing structure.
The most attention-grabbing aspect of her blogs is the intriguing titles; without one, the blog would not attract the average reader. A few of her many interesting titles include: “Blogging for professional development - does it work?”, “Supervision as professional development”, “Therapeutic Use of Self”, “November …prospective occupational therapy students, marketing and reflecting”, “Why be an occupational therapist?” Each and every one of these blogs is dedicated to making the future occupational therapist a more career oriented, professional being, with new ideas and intellectual thoughts beyond the normal teachings of a text book. Sometimes as a professional, it is necessary to look outside the book in order to get a full spectrum of ideas and thoughts. Furthermore, activities like blogging or on-the-job experiences can be more beneficial than a typical text book reading.
Being that blogging is a fairly new entity in society, “Blogging for professional development-does it work?” is an appealing topic for someone looking to incorporate the web2.0 into their professional careers. Here, Jackie identifies four positive aspects she has encountered since the beginning of her blog. Not only has blogging made her more aware of other occupational therapy bloggers, but she has found blogging to be an ongoing learning process. I, along with 12 others who commented on her blog, identify with Jackie’s point of view. Blogging has recently opened up a new type of educational learning system for society. It has increased my confidence using the web and I am now more aware of other bloggers and their entries. Most interesting is looking for the blogger’s validity and updated news that is posted to their blog. This aspect of blogging is getting me to look up information posted on blogs and in turn educate myself through other forms of instruction that is not a typical OT class or text book. The web2.0 is the newest form of self educating society for the benefit of everyone.
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