Easy Speech and Language Ideas Blog by Shareka Bentham

The World Health Organisation (WHO, 2010) says that interprofessional collaborative practice occurs 'when multiple health workers from different professional backgrounds work together with patient, families, carers and communities to deliver the highest quality care'. Observing that elements of collaborative practice include respect, trust, shared decision making and partnerships, the WHO document goes on to say that interprofessional learning (IPL) exists, 'when two or more health professionals learn about, from and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes.'

One of the ways IPL can be achieved is through active interprofessional education (IPE), and the terms IPL and IPE are often used synonymously in the health workforce research literature. Integral to interprofessional collaborative practice are the skills of effective interprofessional communication, patient- client- family- community- centred care, role clarification, effectual team functioning, collaborative leadership and interprofessional conflict resolution.

Snap!

By some strange synchronicity, the neatly plastic bagged June 1 2013 issue of The ASHA Leader plummeted into Webwords' letterbox, and the ASHA Leader Live (feeless, always attention-grabbing, and anyone can subscribe) appeared in her inbox, at the precise moment that she was coming to grips with the theme for the November 2013 issue of our JCPSLP. Our topic? Inter-professional Education and Practice. ASHA's Topic? The Power of Interprofessional Education and Practice: Full Team Ahead.

So, rather than reinventing the wheel, let's explore the bumper harvest of articles in this fascinating issue of the Leader, starting with Prelock (2013) and The Magic of Interprofessional Teamwork. Prelock deftly canvasses the relevant issues, proposing that communication sciences and disorders (CSD) curricula developers would do well to incorporate the Interprofessional Education (IPE) competencies established in 2011 by the Interprofessional Professionalism Collaborative.

Disdaining the unhelpfulness of institutional silos and divisive academic structures, she emphasises that the curricula of several health-related professions (such as audiology, nursing, nutrition, physiotherapy, social work and SLP) incorporate skill development in similar areas. The areas she names are advocacy, effective communication, ethics, evidence-based practice, family, client- or patient-centered care, and teamwork. Those of us located in predominantly 'health' settings could add counselling, health education, mentoring, professional writing, psychiatry, psychology, research methodology, student and peer supervision, and more. Those in school settings might add most of these, teacher education, and so forth. Dr Prelock, who is a Dean of Nursing, Professor of Communication disorders, and the 2013 President of ASHA, sees the presence of these curricular commonalities as an opportunity to bring pre-professionals together in the classroom or clinical education unit, for IPL. Such a coming together in learning spaces might serve to break down potential professional competition, sticking points, rivalries and territorial and other conflicts, while promoting mutual understanding, cooperation and collaboration.

Warming to the policy aspects of the interprofessional collaborative practice topic, ASHA staffer, McNeilly (2013) outlines the findings of ASHA's 2012 Health Care Landscape Summit, which highlighted IPE as a top priority. She notes that a new committee whose membership will include a physician, a nurse and a physiotherapist, will identify specific strategies and actions to help prepare ASHA members to be actively engaged in collaborative education and practice.

In a feature-length contribution entitled So Long, Silos, Pickering and Embry (2013) argue the need for graduate programs to teach CSD students how to work with other professionals, suggesting how it might be done. In the course of their elucidation of 10 steps we can take to cultivate interprofessional collaboration in classrooms, clinics and communities, they link to the WHO (2010) discussion of the global significance of interprofessional collaboration in its Framework for Action on Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice.

Addressing the issue from the viewpoint of practising clinicians who did not learn about interprofessional collaboration as students, Fagan, Knoepfel, Panther and Grames (2013) review opportunities to learn about other disciplines that are provided by the many employers who recognise that 'joint learning' can help break down interdisciplinary barriers.

Asserting that IPE leads to better patient outcomes, Rogers and Nunez (2013) perceive some of the challenges to making it happen. Stressing the need for interprofessional collaboration as a means of reducing duplication of effort, enhancing safety and delivering higher quality health care, the authors point to a 26-item behavioural assessment developed by ASHA in collaboration with 10 other professional associations. When it has been appraised and refined, clinical educators in a range of disciplines will be able to use this tool, called the 'Interprofessional Professionalism Assessment', to rate supervisees on their professionalism when interacting with other health professionals. The assessment is being evaluated in terms of its validity and utility in a pilot project that is on-going until June 2014.

A curious aspect of the Leader's special issue on Interprofessional Education and Practice is that all the authors were SLPs (though one of them had dual qualifications in Audiology), meaning that none of the articles were prepared in collaboration with colleagues from other fields; and we don't hear from consumers who are integral to any transdisciplinary team. Just saying. Overall, the articles are imbued with an optimistic energy and enthusiasm for the topic, coupled with a sharpened awareness of the difficulties associated with implementing the policies and procedures that are presented.

Slim pickings

What do the other five Mutual Recognition of Professional Association Credentials (MRA) signatories have to say about Interprofessional Education and Practice on their publicly available pages? Well, compared with ASHA's abundant offerings we find slim pickings. Starting at home, Speech Pathology Australia has a 2009 Position Statement on Transdisciplinary Practice. SAC's open access CJSLPA/RCOA journal includes a 2003 article, Knowledge of the Roles of Speech-Language Pathologists by Students in Other Health Care Programs. Digging deep down into the depths of the IASLT site, Webwords discovered two relevant sentences in its Code of Ethics: 'A member must share information, knowledge and skills with fellow professionals, students and support staff as appropriate. A member may liaise with other professionals as appropriate for the purposes of providing the best service to the client unless it is contrary to the wishes of the client.' NZSTA models interprofessional collaboration by including links to Allied Professional Associations in New Zealand on its website (they are the Allied Health Professional Associations Forum AHPAF, Audiology NZAS, Occupational Therapy NZAOT, and Physiotherapy NZSP), while the RCSLT has an interesting page on professionalism at work and another containing information about the Health and Care Professions Council (HPC).

A view from medicine in Australia

Taking stock of interprofessional learning in Australia from a medical standpoint, Brooks, Greenstock, Moran, and Webb (2012) aver that IPL is a debated topic in health professional education and in the related research literature, with those staunchly in favour pitted against those firmly opposed to it. The authors make six key assertions, slightly paraphrased below.

• Changes in health service delivery and issues of quality of care and safety drive interprofessional practice, and IPL is now a requirement for the accreditation of medical schools.

• There is international agreement that learning outcomes frameworks are required for the objectives of IPL to be fully realised, but debate over terminology persists.

• Interprofessional skills can be gained from formal educational frameworks, at pre- and post-registration levels, and in work-based training.

• Research suggests that many consider that IPL delivers much-needed skills to health professionals, while some systematic reviews show that evidence of a link to patient outcomes is lacking.

• Australian efforts to develop an evidence base to support IPL have progressed, with new research drawing on recommendations of experts in the area, and the focus has now (in 2012) shifted to curriculum development.

• The extent to which IPL is rolled out in Australian universities will depend on engagement and endorsement from curriculum managers and the broader faculty.

Professionals can acquire knowledge, learn important skills from each other, and gain valuable insights in IPL/IPE settings, possibly leading to enhanced client/patient/student care, more harmonious workplaces and enriched job satisfaction. Speech and language professionals can also learn much from the specific interprofessional collaborative practice experiences and research, including IPE and IPL, coming from other disciplines, such as medicine. Can we look forward to reading, contributing to and citing a Journal of Interprofessional Collaborative Practice one day, crammed with articles co-authored by health practitioners from a range of professions, with consumers as transdisciplinary team members, all infused with the IPL/IPE bug? Oh, as you were, Webwords, there's this!

References

Brooks, P., Greenstock, L., Moran, M. and Webb, G. (2012) Taking stock of interprofessional learning in Australia. Medical Journal of Australia. 2012; 196 (11): 707. Available from https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2012/196/11/taking-stock-interprofessional-learning-australia PDF

Fagan, E., Knoepfel, E., Panther, K. & Grames, L.M. (2013, June 01). On-The-Job Cross Pollination.The ASHA Leader.

McNeilly, L. (2013, June 01). Health Care Summit Identified Need for Interprofessional Education. The ASHA Leader.

Pickering, J.  & Embry, E. (2013, June 01). So Long, Silos. The ASHA Leader.

Prelock, P. (2013, June 01). From the President: The Magic of Interprofessional Teamwork. The ASHA Leader.

Rogers, M. & Nunez, L. (2013, June 01). From My Perspective: How Do We Make Interprofessional Collaboration Happen?. The ASHA Leader.

World Health Organization. (2010). Framework for action on interprofessional education and collaborative practice. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization Press. Available at http://www.who.int/hrh/resources/framework_action/en/index.html.

Links

ACT Government Health Directorate: Interprofessional Collaborative Practice and Learning

Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative

Interprofessional collaboration: three best practice models of interprofessional education

In this edition of Webwords, the use of social media in clinical education for undergraduate and post-graduate students, and in on-going clinical education as a component of clinical professional development (CPD), is explored. Approaching these uses from four unexpectedly alliterative perspectives, they fall under the headings of Association, Aspirants, Academics and AAC.

Social media is a collective term used to describe a set of highly interactive platforms that promote discussion and community, allowing people to build relationships and communicate user-generated information. The range of social media platforms, described in Webwords 44: Life Online is applied in the delivery and pursuit of both clinical education and CPD. They include Podcasts, RSS Feeds, Video Sharing, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Wikis, Internet discussion groups and email lists, Cloud computing, social bookmarking and key word tagging, and informal sharing of resources 'socially'.

Association

Recognising the critical significance of the clinical education of students, Speech Pathology Australia (2005) encourages its members to engage in student supervision, urging them to regard it as a professional responsibility. Clinical education is the component of a bachelor or masters degree program that directly equips a student who aspires to become a speech-language pathologist (SLP) with the skills and experience required to work in clinical settings in our field at the level of competent 'beginning practitioners'.

Whether they are 'beginning' or further down the track, a main objective of the Association is 'to facilitate and promote opportunities for members to pursue knowledge and develop professionally'. Consistent with this objective, it provides a continual selection of relevant, authoritative and enjoyable continuing professional development (CPD) events for members and non-members. Members' credentials can be enhanced if they engage in the Association's voluntary Professional Self Regulation (PSR) program. It provides an objective means of measuring and acknowledging an SLP's commitment to CPD. As a participant in the PSR program the SLP must accrue a minimum number of points annually, over a 3-year period, in clinical practice, becoming entitled to use the post-nominals CPSP.

Members pursuing Association and non-Association professional development for PSR points are advised to be mindful of the level of evidence, or in some cases the lack of evidence, associated with available offerings. The necessary 10 points per year related to clinical practice can be earned by reading articles or attending workshops on assessment and intervention; providing peer support and attending special interest groups that have a clinical focus; undertaking quality assurance projects designed to impact service provision to clients; and engaging in activities related to topics such as benchmarking, case mix, evidence-based practice and clinical pathways. On March 25th, 2013 Speech Pathology Australia (SPA) announced on Twitter that active online learning relevant to speech pathology practice was worth 1 point per hour in the 'extends professional skills/knowledge' category, and gave as an example following #SLPeeps.

SPA provides a 'Social Media and Speech Pathology' document to guide its members. Its own use of social media in CPD contexts extends to a public Facebook presence, a private Facebook group called APPropriate Apps for members interested in sharing information about Apps, an active Twitter account in which tweets are often appended with the #SLPeeps hashtag, email blasts (national and state e-news and the SPA Evidence Alert from the National Advisor, EBP & Research, Cori Williams), Video Sharing, and email lists related to Member Networks, including the Student Member Network.

Aspirants

It is probably fair to say that the vast majority of students in communication sciences and disorders aspire to find work in their field of study, and that was certainly true of Julie Sheridan who graduated from Birmingham City University (BCU) in June 2011. In February 2013, still without a job as a Speech and Language Therapist (SLT), Julie wrote, 'The job situation in the UK for newly qualified SLTs is not good and in tough times like this, social media provides clinical education, support and helps maintain clinical skills for those searching for jobs. I was employed by Birmingham City University to set up an employability and clinical skills website for SLTs. I used social media sites to find out what SLT graduates and undergraduates wanted from the BCU site and what was already out there'. As an invited guest on the Skills for Graduates resource that Julie developed in Moodle, Webwords was impressed with the scope and practicality of what was on offer.

Speaking of her own student and new graduate experience, Julie said, 'Truth be told, I don't know where I would be without social media for SLTs. I am a member of Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn, mainly to keep in touch with SLT, new developments and most of all for the great support you receive from other therapists and organisations. I follow organisations such as RCSLT, ASHA and Speech Pathology Australia and I follow experienced SLPs. I find Pinterest fantastic for resource ideas and Linkedin's groups and discussions provide a wealth of information on clinical education'.

Academics

In our professional association's main academic publication, three of many academics, Lyndal Sheepway, Michelle Lincoln and Leanne Togher from the University of Sydney, point to the need for research in the area of clinical education. They emphasise that traditional models have not been investigated in their own right, or compared with non-traditional models in relation to their effectiveness in developing professional entry-level competencies as specified in Speech Pathology Australia's C-BOS document.

Their international study of clinical placement and supervisory practices in Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) by Sheepway, Lincoln and Togher (2011), involved a survey of university personnel in 45 programs across seven English-speaking countries: Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK and the US. It revealed that archetypal traditional models, characterised by block and weekly placements with an SLP as supervisor working directly, one-to-one with a student, were the most widely used. Non-traditional models, such as specialist, interprofessional, rural, and international placements, adopting a variety of direct, indirect and distance supervisory structures involving electronic communication (Dudding & Justice, 2004; McLeod & Barbara, 2005), some with SLPs as supervisors and some using peer supervision, were utilised with differing frequencies across the countries.

Bronwyn Hemsley of the University of Newcastle, Australia works in a speech pathology program that makes innovative use of social media for teaching, learning, and clinical education, and is engaged in a formal pilot project that is ethically approved by the University of Newcastle. As part of the pilot, second and third year students are trained to use Social Media as an extracurricular activity and engage with social media in their coursework for 'Complex Communication Needs 1' and 'Swallowing Across the Lifespan'.

Bronwyn writes, 'A small group of students will visit Vietnam in April 2013 on Clinical Placement, during which time they will be taught to use a blog for documenting issues relating to cultural competence and their clinical education experiences. Lessons from this use of 'blogs' with their classmates will be used to guide curriculum in the use of blogging during clinical education. The pilot project is progressing alongside development of University policy on the use of social media for teaching and learning, for both students and staff. The pilot project also informs this development of policy, and will lead to its use in curriculum in the future. The research part of the pilot is in 'data collection phase' with focus groups of academic staff and students of speech pathology on their views on using social media (Twitter) for teaching and learning; results will be reported on at the 2013 Speech Pathology Australia National Conference and submitted for international publication.'

AAC

Discussions on Twitter bearing the #AUGcomm hashtag quickly reveal that people working with people who use AAC, including SLP AAC service providers, are skilled in the use of social media.

Twitter is a free social networking micro-blogging service in which users send and read updates or 'tweets' of no more than 140 characters. It was observed in Webwords 44: Life Online that all six MRA signatories tweet: ASHA with the Twitter handle @ASHAWeb, SAC with @SAC_AOC, IASLT with @iaslt, NZSTA with @NZSTA, RCSLT with @RCSLT and SPA with @SpeechPathAust. A hashtag is a tag embedded in a message posted on Twitter, consisting of a word within the message prefixed with a hash sign, for example #SLPeeps. All messages containing #SLPeeps (note that it is not case-sensitive) are listed in date-order on a dedicated page so that interested parties can find them all in the same location. Among the most enduring and influential SLP-related hashtags are #SLPeeps (number one at the time of writing), #aphasia, #apraxia, #augcom, #dysphagia, #SLP2b, #slpchat, #SLT2b, #augcomm, and #spedchat.

A colleague in the US, Carole Zangari (@prAACticalAAC) who has taught AAC graduate classes for 20 years, responded to Webwords' request (on Twitter, of course) for information on how instructors use social media in their work as clinical educators, and for their top 5 social media resources.

Carole began by describing her efforts to get students engaged with tools such as blogs, digital curation, Facebook and Video Sharing. Below are her top 5, explained in Carole's own words.

Blogs: These give student clinicians insight into the issues faced by practicing SLPs. We use our own blog, PrAACtical AAC, to build AAC knowledge in our students and stay connected with them post-graduation.  We also direct them to blogs by other SLPs, parents, and educators (e.g., Jane Farrall, Uncommon Sense, Teaching Learners with Multiple Special Needs)

Facebook: AAC-related pages and groups are used to connect student SLPs with professionals, other students, and families who share information, offer new perspectives, and engage in collaborative problem-solving (e.g., Augmentative Communication Resources and Help, IRSF Communication Information and Device Exchange, PrAACtical AAC)

Scoop.It: We model and encourage the use of digital curation tools, like Scoop.It that allows students to become aware of new resources by following topics of interest. They can peruse resources in a visually compelling format. Students can build their own topics and use this to share information with clients and families. Examples: Aided Language Input, Communication in Autism)

Twitter: Following individuals, agencies, and specific hashtags for topics (e.g., #augcomm, #assistivetech) and conferences (e.g., #ISAAC2012, #ASHA12) allows students to stay current and connected with professionals who have similar interests.

Ted Ed: This tool allows us to select YouTube videos of people with AAC needs and pose clinical questions. We use these as outside assignments and discuss the cases in class, do related activities, or have students post to an online discussion board in the course website. (Examples: adult; child).

Acknowledgements

In one final 'A', acknowledgement and thanks are extended to Julie Sheridan, Bronwyn Hemsley and Carole Zangari for their input, expertise and permission to quote them.

References

Dudding, C., Justice, L. (2004). An e-supervision model: Videoconferencing as a clinical training tool. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 25, 145–151.

McLeod, S., Barbara, A. (2005). Online technology in rural health: Supporting students to overcome the tyranny of distance. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 13, 276–281.

Sheepway, L., Lincoln, M., & Togher, L. (2011). An international study of clinical education practices in speech-language pathology. International Journal of Speech Language Pathology, 13(2), 174-85.

Speech Pathology Australia (2005). Clinical Education – The Importance and value for the speech pathology profession – a position statement. The Speech Pathology Association of Australia Ltd. Melbourne.

Links

A gentle introduction to Twitter for the anxious academic

Get Social: Build Your Career with Social Media

The Age of Twitter by John Launer

The Blog that Peter Wrote

Twitter for Sci-Ed Part 1: Teaching in 140 characters or less

Twitter for Sci-Ed Part 2: Networking and Connecting

Uses and Misuses of Twitter

Revisiting the world of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the Speech-Language Pathologist (Bowen, 1999; 2003) in 2012, three main themes emerge. First, most of the useful personal, recreational, business and professional Web applications can be sourced for no cost or at a very low cost and conquering their use is easy but potentially time-consuming.

Second, despite fears that the language of the Internet (Crystal, 2001) would destroy English and other languages, the language that appears in our browsers is essentially the same as it was in pre-Internet days with just a few changes relating to an increase in stylistic range, flexibility in the use of punctuation and capitals, and a grammatical informality not found in written English since the Middle Ages (Crystal, 2008). There are new written forms and novel word-usages associated with blogging, emailing, chatting and texting, and new expectations of how words might be interpreted. How ever did Webwords anticipate that an image search for "Middle Ages" might yield pictures of vibrant Threshold Generation party animals living well, exercising regularly and getting a good chuckle out of scrapping their retirement plans?

The Internet has boosted the lexicon by some 200-300 words. There are CamelCase words: eBay, PayPal, and WikiLeaks; portmanteau words (Carroll, 1871): bit (binary digit), malware (malicious software), modem (modulate demodulate) and pixel (picture element); acronyms: FCOL; abbreviations: GIF, meg, net; memes and computerese - the Tech Speak of computer geeks ..."You'll love this! At the end of 88 I was still running the old IBM OS/2 SE 1.0 on an AT/099 with an ST251-1. Hilarious or what?"

Third, online social networking - connecting with others and sharing information via the Internet - in our field is increasing. At the same time, WC3's "semantic web", currently in development and often called Web 3.0, is already changing life online. But it is not quite time for a Web 2.0 ("social web") Retrospective.

The purpose of this longer-than-usual Webwords is to suggest ways that modestly net-savvy Speech-Language Pathologists can utilise, enjoy and reap the benefits of web technologies without spending a fortune. It includes an explanation of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 and a tour of the so called Web 2.0 technologies with links to more detailed information; the interesting ways our SLP/SLT professional associations and colleagues use these tools; and the lowdown on creating professionally oriented blogs, wikis, Internet forums and electronic mailing lists, or websites.

Read / Write Web

August 6, 1991 marked the debut of the world wide web as a publicly available service on the Internet. "Web 1.0" or "Web", refers to its first stage, in which html pages were connected with revolutionary hypertext links (hyperlinks) and web-based email came into its own, impacting the dissemination of knowledge within and across settings. Tim Berners-Lee, who invented it, is serious about accessibility (Berners-Lee, 2002; Bowen, 2012), and it is timely, in the National Year of Reading, to be reminded that he wanted it to be the "Read / Write Web" where anyone, anywhere could meet and read and write.

Connecting people

Digital doyenne Darcy DiNucci coined the term Web 2.0 in 1999. It persists despite Berners-Lee's criticism that, "nobody even knows what it means". When asked in 2006 if he agreed that "Web 1.0 is about connecting computers, while Web 2.0 is about connecting people", Berners-Lee replied, "Totally not. Web 1.0 was all about connecting people...If Web 2.0 for you is blogs and wikis, then that is people to people. But that was what the Web was supposed to be all along."

Over six years later there remain two difficulties with the notion of the Web 2.0 websites being qualitatively different from the Web 1.0 websites. One, Web 2.0 is still not different from Web 1.0, but rather continues as an extension of the original plan, and two, the Web 2.0 websites are so dissimilar from each other in terms of content that it is odd to pop them all into one category.

Web content classification

Folksonomy is one webword you probably don't like, and you definitely don't want to say it with a blocked nose. A portmanteau of folks and taxonomy, it refers to a web content classification process called collaborative tagging or social bookmarking. In it, producers-and-consumers or professionals-and-consumers (prosumers, either way) cooperate in the creation and management of tags in order to annotate, group and find web content. They have been popular since 2004 on social websites like 43 Things where over 3 million people, "list their goals, share their progress, and cheer each other on". Folksonomies, tagging, blogging and social networking (e.g., via Facebook, Linkedin, RSS feeds, Twitter, You Tube and many others) are among the defining characteristics of Web 2.0 and its Toolkit.

Toolkit

Podcasts

ASHA was the first of the speech pathology professional associations to launch a website and lead the charge in embracing Web 2.0 (Fisher, 2009). Its use of a blog, RSS feeds and informational podcasts to promote and publicise its activities, publications and services is extensive. Podcasting is a convenient means of automatically downloading audio or video files to a computer. The files can be played on the same computer or transferred to a portable MP3 or video player. Podcasts can be expensive and technically challenging for non-experts but can be monetized by advertisers or sponsors.

RSS feeds

A subscription to an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) web feed, such as the ASHA journals RSS feeds, the C A S L P A RSS feeds or the MedWorm Speech Therapy RSS feeds takes moments. Web content is delivered or "pushed" to the subscriber's free reader (e.g., Google Reader, Yahoo, Microsoft Outlook, or Live Bookmarks). It costs nothing for an organisation or individual to generate the feed and if it is picked up by prominent news aggregators (e.g., DecaPost, Drudge Report, Google News, or the Huffington Post), the message reaches an extended readership.

Video sharing

YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view, and share clips. Unregistered users are able to watch the videos, while registered users can upload an unlimited number of videos. SAC has its own SAC YouTube Channel, a low budget, less technically demanding alterative to podcasting, that has been active since March 2010. YouTube competes with many other free or low-cost video hosting sites such as Animoto, Flickr, Screencast, Slideshare and Vimeo, and videos can also be uploaded to personal and work websites. Speechwoman smiled on Firm Foundations, also in Canada, for an excellent example of videos made by teachers and uploaded to a section of a school district website, to demonstrate phonological awareness training and other early literacy skills.

Facebook

Facebook is a free social networking service. Facebook users can join networks organised by location, workplace or school, to connect with family, friends, colleagues, and people with compatible interests. Many organisations have a public presence on Facebook to connect all of their employees or members, while some have found advantages in using an internal, secure version of Facebook for private collaboration. Five Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) signatories are on Facebook: ASHA, NZSTA, RCSLT, SAC and SPA, but not IASLT.

Twitter

All six MRA signatories tweet: ASHA, IASLT, NZSTA, RCSLT, SAC and SPA. Twitter is a free social networking micro-blogging service in which users send and read updates or "tweets" of no more than 140 characters. Guidance (Twetiquette and more) is provided in Tanya Coyle's Twitter for SLPs series and Jessica Hische's mom, this is how twitter works is, as she says, not just for moms. Potential professional uses include brainstorming and efficient provision of updates and announcements to an "in" group. For example, Shareka Bentham and Tanya Cole at SLPChat cleverly unite the blogging tool WordPress with Twitter for the purposes of SLP/SLT discussion within a small (so far) following. The Australian component of SLPChat is run by Lauren Osborne (@speechieLO) with support from Bronwyn Hemsley  (@BronwynHemsley).

Blogs

A blog (web log) is a personal journal published on the Web, typically composed by a blogger working alone or with one or a very small band of collaborators. Blog entries usually appear in reverse chronological order so that the blogger, blog visitor or follower sees the most recent post first and has to scroll down for earlier entries. The better blogs, like ASHAsphere, are interactive and allow comments and messages using graphical user interface (GUI) controls (also called widgets) such as windows or text boxes. Bloggers of interest to SLPs/SLTs, judging by their followings, are Martin J Ball and Nicole Müller and Judith Stone-Goldman on WordPress, and Dorothy Bishop, Madalena Cruz-Ferreira, David Crystal, Sharynne McLeod and John Wells on Blogger. Their respective blog rolls provide many leads to other professionally stimulating journals.

Some SLPs/SLTs have developed blogs as resource sites. Heidi Hanks is Mommy (of four) Speech Therapy, Paul Morris issues The Language Fix, Jenna Rayburn shares her Speech Room creations, Mirla Raz reviews Apps for speech therapy, Sean Sweeny "looks at technology through a language lens" and provides a collaborative document at Google Docs (or Google drive) called The SLP Apps List which anyone can edit. Note also the October 2011 ASHA Leader's Apps: An Emerging Tool for SLPs by Jessica Gosnell and the Speaking of Apps message board on the Speaking of Speech site. Rhiannon Walton has therapy ideas and videos, and Pat Mervine uses Blog.com for her blog on the Speaking of Speech site.

Wikis

The word "wiki" comes from the Hawaiian word for "quick", so Wikipedia is a portmanteau of quick/wiki and encyclopaedia. A wiki is a website whose content is easily editable within the wiki-editor's browser. Usually there is an "edit" button on every page of a wiki and it is configured to let anyone with or without a password (as in the case of Wikipedia), or only people with passwords, to edit any page, including other people's posts, as in Wikispaces, Wikidot and Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware.

The Wikispaces service from Tangient LLC houses the resource rich Universal Design Technology Toolkit maintained by Joyce Valenza and Karen Janowski. Michał Frąckowiak's Wikidot is the third largest wiki host, or wiki farm to date. On Wikidot, all education sites, such as The Special Ed Wiki, are provided at no cost, modestly priced paid-for sites are available, and there is a no obligation sandbox where people can try their hand. Tiki Wiki is a community-managed, open development project, with an official Tiki Software Community Association as the legal steward. A nice feature of Tiki Wiki is its beginners' guide called, "Tiki for Dummies Smarties" by Rick Sapir, featuring - last time Webwords looked - 468 pages, from 168 contributors, read by 7,965,240 smarties, in 6 languages!

Internet forums, message boards and electronic mailing lists

An Internet forum, or message board, like the open source phpBB®, and the paid for or free Boardhost and free Zeta Boards (no learning curve, no boundaries, no stress, and no languages other than English!), is a website that allows people to engage in discussion in the form of posted messages ("posts"). Unlike chat rooms, messages are at least temporarily archived, and depending on the setup messages may need to be approved by a moderator before becoming visible to forum members and visitors.

The primary difference between forums and mailing lists, such as LISTSERV®, is that mailing lists automatically deliver new messages to subscribers, while forums require subscribers to visit the forum's website to view new posts. LISTSERV® Lite Free Edition is a freeware version of LISTSERV Lite, limited to a maximum of 10 mailing lists with up to 500 subscribers each. It is available for users who want to run hobby or interest-based email lists and do not derive a profit, directly or indirectly, from using the software.

Software is available that conveniently combines forum and mailing list features allowing participants to post and read by email or in a browser, depending which they prefer. Both Google Groups used by Info-CHILDES and Stutt-L, and Yahoo! Groups, home of a-p-d and phonologicaltherapy use this formula.

Cloud computing

Like the progression from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 the advent of cloud computing has been more of an evolution than a revolution and users of Amazon, Facebook, G-mail, Google docs, iTunes and Twitter, for example, have already experienced it. Crikey explains that cloud computing is the provision of computing (using and improving computer hardware and software) as a service rather than as a product. Shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network, typically the Internet. Utility computing is the packaging of computational resources, such as computation, storage and services, as a low cost metered ("rented") service. Microsoft offers a cloud-based collaboration and communication suite, Office 365 for cents per day, competing with Google Apps for Business and IBM Lotus. Most of the suite vendors offer free trials, and some users opt for and stay with free secure suites such as free Google Apps and R360. Cloud computing is often presented as a form of green computing, but to date there is no empirical support for this claim.

Bookmarking and sharing

Cloud powered online bookmarking and sharing tools like Diigo and Firefox Sync enable subscribers to organise, annotate and group bookmarks with ease. A toolbar is used to seamlessly add and annotate a link, then return to the site of interest; tag sites with multiple category names rather than the single category folders for favourites or bookmarks provided by browsers (e.g., Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera and Chrome). Users can view their bookmarks in a web-based account from any browser or computer; and find more sites by searching within the network or by tag.

Open Source

Many of the software programs, including content management systems like Drupal, Joomla, WordPress and Tiki Wiki, that people use to create blogs, wikis and websites are classified as "open source", as defined by the Open Source Initiative, and are published under creative commons licences.

Australians who are new to online publishing will find helpful information about legal sharing, remixing and reusing content, and on protecting and disseminating their own intellectual property, on the Creative Commons Australia site and the Copyright Agency Limited site.

Constructing any category of Creative Commons License is a simple as filling out an online form. It lets the licensee retain copyright and allows people to copy and distribute the work as specified by the copyright holder. Once the form has been completed the licensee is given the HTML needed in order to add the license information to the relevant website site and information on how to select a license on one of several free hosting services that have incorporated Creative Commons.

Websites

Small, professionally managed sites

For SLPs/SLTs who want a web presence in the form of a small website there are advantages in hiring and briefing a designer to get the job done professionally. The main recurring costs are for DNS registration and re-registration, hosting and the designers' fees. A well chosen web designer is able to offer a range of services that may include an inexpensive, attractive, navigable, secure, custom-made site uniquely designed and built to the client's specifications, website hosting including arranging DNS registration (e.g., with TPP Internet who provide pricing information for Australian .au, New Zealand .nz and Global.com, .net, .org, .biz and .info domain names), eCommerce tools, database development, custom and web promotions. Examples of such paid-for sites, some by professional developers and others by experienced amateurs, in Australia include Speech Moves made in Drupal by Bea Pate, and Melvin Speech Pathology made in Joomla by Meehan Design.

Free, self-managed sites

Rather than a fully paid-for small site, SLPs/SLTs can build a web presence with a free editor such as Weebly (e.g., Voice Energetics by Sarah Wilmot), PageBreeze (e.g., Corella Speech Pathology by Benjamin Jardine and Sally Hodson), WordPress (e.g., Jigsaw Speech, Language and Literacy by Bethany Stapleton), or Google Sites (e.g., Belinda Neimann Speech Pathologist by Belinda Neimann). They can be enhanced with royalty free images from sources that include Wikimedia Commons Pictures and Media and Microsoft Office Images. An account with Jumpstart provides an opportunity to plan the architecture of a website and practice browser-based project website construction, alone or with one other collaborator. The natty thing about Jumpstart is that once you have everything looking just right the whole site can be exported straight into a free editor such as WordPress. The owner can choose whether to locate their site on a free hosting site, with or without advertising, or to buy a plan with a web hosting provider such as Digital Pacific, iiNet or Melbourne IT in Australia, just as long as the bandwidth that comes with the plan is adequate.

Larger sites

Bandwidth is a significant determinant of hosting plan prices, and most hosting plans have bandwidth requirements measured in months. The high price of bandwidth in Australia drives many site owners overseas. For example, Lycos provides 300GB per month for under $9.00USD ($108.00 per annum) and 500GB per month ($144.00 per annum) for under $12.00USD to anyone worldwide. Compare this with a "reasonably priced" Australian host charging an annual fee of $286.00AUD for 1GB data traffic per month (plus an establishment fee in the first year), $815.00AUD for 30GB per month and $1,000.00AUD for 70GB per month. Add to these charges design and development, setting up a content management system (CMS) such Drupal, Joomla! or Mambo, CMS training, technical support, search engine optimisation, social marketing, and additional applications such as tracking, messaging, and making a site mobile friendly and the costs are substantial.

By sharing the load with the host, the developer, and the designer, a site owner who wants to keep their business in Australia can establish a site with a budget of $3,500AUD to $4,000AUD for the first year and expect to pay about $1,000.00 AUD in subsequent years provided that monthly bandwidth does not exceed 70KB. The host would design the site and the owner would populate it, saving him or herself some $4,000.00AUD in copy writing for a site of about 100 HTML pages. Potentially, costs can be defrayed by accepting paid advertising; seeking donations or charging for downloads.

References

Berners-Lee, T. (2002). The World Wide Web - Past Present and Future: Exploring universality. Japan Prize Commemorative Lecture.

Bowen, C. (1999, February). Webwords 1: Getting to know the Internet. ACQuiring Knowledge in Speech, Language and Hearing, 1, 29-30.

Bowen, C. (2003). Harnessing the Net: A challenge for Speech Language Pathologists. The 2003 Elizabeth Usher Memorial Lecture. In C. Williams & S. Leitao (Eds), Nature, Nurture, Knowledge, Proceedings of the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference, Hobart, 9-20.

Bowen, C. (2012). Webwords 43: Alternative and Augmentative Communication. Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology. 14(1), 93-94.

Carroll, L. (1871) . Through the Looking Glass (and what Alice found there). London: Hepburn.

Crystal, D. (2001). Language and the Internet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Crystal, D. (2008). Txtng: the Gr8 Db8. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

DiNucci, D. (1999). Fragmented Future. Print, 53(4), 32.

Fisher, W. (2009). Forging a New Trail with a Web 2.0 Compass, Allen Press. PRESENTATION | RELATED ARTICLE

Links

8 Tips for using Twitter around global health-related events

A gentle introduction to Twitter for the apprehensive academic

Advice to junior academics: How to get involved  with Twitter

Online discussion group: #slpchat

Spreading the word: Making Twitter work for you

Start a therapy blog? Of course!

The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It

Personal computers (PCs) are devices that have at least one processing element - typically a central processing unit (CPU) and some form of memory. They are programmable to perform a predetermined set of mathematical or logical operations of input, processing, output and storage. The results of these operations can be saved, stored and retrieved by users.

PCs come in many forms including the desktop, the laptop or notebook, its smaller relation the netbook or lunchbox PC, mobile devices, wearable computers the size of a wrist watch or even smaller, personal digital assistants (PDAs), Tablet PCs such as iPads and Androids, and Tablet e-book readers like e-Reader and Kindle. As with so many other professions, all of these devices and their input, output and storage peripherals have found a place among our work tools.

Of the mobile devices (iOS, iPOd, iPad, Android and Blackberry), tablet computers and their Application Software (applications or apps) in particular have caught on. An app, such as iTunes, Microsoft Office or the calculator on a computer, is computer software designed so that the user can perform specific tasks. An app can run on the Internet, on the user's computer, or on a phone or other electronic device.

Lists

The word 'app' is on (nearly) everyone's lips and many authors have attempted the impossible task of creating the definitive list of the best ones for speech-language pathologists to use in assessment and intervention, and lists of 'top apps' in general. But as Holland, Weinberg and Dittelman (2012, p. 223) found, 'Recommending apps today meant modifying the list soon thereafter. This is because there are so many of them, and the number is only growing.' Such lists include Sean Sweeney's continually updated collaborative SLP Apps List, Bradd Spirrison's 20 Best iOS and Android Apps of 2012 (so far) on TechCrunch, Aubrey Taylor Klingensmith's What is the Best AAC App out there? on speechie apps, Katherine Kelley's Best List of Speech Language Apps on peachy speech, and Judith Kuster's In search of the perfect Speech-Language App? in her Internet column.

Blogs, message boards, professional publications and social media

BLOGS AND MESSAGE BOARDS
In November 2012, Webwords 44: Life Online touched on blogs, message boards and social media pages developed by colleagues as resource sites. These included a speech therapy app review blog by Mirla Raz and Pat Mervine's collection of app recommendations on the Speaking of Speech message board. Others are Speech-Language Apps by Dina Derrick, Speech Language Pathology Sharing by Eric Sailers, Apps for Older Students to Enhance Language and Learning Skills by Marg Griffin, Speech Apps on Consonantally Speaking by Jessica Chase, and The Speech Guy by Jeremy Legaspi. Therapy App 411 edited by Renata Joy, Jeremy Legaspi, Sean Sweeney and Deborah Tomarakos is a collaborative blog with contributions by SLPs, OTs, other therapists and special educators.

PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS
Increasingly, the ASHA Leader features articles about apps. For example, Apps: An Emerging Tool for SLPs (Gosnell, 2011), Apps to Aid Aphasia (Sutton, 2012a), Apps for Brain Injury Rehab (Sutton, 2012b), App-Enabled Telepractice (Curtis & Sweeney, 2012), and Apps That Crack Curriculum Content (Sweeney, 2012). Todd Wingard's excellent overview Apps for Speech-Language Pathology Practice on the ASHA website sets out twelve advantages and two disadvantages of using mobile devices and apps in education settings and an assortment of useful links to other articles. The disadvantages he nominates are the initial setting up costs and the need to have a WiFi or 3G network available because mobile devices cannot be 'plugged in' to the Internet.

SOCIAL MEDIA
Since June 2012 the Speech Pathology Australia's social media activity has incorporated a Facebook group called APPropriate Apps. It provides both a forum and a learning opportunity where SPA members can discuss and share information and advice about apps, mobile devices and related technology. Fun loving Sharon Crane who expertly moderates the group and active contributors to the site regularly come up with quirky offerings such as the Sesame Street song There's an App for That, time and effort saving resources like Sound Literacy (no more phonics tiles or weighty magnetic letters!), and excellent finds like 10 Alternative Communication Apps for iPad.

Evaluating and rating apps

Every now and then there is a reminder to SLPs in the informative sources described above that speech-language pathology is a scientific, evidence-based discipline (Dollaghan, 2004) and that very few apps are associated with peer reviewed evidence that has been published in the juried literature. Recognising this, ASHA addresses the question of what to ask when evaluating any treatment procedure, product or program in an article that concludes with a helpful list of eight additional questions specifically related to mobile devices and apps.

In a related piece, Wakefield, L. & Schaber (2012) suggest a method of using evidence to choose a treatment App. The authors elaborate a 5-step process. 1. Frame your clinical question using PICO (Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome). 2. Find the evidence. 3. Assess the evidence. 4. Search the app store and consult the evidence. 5. Make a clinical decision and integrate the different types of evidence to determine your choices.

Deborah Tomarakos of Speech Gadget presents her App review checklist cum star rating system for reviewing speech / language / educational apps in her ASHAsphere article Rate that App. She rates under four headings: 1. General Information and Operation for a possible six clearly specified points, 2. Features also for up to six, 3. App Design for up to four, and 4. (suitability for) Speech/Language Use for up to 4. Potentially, an app can achieve 20 points. The points are used to award a star rating to the app: 17-20 points attract a 5 star rating, 13-16 points is four stars, 9-12 points is three stars, 5-8 points is two stars, and 0-4 points is one star. Webwords has two suggestions. First to modify the scale so that 1-4 points would attract one star, and zero points would be starless, and second to add a further heading, Evidence and Theory.

EBP, Ethics and Apps

SPA's 2010 Position Statement on Evidence-Based Practice in Speech Pathology states that, 'It is the position of Speech Pathology Australia (The Association) that speech pathology is a scientific and evidence-based profession and speech pathologists have a responsibility to incorporate best available evidence from research and other sources into clinical practice. Speech Pathology Australia has a strong commitment to promoting and supporting evidence-based practice. The development of a coordinated, national evidence-based practice strategy is a key strategic goal of the Association.' Under the heading of Fairness (Justice) in the SPA 2010 Code of Ethics it says, 'We provide accurate information. We strive to provide clients with access to services consistent with their need.'

The proliferation of apps and the enthusiastic, and sometimes-undiscriminating use of them by both speech-language pathologists and consumers, raises ethical issues, and as Leitão, Bradd, McAllister, Russell, Kenny, Scarinci, Smith, Dhu, Muller, Meredith and Wilson (2012) point out, when ethical issues arise we need to be proactive in our (evidence-based) professional lives. But how do we accurately and constructively inform consumers about the apps that they introduce to us and that we introduce to them?

The answer may lie in an article by Clark (2003) who discussed the strategy an SLP can adopt when selecting an intervention. She suggested that the clinician can start with the question 'Does this therapy work; is it evidence-based?' and seek answers via a literature search. If the literature search fails to reveal evidence for the therapy the clinician can ask a different question: 'Should this therapy work; is it theoretically sound?' and seek an understanding of how the non-evidence based intervention is supposed to work, developing an account of the mechanism underpinning the intervention. After all, we do not knowingly embark on an intervention path unless we believe that it is going to work in the client's favour.

What happens if we change Clark's first question to 'Does this app work; is it evidence-based?' and if the answer is 'no' rephrase the second question as 'Should this app work; is it theoretically sound?' and develop an easily understood rationale, and no hard sell, for including the app in the client's intervention regimen.

Consumers of our services, or their carers, should know that in simple terms there are four overlapping types of speech-language pathology app: those that are purpose designed to treat communication or swallowing disorders, repurposed apps that were not originally intended for SLP intervention, apps whose aim is to provide an incentive or motivation in the process of SLP intervention, and apps designed to track intervention data. When any app-based activities are introduced they need to know why, and they need to know what outcomes the clinician hopes to achieve for the client, and the clinician needs a transparent means of measuring and demonstrating the outcomes. It is a simple idea; it fits with the way we do business; and it is a good place to start.

The Code of Ethics and the Position Statement on EBP were researched and written before the release of the first iPad three years ago in April 2010. The EBP Position Statement is due for review in a little over three years time in August 2016. Webwords shied away from making a list of top apps for the profession, and is even more wary of predicting the sort of development we might see in mobile devices and apps in the next three or so years. A Google search for 'what is the future of apps' will give the reader an inkling of the massive technological changes that may be in store.

References

Clark, H. M. (2003). Neuromuscular Treatments for Speech and Swallowing: A Tutorial. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. 12, 400-415.

Curtis, N. & Sweeney, S. (2012, October 9). APP-titude: App-Enabled Telepractice. The ASHA Leader.

Dollaghan, C. (2004, April 13). Evidence-based practice: Myths and realities. The ASHA Leader, April 13.

Gosnell, J. (2011, October 11). Apps: An Emerging Tool for SLPs: A plethora of apps can be used to develop expressive, receptive, and other language skills. The ASHA Leader.

Gosnell, J., Costello. J., & Shane, H. (2011). Using a clinical approach to answer, "What communication apps should we use?" Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 20, 87–96.

Holland, A. L., Weinberg, P. & Dittelman, J (2012). How to use apps clinically in the treatment of aphasia. Seminars in Spreech and Language, 33(3), 223-233.

Kuster, J. M. (2012, April 3). Internet: In search of the perfect Speech-Language App? . The ASHA Leader.

Leitão, S., Bradd, T., McAllister, L., Russell, A., Kenny, B., Scarinci, N., Smith, H., Dhu, P., Muller, N., Meredith, G., & Wilson, C. (2012). Emerging ethical and professional issues. Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech Language Pathology, 14(1), 33 - 36.

Sutton, M. (2012a, June 5). App-titude: Apps to Aid Aphasia. The ASHA Leader.

Sutton, M. (2012b, July 03). APP-titude: Apps for Brain Injury Rehab. The ASHA Leader.

Sweeney, S. (2012, August 28). APP-titude: Apps That Crack Curriculum Content. The ASHA Leader.

Wakefield, L. & Schaber, T. (2012, July 31). APP-titude: Use the evidence to choose a treatment App. The ASHA Leader.

Links

5 things to do before you choose an aac app - take a gulp

Android Apps

App Friday: 10 Tips for Downloading Family Friendy Apps

Apple Apps

Behind the scenes on developing ipad apps for speech therapy

Blackberry Apps

Rainbow of Emotions (Getting Started: copy and paste into your address bar: http://goo.gl/N6BC1)

Samsung Apps

Should you buy that app? 5 tips for decoding an iTunes app listing

Speech Pathology Australia Members' only: APPropriate APPS (closed Facebook group)

Talking Technology with Speech Pathology Australia

The Learning App Guide ~ Bronwyn Sutton

Wish there was an app for that? Write it yourself!

bakerfultakfard.blogspot.com

Source: https://speech-language-therapy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=13&Itemid=101&limitstart=24

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