Some Things I Appreciate about the Internet

Submitted by: David R. Austin, Ph.D., FDRT, FALS, Professor Emeritus, Indiana University

In no particular order, here are some things that I appreciate about the Internet. Having the ability to:

• Make RT courses and degree programs available online. The availability of online offerings for practitioners is a particularly meaningful advancement.
• Give practitioners the opportunity to keep up-to-date by taking webinars, such as those offered by ATRA.
• Offer practitioners opportunities to gain CEUs offered by providers such as Danny Pettry.com
• Gain daily online reports from the federal government on health care research.
• Exchange information with RT colleagues via the listserv RecreationalTherapynet
• Gain access to the latest published research in a wide array of scholarly journals including the American Journal of Recreation Therapy and Therapeutic Recreation Journal. (I especially like having access to Google Scholar as a means to locate and access articles.)
• Receive information (e.g., ATRA Newsletter) from our national and state professional associations.
• Check publishers (e.g., Sagamore Publishing, Idyll Arbor) websites for books available on recreational therapy.
• Publish and read recreational therapy blogs, such as the RT Blog at http://rt-blog.blogspot.com/
• Post and read RT information on social media, such as Facebook.
• Exchange information and ideas with colleagues using email.

 

• Give students, faculty, and RTs access to RT related videos, such as the Recreation Therapy Videos offered as a free service by the Indiana University Library’s Scholarworks.
• Offer free access to the Glossary of Recreation Therapy and Occupational Therapy through Indiana University’s Scholarworks.