Having been a Facebook user since 2009 (?!?!), I have become quite familiar with Facebook groups. I have been a member of various groups over the years, but the ones that are the most active for me right now are ones that concern my extracurricular activities. I am a member of Edinburgh University Women’s Association Football Club […]
Category: 23 Things Syndicated
Thing 7: Twitter
Thing 7 was a difficult one for me as I have never had a Twitter account. I had previously not believed I could gather information from Twitter that I wouldn’t be able to get elsewhere. Furthermore, I was a little reluctant to immerse myself in online conversations that are usually contentious and opinionated. This probably stems […]
Let Many Digital Flowers Bloom
I’m fairly sure I’m not a digi person, a data person or a tech person. I think I might be too outdoorsy, in a gardening kind of way. However, as a 53 year old woman and a social leader, I sensed it was important for me to do more than post to Facebook. Not that posting … Continue reading Let Many Digital Flowers Bloom →
Thing 6: Accessability
Most mornings, what I tend to do (like the obnoxious middle-class student that I am ) is read the Guardian online, in bed, with a cup of coffee before dragging myself to the library for another day of alternately looking at my screen and daydreaming about when the sun was shining that one time 4 […]
Thing 5: Diversity
Thing 5 posed quite an interesting question; one that I hadn’t previously taken the time to think about which was: ‘Are diversified emojis only worsening the problem of segregation?’ One article on this topic seemed to think so. It argued that having options of ‘race’ within emojis are being used for further discrimination against race. […]
Thing 4 : Digital Security
My fourth thing involved having a look at how to use my smartphone safely. Although smartphones are incredibly exciting devices that are becoming increasingly versatile in the way we use them (i.e. for email, social media, online banking etc), and changing the way we are interacting with the world, this is not without risks. As […]
Embarking on a new coding adventure (AKA Operation E20)
Judging solely by the website, one might think I haven’t been up to much coding-wise over the last few months. Granted, apart from some background work on the site’s design (adding a tagging functionality and a comments section*), and a few more projects in My Portfolio, based on assignments from the FreeCodeCamp Frontend Development track, not much else has changed on the site itself. However in the offline world I took some time to reflect on my newly acquired interest in coding and came to the conclusion that I’d very much like to devote more time and resources to developing my programming skills than I had since I first started my self-directed learning; the little time after work and on weekends that I had been able to spend coding simply didn’t feel like enough (yet at the same time they didn’t help my attempts to introduce more physical activity into my already fairly sedentary lifestyle). This, combined with a realisation how much the very basics of coding helped me with automating certain tasks which I had previously found time-consuming, led me to make up my mind about an idea which I had been toying with for some time – namely signing up to CodeClan’s full-time 16-week software development course. I am now very excited to say that I’ve joined Edinburgh’s cohort 20 and in a few days will enter Codeclan’s premises braced with my new shiny Macbook and a lot of enthusiasm for the intense learning that awaits us over the next four months. Talking to a number of alumni of the course at various tech meetups, I was always impressed by how passionately they spoke about coding and how much they seem to have learned from CodeClan instructors, so I’m confident that I’m in for an enjoyable and enlightening adventure.
Thing 7 Twitter
I signed up and chose 10 people to follow.I was almost immediately followed by someone whom I blocked! Then I pressed something that gave me a whole load of unwanted football tweets. I then found out how to work the privacy settings, enjoyed a bit of f…
Thing 6 Accessibility
Found out how to make my phone give a larger font. Helpful!
Thing 5 Diversity
I think that diversity and tolerance will not be solved by colouring in emoji’s. They really needed to start again with an understanding that the full breadth of humanity in all its beauty, intelligence, strength, wisdom, compassion and creativity is t…
A Literature Review (in process)
I am participating in the course on ‘How to Do a Literature Review’, an open online course running on the FutureLearn platform. I plan to use this space to record my learning throughout the four weeks to see the development of my literature review for the introductory chapter of my dissertation and share my own experience. All of this is a work-in-progress/thinking in progress and I am testing out this whole blogging thing, in combination with trying to combine meet some of my writing goals. In the off-chance that you’re reading this, and have any interest in what I am proposing, I of course, welcome your feedback!
Week 1: The topic I’ve chosen for my literature review is the processes of motivation for physical activity for people with osteoarthritis. At the moment, I am trying to figure out if the literature review will serve as a true “Introduction” to my dissertation. Originally, I was going to use the literature review to provide an overview of the public health significance and motivation for the current research on motivating people with osteoarthritis to be physically active. (e.g.discuss the benefits of physical activity; note the difference in physical activity levels for people with osteoarthritis (OA) (in comparison to healthy population); review the burden of OA (worldwide), and describe the benefits of engaging in physical activity for people with OA.)
I think in order to conclude with a review of each of my dissertation chapters, I have to include a discussion and analysis of motivation for physical activity for people with OA. I had initially conceptualized this as my second chapter (A critical review of the barriers and facilitators (and ?behaviour change theories) used in physical activity interventions for people with osteoarthritis) but the more I participate in the course, the more I’m realising that this “second” chapter should be included as part of the introduction because it provides the context for why I am completing my dissertation.
Here’s what I have currently presented as my initial focus statement.
Physical activity decreases pain and increases physical function for people with osteoarthritis (OA), however most people with OA do not meet recommended physical activity guidelines. If there are clear benefits to engaging in physical activity, why aren’t more people in this population motivated to be active? Existing models of behavior change for physical activity for people with osteoarthritis commonly focus on barriers and facilitators that require deliberate reasoning, however, recent findings suggest that non-conscious processes also drive health behavior. In this dissertation, I use the dual process theory and reflective-impulsive model to explore the relationship between reflective and nonconscious processes to broaden our understanding of motivation for physical activity for people with OA. I use this theory-driven approach in combination with survey data and best-worst discrete choice experiments to inform the development a pilot randomized controlled trial that assesses the acceptability, appropriateness, feasibility and implementation costs and preliminary efficacy of a physical activity intervention that considers both implicit and explicit processes of motivation for physical activity in people with OA.
I plan to include the following components in my introduction/critical literature review
AIM 1: To provide an overview of the public health significance and motivation for the current research on motivating people with osteoarthritis to be physically active
AIM 2: To synthesise the existing body of research on the barriers, facilitators and correlates of physical activity for people with osteoarthritis
AIM 3: To propose a measurement model in the area of physical activity for adults with osteoarthritis
AIM 4: To compare and contrast the COM-B model for physical activity on healthy adults with the proposed measurement model
(tentative) AIM 5: To identify behavior change theories that are used to promote physical activity for adults with osteoarthritis
A Literature Review (in process)
I am participating in the course on ‘How to Do a Literature Review’, an open online course running on the FutureLearn platform. I plan to use this space to record my learning throughout the four weeks to see the development of my literature review for the introductory chapter of my dissertation and share my own experience. All of this is a work-in-progress/thinking in progress and I am testing out this whole blogging thing, in combination with trying to combine meet some of my writing goals. In the off-chance that you’re reading this, and have any interest in what I am proposing, I of course, welcome your feedback!
Week 1: The topic I’ve chosen for my literature review is the processes of motivation for physical activity for people with osteoarthritis. At the moment, I am trying to figure out if the literature review will serve as a true “Introduction” to my dissertation. Originally, I was going to use the literature review to provide an overview of the public health significance and motivation for the current research on motivating people with osteoarthritis to be physically active. (e.g.discuss the benefits of physical activity; note the difference in physical activity levels for people with osteoarthritis (OA) (in comparison to healthy population); review the burden of OA (worldwide), and describe the benefits of engaging in physical activity for people with OA.)
I think in order to conclude with a review of each of my dissertation chapters, I have to include a discussion and analysis of motivation for physical activity for people with OA. I had initially conceptualized this as my second chapter (A critical review of the barriers and facilitators (and ?behaviour change theories) used in physical activity interventions for people with osteoarthritis) but the more I participate in the course, the more I’m realising that this “second” chapter should be included as part of the introduction because it provides the context for why I am completing my dissertation.
Here’s what I have currently presented as my initial focus statement.
Physical activity decreases pain and increases physical function for people with osteoarthritis (OA), however most people with OA do not meet recommended physical activity guidelines. If there are clear benefits to engaging in physical activity, why aren’t more people in this population motivated to be active? Existing models of behavior change for physical activity for people with osteoarthritis commonly focus on barriers and facilitators that require deliberate reasoning, however, recent findings suggest that non-conscious processes also drive health behavior. In this dissertation, I use the dual process theory and reflective-impulsive model to explore the relationship between reflective and nonconscious processes to broaden our understanding of motivation for physical activity for people with OA. I use this theory-driven approach in combination with survey data and best-worst discrete choice experiments to inform the development a pilot randomized controlled trial that assesses the acceptability, appropriateness, feasibility and implementation costs and preliminary efficacy of a physical activity intervention that considers both implicit and explicit processes of motivation for physical activity in people with OA.
I plan to include the following components in my introduction/critical literature review
AIM 1: To provide an overview of the public health significance and motivation for the current research on motivating people with osteoarthritis to be physically active
AIM 2: To synthesise the existing body of research on the barriers, facilitators and correlates of physical activity for people with osteoarthritis
AIM 3: To propose a measurement model in the area of physical activity for adults with osteoarthritis
AIM 4: To compare and contrast the COM-B model for physical activity on healthy adults with the proposed measurement model
(tentative) AIM 5: To identify behavior change theories that are used to promote physical activity for adults with osteoarthritis