Manipulatives and Models

In late 2016, my company made an acquisition that brought a new and very complicated product into our list of offerings. We love it best when it's a complex solutions, apparently.

The short but hopefully still understandable description of the new product is that it is a rules normalization engine that takes incoming data, munches on it a little bit, and sends it out in a format that we like better. That's good enough for wide distribution, I think.

Because we're dealing with a lot of different sources for incoming data, and because we can take data from a variety of sources and send them out in a single output message, one of the things that we use as part of the training class is a diagram on a whiteboard that has data sources drawn on the left side side, the database that stores it all in the middle, and the output format on the right side. We use magnets to illustrate the type of information that can come in from each source, and show how it all ends up in one unified and specific format when it comes out the other side.

(Pictured: The whiteboard template we use to describe data flow. Information comes in from the nurse call system along with the electronic medical record or hospital information system, get stored in our database, then we use the information from those sources to display information on a user's device. Not pictured: Magnets representing each type of data used.)

In "Sit & Get" Won't Grow Dendrites (2012), Tate talks about the use of manipulatives and models as a way to help engage an adult learner's interest. It's another technique that can combine both mind and body, and give the learner yet another way to remember the information being transferred.

It occurred to me that the data flow diagram that we use as part of this session is a great example of that. It also occurred to me that it could end up being very beneficial in a learner assessment after the fact, particularly for employees who take the admin course.

One of the things I think I'm going to try at the next course we offer for this product is to demonstrate the data flow using the magnets, then ask the learners to do the same. I think it would also end up being useful for those who have questions about the data flow--rather than just a flat question and answer, if they can get up and demonstrate exactly which piece of the puzzle they're having trouble with, that could help immensely in not only understanding the question, but also demonstrating the answer, particularly if it's something that we explain but have the learner actually do.

Reference:

Tate, M.L. (2012). “Sit & get” won’t grow dendrites: 20 professional learning strategies that engage the adult brain. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press

[Update, April 2019: Photos for each phase of the process are now included here.]

Phase 1: Magnets have not been placed. Inputs are on the right, database in the middle, and output format on the left.

Phase 2: Bits of data, represented by magnets, from each input (nurse call system and electronic medical record or health information system) are shown in their originating source.

Phase 2 close-up. TAP=Telelocator Alphanumeric Protocol, the method of data transfer for nurse call systems in hospitals. HL7=Health Level 7, protocol used for transferring clinical and administrative data from a patient's health record.

Phase 3: Engage, my company's product, takes data bits from those two systems, unifies the common elements, and stores them in database tables.

Phase 3 close-up.

Phase 4: Rules in the database collect information from the various database tables and send it in a specified format to an application on a mobile phone or other device carried by a clinician. They receive the alert from the nurse call system, along with other data to determine patient context.

Phase 4 close-up.