Life is not as simple as a drop-down box

One of the best features of an ePortfolio is the ability to create mashups using a wide variety of media best suited to the purpose at hand. Ultimately it is about communicating thoughts, feelings, observations, or precisely recording information. Why then, does it seem we are constantly reduced to a drop down box, of limited choice? In education there is a lot of interest in creating portfolio templates to help students ' structure' their entries. This can be useful as long as it doesn't stifle individuality and creativity. All to often undergraduates in particular will look for the path of least resistance, seeing tasks as a barrier between them and the pub. In a recent course I conducted online, I had an expectation that students participate in the discussion forums. So, a common question was 'how many posts are we expected to make?' As many as you feel inspired to... was my reply, and fortunately it seems inspiration was not that far from the surface of many of them.

I have been following the eHealth record articles with interest, both locally in Australia and internationally. Now, I am not a health professional so my interest is in the debate and topics discussed rather than the content of records. Even to a casual observer like myself however, I am intrigued by the 'lack' of debate in some areas. All the discussion (in the public arena at least) seems to be around privacy and patient confidentiality. Obviously this is hugely important and may never be satisfactorily resolved. My interest though (in eHealth) is much simpler. Paper has served us well for a long, long time. It should/can be replaced digitally in many circumstances, but surely it should be to give better outcomes, not just for efficiency. Many hospitals are currently scanning records, so some are available, some not. Imagine you are in hospital for a routine matter, you have a cardiac arrest, get rushed to emergency, and your records are not available online for one reason or another. You are allergic to a particular drug, but where is this recorded?

Obviously there are huge benefits in electronic records, but there is also a risk surely, that it could be like having a lecture at 8.30am on a Monday morning at my university. More times than not the network is down, and you have to wait for a technician to arrive at 9am, make a coffee, start up, realise there is a problem, then fix it by 9.30am if you are lucky.

But back to the drop-down box. In a paperless world, we have (or should have) unlimited room to write notes. Consider this scenario, when a pregnant woman books in at a hospital.

Q. Was your pregnancy planned?
A. Y or N

Never having been pregnant myself, but as a father of four, even I know it's not that simple!! Yes, it was planned, but then my life was turned upside down, or no it wasn't planned but isn't it grand?

In an ePortfolio, i see this this 'dropdown' box effect all the time. 'Stuff' dumped on a page with no explanation. A video embedded, with-out a label, or apparent purpose. Just as doctors, nurses and other health professionals have appended notes on a clipboard at the end of a patients bed for generations, eRecords, for whatever purpose should also be comprehensive and descriptive. Life is not as simple as a drop-down box.

Do you think drop down boxes are used too much? Yes No I cannot decide! view results