A TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK FOR DISTANCE LEARNING: IF IT’S BUILT, WILL AGRICULTURE TEACHERS USE IT?

Abstract

As the technology of food agriculture, and natural resources continues to develop rapidly, agricultural education programs must continually adapt to change. Distance education technologies may be able to facilitate the modernization and improvement of high school agriculture programs. Are agriculture teachers interested in teaching via a live, two-way, interactive telecommunications system? A need exists to identify priorities for agricultural distance education related to specific courses and units of instruction suitable for delivery via this type of distance education system. The data from this study in Iowa suggest that most agriculture teachers may not use the system to teach classes to other schools or to share instruction with teachers in other schools. The researchers found that scheduling, coordination, training, and preparation time remain problematic with respect to agriculture teachers’ use of this technology. Teachers were using this technology for meetings, professional development programs, and graduate courses. Teacher educators and others who may be interested in increasing the use of this technology by agriculture teachers need to consider the obstacles identified by the teachers and the curricular areas identified as most appropriate by the teachers. Training programs should also address the concerns related to supervised agricultural experience and laboratory experiences.