A Telecommunications Network for Distance Learning: If It’s Built, Will Agriculture Teachers Use It?

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. Introduction/Theoretical Framework Distance learning is becoming a possibility in many of the nation’s schools. With advances in the fields of telecommunications and computers, it has become technologically possible and economically feasible to establish live, two-way, full motion, interactive audio and video systems to connect schools together (Miller & Miller, 1998; Rudd & Telg, 1998; Swan, 1998). These systems are often called “compressed video” or “teleconferencing.” Groups of schools and in some cases entire states are building these types of systems. One such system is the Iowa Communications Network (ICN). The State of Iowa launched the ICN during the fall of 1993 (Miller, 1994; Miller & Miller, 1997). It has now grown to more than ,400 sites across Iowa. There is at least one ICN classroom in each of Iowa’s 99 counties, all of the community colleges, the three state universities, several public facilities and hospitals, and Iowa’s National Guard armories. Most of the ICN classrooms in the schools are located in the high school buildings. The ultimate goal is to have one or more ICN classrooms in each school district (374) across the state by 2000. It is estimated that the number of ICN classrooms at that time will be approximately 800. In the book Understanding Agriculture, the National Research Council (1988) maintained that in order for agricultural education to grow and prosper, educators should borrow from the best current programs while creating new ways to deliver agricultural education. The implementation and spread of distance education technology may represent one way to answer this challenge. Distance education offers a viable opportunity for agricultural educators to battle declining enrollments, increased graduation requirements, decreased funding, and changing clientele. Distance learning provides students with opportunities to enroll in courses they may not have had the opportunity to take previously and Journal of Agricultural Education 79 Vol. 41 Issue 1 2000 allows schools to offer subjects for which they have no qualified teachers (Swan, 1992). If distance education technology is such a powerful instructional tool, can the profession expect to see agriculture teachers adopting it? Faculty resistance is often listed as the major obstacle keeping distance education technologies from being implemented (Dillon & Walsh, 1992). Negative teacher attitudes, additional workloads, lack of funding, reduced student interaction, lack of time, and technical problems have been identified as obstacles to the adoption of distance education technologies (Dillon & Walsh, 1992; Hansford & Baker, 1990; Jackson & Bowen, 1993; Miller, 1995; Murphy & Terry, 1998; Torrie & Miller, 1995). But, the same researchers found that faculty with distance teaching experience generally had more positive attitudes toward technology-mediated instruction. What attitudes do secondary agriculture teachers in Iowa currently hold toward telecommunication instruction, and what obstacles do they perceive to be most inhibiting to the use of ICN, the state’s two-way, interactive fiber optic network? As the technology of food, agriculture, and natural resources continues its rapid development, agricultural education programs must keep pace. Distance education technologies may be able to facilitate the modernization and improvement of secondary agriculture programs. Several curriculum initiatives in agricultural education are currently being promoted. Which curriculum initiatives do secondary agricultural education teachers perceive to be priority areas? Can certain priority initiatives be accelerated through distance education? What courses can agriculture teachers offer through the ICN to schools that currently do not have agriculture programs? A need exists to identify priorities for agricultural distance education related to specific courses and units of instruction suitable for delivery via the ICN.