Reimaging extension education

Reimaging Extension EducationExploring the impact of technology and culture on tradition and practice.

Paul Treadwell, April 2014

We are slow to change…

Multiple factors inhibit change within the system

Economics/Funding

Culture

Risk avoidance

Fear of change

Tradition

Inertia

The Extension System: A Vision for the 21st Century (2002 ECOP)

Information Technology and Learning Methodologies

Implement an effective electronic technology system and learning information management approach to expand learning choices and methodologies in support of just-in-time information.

Develop and implement alternative means of technology access for rural, disadvantaged and hard-to-reach communities.

Implement partnerships to establish and manage learning centers in high-traffic locations such as libraries, malls and schools. Ensure that Extension community offices are equipped and staffed to become local centers of learning

Fearless imagining

Let’s spend some time in fearless imagining

http://www.donaldedavis.com/PARTS/allyours.html

Facilitating learningIs topic area expertise necessary?

Is it enough to be able to facilitate learning?

Networks

Information, and expertise, is now much more distributed.

Does (or should) extension focus on the role of hub or connector?

Lubell, M., & Niles, M. Extension 3.0: Agriculture Education and Outreach in the Age of Connectivity. http://environmentalpolicy.ucdavis.edu/files/cepb/Extension%203%200%20White%20Paper.pdf

Peer to peer

Technology has expanded participation in knowledge creation

Can we engage as peers?

New spaces for extension

Constraints are forcing a re-thinking of our presence in the world

Is virtual an appropriate space?

What we loose online

Best of both worlds – engaging virtually and face to face

Schneider, S. B., Brock, D. J. P., Lane, C. D., Meszaros, P. S., & Lockee, B. B. (2011). Using Information Technology to Forge Connections in an Extension Service Project. Journal of Extension, 49(6), 6FEA5.

Making/hacking and the spirit of extension

A hackerspace (also referred to as a hacklab or makerspace, ) is a community-operated workspace where people with common interests, often in computers, machining, technology, science, digital art or electronic art, can meet, socialize and collaborate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackerspace

Science Shops

Science Shops are small entities that carry out scientific research in a wide range of disciplines – usually free of charge and – on behalf of citizens and local civil society. The fact that Science shops respond to civil society’s needs for expertise and knowledge is a key element that distinguish them from other knowledge transfer mechanisms.

Science Shops are often, but not always, linked to or based in universities.

TRYON, E., ROSS, J.. A Community-University Exchange Project Modeled after Europe’s Science Shops. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, North America, 16, May. 2012. Available at: <http://openjournals.libs.uga.edu/index.php/jheoe/article/view/795>. Date accessed: 16 Apr. 2014.

Mobile

Bringing access to the excluded

Open Educational Resources

Sharing and re-mixing educational materials

Open Educational Resources

are teaching, learning or research materials

that are in the public domain or released with an intellectual property license that allows for free use, adaptation, and distribution.

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/access-to-knowledge/open-educational-resources/

Challenges for our future

Funding –

public private?

Digital divide – still a factor

Digital literacies

Rapid pace of change

Maintaining fidelity to mission

References

Lubell, M., & Niles, M. Extension 3.0: Agriculture Education and Outreach in the Age of Connectivity. http://environmentalpolicy.ucdavis.edu/files/cepb/Extension%203%200%20White%20Paper.pdf

Mehra, B., & Srinivasan, R. (2007). The library-community convergence framework for community action: libraries as catalysts of social change. Libri,57(3), 123-139.

Schneider, S. B., Brock, D. J. P., Lane, C. D., Meszaros, P. S., & Lockee, B. B. (2011). Using Information Technology to Forge Connections in an Extension Service Project. Journal of Extension, 49(6), 6FEA5.

Seger, J. (2011). The new digital [st] age: Barriers to the adoption and adaptation of new technologies to deliver extension programming and how to address them. Journal of Extension, 49(1), 1FEA1.

Tennessen, D. J., PonTell, S., Romine, V., & Motheral, S. W. (1997). Opportunities for Cooperative Extension and local communities in the information age. Journal of Extension, 35(5), n5.

TRYON, E., ROSS, J.. A Community-University Exchange Project Modeled after Europe’s Science Shops. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, North America, 16, May. 2012. Available at: <http://openjournals.libs.uga.edu/index.php/jheoe/article/view/795>. Date accessed: 16 Apr. 2014.

V, R. S., Hall, A., & Kalaivani, N. J. (2012). Necessary , But Not Sufficient : Critiquing the Role of Information and Communication Technology in Putting Knowledge into Use. The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension, 18(4), 331–346.