Florida FIRST
Initiative Project Report
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University of Florida IFAS Extension is proud to
begin a program to provide professional development and mentoring opportunities
for Extension Faculty in the development of Information Technology
Mentors. In the 2000 & 2001 program
years, six County Extension Faculty members were selected for the training and mentoring
programin
mentoring for IT.
Participating
Faculty and Affiliation:
Co-Investigators:
Dr.
Pete Vergot III, District Extension Director and Dr. Fedro Zazueta, Director
Information Technologies.
Collaborators:
Six County Extension Faculty involved in an
eighteen-month training and mentoring program for the 300 County Extension
Faculty in the 67 Counties of Florida.
District I Mentor, Shep Eubanks, Holmes County CED, shep@mail.ifas.ufl.edu
District I Mentor, Dale Bennett, Wakulla
County CED, dlb@mail.ifas.ufl.edu
District II Mentor, Mike Sweat, Baker
County CED, msweat@mail.ifas.ufl.edu
District III Mentor, Russ Giesy, Sumter
County MC Agent, rgg@ifas.ufl.edu
District IV Mentor, Sydney G. Park-Brown, Hillsborough County, spb@mail.ifas.ufl.edu
District V Mentor, Mary Lamberts, Miami-Dade County, lamberts@ifas.ufl.edu
Rationale, Objectives, and
Methods:
To meet needs and demands of today’s clientele,
the University of
Florida’s IFAS is deploying a strategy that includes
improved IT skills
for County Extension
Faculty. do not have the
Information Technology skills required to meet needs
and demands of today’s clientele.
Particularly, in relationship tofor the delivery of
information using web-based technologies such as web pages, interactive video via the web, streaming video
and audio, interactive digital diagnostics and other new emerging technologies under
development.
The project objectives were were to: 1)
Iidentify and train
at least one County Extension Faculty member (0.25 FTE each) in each Extension
District, and 2) for them to act as early
Information
TechnologyIT
adopters and Mentors for to other Extension Faculty. in the Extension Districts where
University of Florida IFAS Extension Faculty have the capacity The focus was to promote the use among Extension faculty of
information
technologiesIT
as an aid
to effectively and efficiently deliver Extension programs and to develop a set
of skills desired in the following areas.
1) Web site design,
development and maintenance.
2) Use of communication facilities including e-mail,
list and chat servers, Video conferencing and shared applications.
3) Use of web facilities
provided by IFAS including FAS (Faculty plan of work and reporting system),
DDIS (Digital Distance Information System), EDIS (Extension Digital Information Source), etc.
4) The development of better
tools that are relevant and enhance the abilities of County Extension Faculty.,
5) On-going and system-wide
training in Information Technologies.
6)
Peer
conducted demonstrations with a successful track record.
Design Team Affiliation: Interdisciplinary with all IFAS Extension Design
Teams
Relationship to Florida FIRST: During the Florida FIRST conference,
many participants stated that information provided by University of Florida
IFAS must be current and available in electronic form. The information must be obtainable on demand
at any time.
Organizational Commitments – Improve efficiency in the use of
resources, develop extension methodologies that address user needs effectively,
develop program outcome indicators and accountability measures.
Project Activities, Products, Impacts and the
Future:
Activities:
Information Technology Mentors attended the
National Extension Technology Conference at Texas A&M College Station,
Texas to gain knowledge of Information Technology projects of other Land Grant
Universities. All mentors have developed a plan of work and will report their
activities in the 2001 year using the Faculty Accountability System.
Information Technology Mentors
have attended four campus-trainings to gain knowledge in Information Technology
Extension activities. Equipment for each of the Information Technology Mentors
was purchased.
Training of IFAS Extension
Faculty in all five Extension Districts during workshops and one on one
sessions were held at the County, District and State level in the areas of web
page design, development and maintenance, PowerPoint presentations, use of the
Digital Diagnostic Information System, use of the Faculty Accountability
System, use of Pocket PC’s to assist IFAS Extension clientele and interactive
desktop video via the web.
Products:
The Development of an IT
Mentor Web site at http://itmentor.ifas.ufl.edu/
containing assistance for Extension Faculty including:
Computer Technology
"Comfort Level" Survey http://itmentor.ifas.ufl.edu/survey.htm
Technology Tips
& Tricks http://itmentor.ifas.ufl.edu/techhelp/index.htm
An IT Mentors list serve ITMENTORS-L@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
Impacts:
Over
250 Extension Faculty are better prepared to respond to Information Technology
program involvement for the needs of clientele of diverse cultural, economic
and social situations.
Six
County Extension professionals have increased proficiency, energy and
commitment to improve University of Florida IFAS Extension efforts in
Information Technology and will continue as Information Technology Mentors for
IFAS Extension.
Future:
Information Technology Mentors will continue to train Extension Faculty and advanced training will continue for the Information Technology Mentors.
The development of an Information Technologies Forum at: http://forum.ifas.ufl.edu is in progress.
The development of EDIS publications on Information Technologies topics and the mentoring system are in progress.
Results of this project will be presented at:
Agricultural Communicators in
Education / National Extension Technology Conference in Toronto, Canada, July
28 - August 1. And the World Conference on Computers in Agriculture and
Natural Resources, to be held in Iguazu Falls, Brazil, September 19-21, 2001.
And at the
World
Conference on Computers in Agriculture and Natural Resources, to be held in Iguazu
Falls, Brazil,
September 19-21, 2001.
Submitted by: Dr. Pete Vergot, District Extension Director & Dr. Fedro Zazueta,
Director Information Technologies Phone: (850)
875-7137 Department / Center: Office of District Directors & IFAS Information Technologies
Email Address: vergot@mail.ifas.ufl.edu and fsz@mail.ifas.ufl.edu Web site: http://itmentor.ifas.ufl.edu/