One view on possible uses of tech, changes in engagement and so on for cooperative extension.

1. Reimaging Extension
Education
Exploring the impact of technology and culture on tradition and practice.
Paul Treadwell, April 2014

2. We are slow to change…
 Multiple factors inhibit change within the system
 Economics/Funding
 Culture
 Risk avoidance
 Fear of change
 Tradition
 Inertia

3. 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

4. Fearless imagining
Let’s spend some time in fearless
imagining
http://www.donaldedavis.com/PARTS/allyours.html

5. Facilitating learning
Is topic area expertise necessary?
Is it enough to be able to facilitate learning?

6. 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

7. Peer to peer
 Technology has expanded
participation in knowledge
creation
 Can we engage as peers?

8. 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.

9. 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

10. 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/j
heoe/article/view/795>. Date accessed: 16
Apr. 2014.

11. Mobile
 Bringing access to the excluded

12. 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/

13. Challenges for our future
 Funding –
 public private?
 Digital divide – still a factor
 Digital literacies
 Rapid pace of change
 Maintaining fidelity to mission

14. 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.