Abstract:
The founding of the Internet largely bypassed the Land Grant Universities, as initial development was focused at Defense Department laboratories and a small number of related institutes at elite research universities. Colleges of Agriculture (CoA) embraced the technologies and, perhaps due to more adequate funding, were often among the leading units to adopt computer technology in their respective universities. This paper considers some of the possibilities of Internet technologies for teaching. The primary objective is to illustrate how Internet usage has evolved to become an essential tool for facilitating teaching efforts. Internet technology positively impacts instruction in the CoA by being fashionable and attractive to students; helping to increase collaborative work and cross institution communication; it is ideally suited for remote learning; and it is suitable for accessing resources and various media. The benefits center on the sharing of instructional materials and the ready availability of source material photographs, diagrams, data to augment lecture materials. Instructors have an expanded ability to interact with their students, to receive feedback, to supplement lecture material, and coordinate course activities through e-mail. Important cautions about the Internet relate to instructor control of course materials, plagiarism, proper attribution of source material, and the time demands associated with student chat sessions, e-mail, and Website maintenance. Expectations for use of Internet resources must be balanced by realistic appraisal of the benefits to be derived given the time investment required, the supporting resources available, and the opportunity costs to instructors relative to other responsibilities.
The Internet has become a daily tool for communication and information retrieval among College of Agriculture (CoA) faculty (Dahlgran, 2003). Many new Internet possibilities for information sharing, networking, and problem solving have significant implications for teaching, research, and extension. We first trace some of the development and spread of the Internet in the CoA context. The paper then considers some of the consequences and cautions of these technologies for the conduct of teaching activities.
Keywords:
internet instruction
 Download Article | [ ] | 80 kB |
