Integrating the Web into Existing Extension and Educational Technology
R. Daniel Lineberger*
Department of Horticultural Sciences
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
World Wide Web -- Accessible, Affordable, Accountable Electronic Information System
How The Web Works
The Power of the Written Word and The Importance of Peer Review
Evolution of Information Delivery Media
Beyond the Written Word -- Unique Capabilities of the Web
Impediments to the Broad Scale Adoption of Web Technology
The Narrow Part of the Funnel -- Preparing Information for Web Delivery
Keeping the County-level Delivery System in Place?

Abstract

Recent studies by academic, extension and private foundation "think tanks" have reaffirmed the land grant philosophy as an important component of American society in the twenty-first century (UICES, 1996). Successful land grant systems will have more closely integrated educational, research and extension programs characterized as more ACCESSIBLE, AFFORDABLE, and ACCOUNTABLE than current models. The World Wide Web affords the land grant professional an information delivery/teaching system that conforms to the three As. Web technology is evolving rapidly, necessitating continuous and rapid adaptation by information providers (Lineberger, 1996 a,b; Rhodus and Hoskins, 1996). The availability of low cost, user friendly Web access through home TVs promises to upset the existing paradigms of extension information delivery through county offices and undergraduate instruction exclusively in the campus classroom. Some land grant professionals have adopted Web technology as a tool to deliver educational programs and coursework; however, the vast majority have not. Most faculty continue to distribute information in a printed form, citing as justification the very steep learning curve and time involved in formatting materials for electronic delivery. We have emphasized the need for life-long learning to our clientele and students; we must heed our own advice. The transition from a paper-based, county-centered extension delivery system and campus classroom-oriented undergraduate educational system is being facilitated by satellite and compressed video conferencing, and Web server networks. Faculty must develop the ability to integrate appropriate technology into their own programs, since it is clear that the "efficient" land grant systems of the future will not provide them with the support personnel to do it for them.

A technology becomes "integrated" when members of a community have a difficult time remembering how life proceeded in its absence. The author and his contemporaries are the last generation to know how communication was before the telephone was in every home and the television had become the focus of family life. Travel without the automobile or the airplane is a concept foreign to most residents of the developed world today. Just as the "constancy of change" is a certainty, so is the advance of technology.

The evolution of the World Wide Web has been documented in several excellent works (Hughes, 1994; Rhodus and Hoskins, 1996; Wright, 1997). The World Wide Web began in 1989 (Hughes, 1994; Wright, 1997), but in reality much of what we know as "the Web" began in 1993 with the development of the web browser, Mosaic, by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois (Rhodus and Hoskins, 1996). Whether you regard Tim Berners-Lee or Marc Andreesson as the "father of the Web" is an academic debate; the fact that the Web exists, that it has grown to be an international resource, and that it has been widely adopted are the points under consideration.

How the Web works has also been the subject of several writings (Hughes, 1994; Lineberger, 1996 a,b; Rhodus and Hoskins, 1996). Most authors consider Web technology sufficiently novel as to require some explanation of how it works in the introductions to their papers. I will depart from this convention, however, and attempt to focus on the "how" and "why" of integrating Web technology into contemporary educational programs.

The Power of the Written Word and The Importance of Peer Review

The measure of accomplishment of professionals within the land grant university system is the written word. This is as true for extension and teaching professionals as it is for researchers. Quality and quantity of written materials are both important; publishing must be done early and often in one's career; writings that are peer-reviewed are looked upon more favorably than are documents prepared for classroom or clientele use.

Evolution of Information Delivery Media

Preparation and delivery of the "written word" has spawned numerous industries and career opportunities--word processors, printers, binders, mail persons, overnight delivery, librarians, etc. A finite cost is associated with each step in the process. A finite time is required to complete each of the processes.

Extension groups within the land grant system have excelled in preparation, printing and delivery of documents of all types. Elaborate hierarchies of communications specialists including graphic artists, writers, editors, and printers were employed by extension administration. Desktop publishing software and the availability of inexpensive, high quality laser printers changed much of the way documents were prepared and enabled more decentralized document distribution. However, the continued erosion of base funds by repeated budget cuts has made even decentralized document handling cost prohibitive.

The evolution in information delivery took a quantum leap with the emergence of Web technology. The World Wide Web offers real advantages to the teaching and extension components of the land grant system whose principal business is providing information:

While almost all horticulture departments have adopted some aspects of Web technology in their teaching and extension programming, only a few appear to be "integrating" the technology into their day to day operations.

Beyond the Written Word -- Unique Capabilities of the Web

Using the Web only for printing documents is like buying a 17 inch, high resolution color monitor for your computer when all you do is word processing and reading email. The capabilities of the technology far exceed those required for the intended application.

Most modern Web browsers support many different functions either with integrated software or through the use of "plug ins" and helper applications. Full motion video, recorded and live audio, electronic mail, and text searching are just a few of these capabilities. Presentation-quality slide sets can be downloaded and viewed or projected directly from a Web site. Software utilities and updates are distributed via the Web. An increasing number of computer applications that run within the browser itself are being developed using Java script technology.

Links to novel Web applications are outdated almost as soon as they are written. However, as of this writing, the links below exemplify Web sites that support functions common to the teaching and extension professions.

Search for information http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/ihound.html
Project a slide set http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/syllabi/cnotes97a/201h/lecoutlines/lecture22.html
Print a map to a location http://maps.yahoo.com/yahoo/
Find a person's phone number http://www.yahoo.com/search/people/
Purchase a computer http://www.gateway.com/
Contact the American Society for Horticultural Science http://www.ashs.org/
View current chemical labels http://www.aginfo.com/label/label.html
Read the last issue of Science http://www.sciencemag.org/
Locate an internship position http://www.hcs.ohio-state.edu/hcs/Ed/Interns.html
Download software updates http://www.info.apple.com/

Impediments to the Broad Scale Adoption of Web Technology

The major limitation preventing broad scale integration of Web technology into the classroom and extension office is the "technology phobia" and lack of technology training of land grant professionals. Prior to 1994, an argument could be made that cost and availability of user-friendly software represented a significant obstacle. Virtually every land grant professional has access to the requisite computing equipment, network connectivity, and software needed to fully integrate Web technology into his or her program. Self-help manuals for creating excellent Web resources abound (see for example the Beginner's Guide at http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html, and the style manual at http://info.med.yale.edu/caim/manual/index.html). The individual must, however, make the time commitment to learn how to use these resources efficiently.

In the same way that launching into any new venture takes valuable time from other activities, the time commitment for preparation of Web resources necessarily means something else remains not done. The perceived lack of skill in basic computer systems and operation (well deserved in some cases!) and the lack of experience with the Internet and local area networks provides more than enough justification in the minds of many to see the Web as a threat rather than an opportunity.

The Narrow Part of the Funnel -- Preparing Information for Web Delivery

When I first arrived on the scene as Head of Horticultural Sciences at Texas A&M University in 1990, I was amazed at the degree of "independent publishing" of extension publications that was underway. Specialists cited the need to get information to the clientele rapidly, and working through the communications specialists often meant delays and conformity to their schedules rather than ours. An analogy in the classroom is the creation of "study packets" that are photocopied locally and bound in lieu of the more time-consuming and expensive process of writing text books. Information is being developed faster than professionals can commit the time to getting that information formatted in printed documents. The flip side of that notion is that faculty procrastinate publishing information to such an extent that rapid-delivery technology is needed to make deadlines like the first day of class!

Professionals who are skilled in information technology can remove the "narrow part of the funnel" by taking direct responsibility for information resource preparation and delivery. While this direct information providing is often cost effective and time-efficient, it places an additional burden on the professional to master an increasingly complicated array of computing equipment and to develop outstanding communications skills, graphic as well as written, in order to have the material reflect the high standards of quality and content associated with the land grant university system. These skills must be developed in addition to, not in place of, the technical and scientific skills associated with the specialty or discipline.

In the same way that book publishers and in-house communications specialists were the "narrow part of the funnel" heretofore, the webmaster whose authority and control are absolute can become a restriction in the future. Software is already available that will allow for "distributed information providing" by individuals in an organization whose only training needs to be in how to copy and paste text from a word processor into a fill-in form on a web browser. Tim Rhodus, webmaster of Horticulture in Virtual Perspective at Ohio State University, has developed several applications around this concept including the Buckeye Yard and Garden onLine (http://www.hcs.ohio-state.edu/hcs/webgarden/BYGL/BYGLhome.html), the Online Internships for Horticulture database (http://www.hcs.ohio-state.edu/hcs/Ed/Interns.html), and Weekly Gardening News (http://www.hcs.ohio-state.edu/hcs/webgarden/WGN/WGN.html). Distributed information providing will be facilitated by the next generation release of the popular Netscape software (due to be out of beta testing in the summer of 1997). Netscape Communicator will have integrated modules for web browsing, web page creation and file transfer to the server, news group reading, email, online discussions, etc. Whether these tools are user-friendly enough to encourage faculty to become active information providers remains to be demonstrated.

Keeping the County-Level Delivery System in Place?

Some discussion should be focused on the role of the county extension office in the land grant mission.

Modern information technology allows citizens direct and rapid access to the land grant university. The county extension office is no longer required to be a local repository of printed information, and the county agent should no longer be expected to be an omniscient consultant of all problems agricultural for either the producer or homeowner.

A local extension presence is still central to the functioning of the land grant concept and therefore, a county or regional presence is indispensable. Citizen advisory groups serve a crucial role in helping to identify needs and priorities for extension and research programs, and in insuring a "shared ownership" that is important to the long term financial welfare of most of our institutions. The University of Illinois task force eloquently and succinctly stated the opportunity presented to the land grant system:

"The challenge to the College and Extension is to create a seamless organization that allows citizens access to the information and educational resources at any place in the organization appropriate to their needs.
http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/commission/recorg.html

To the extent that county level programs can function as entry points for information-seekers and can assist citizens in obtaining the information that they need in an efficient and effective manner, they will not only survive, but they will prove to be indispensable. However, where the local offices no longer can provide needed services, when information-seekers can get their information faster from other sources, they will evolve out of the system. Local offices can themselves be information providers, and indeed, many extension services are building local web sites into their network strategy. They can assist clientele by locating Web resources appropriate to local needs (ie., they can develop "road maps to the information superhighway"), and by training individuals how to use information technology efficiently.

Summary

If I had a dollar for every time someone referred to my work building Aggie Horticulture as "playing on the computer," I would indeed be a rich man! Fortunately, even early skeptics of Web technology are being converted into believers as they see its usefulness as an information providing tool. I'm not expert enough to predict how students and clientele will access the Web two years from now. After all, in 1993 one had to use a networked computer to access the web. By late 1996, Web access was enabled to television through the WebTV device and network. Now, there are "palm-top" sub-microcomputers that provide Web access. In all these technological advances, the one constant parameter has been the Web and its millions of interconnected computers serving millions of gigabytes of information to anyone in the world at any time.

Information Resources Cited

Hughes, K. Entering the World Wide Web: A Guide to Cyberspace. 1994. Pp. 1-35. Enterprise Integration Technologies, 459 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, California, USA 94301
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/wwwguide/guide.toc.html

Lineberger, R. Daniel. 1996a. Technology for the Rapid Exchange of Scientific Information via the Internet. Acta Horticulturae 434:407-412.
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/calar/calar.html

Lineberger, R. Daniel. 1996b. Scientific Information Exchange on the World Wide Web. Chronica Hort. 35:17-18.

Rhodus, T. and J. Hoskins. 1996. The Internet: Changing the Way Horticulturists Communicate. HortTechnology 6:308-313.

University of Illinois Cooperative Extension System. 1996. Report of the Chancellor's Commission on Extension, University of Illinois Cooperative Extension System
http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/commission/comreport.html

Wright, Robert. 1997. The Man Who Invented the Web. Time Magazine, May 19, 1997, Pp. 64-68.