in meetings, publications, and more recently websites. Social learning is learning from other people, and has always been part of agricultural decision-making when farmers talk to their neighbors over the fence, or meet in the apocryphal local coffee shop. But modern agricultural networks have really diversified social learning, because there are so many more and different kinds of organizations and actors in the networks.
The Future of ICT and Agriculture Networks We can now think more directly and creatively about the role of ICT in the context of knowledge networks. ICT provides a set of tools that help build relationships between the nodes of the network, and in fact can identify and recruit new organizations and individuals to participate in the network. ICT - like social media - can reach new and more diverse sets of actors, often much more quickly than more traditional program-based meetings or personal communication. ICT may enable some actors to connect to real-time data that informs daily decision-making about irrigation, pesticide use, harvesting, or other agricultural decisions. Hence, there is great potential for ICT to help construct and build relationships in agricultural knowledge networks, and mobilize data and information in ways that enhance learning and decision- making. ICT are especially important for social learning, but can also be used to enhance technical learning (e.g.; creative websites), and experiential learning (e.g.; real-time decision support). Capitalizing on the benefits of ICT requires Cooperative Extension professionals to strategically manage their use, including avoiding the potential pitfalls. In the context of social media and other ICT, their use in
agricultural knowledge networks should follow some of the more general media strategies for attracting attention and spreading knowledge. There are many practical guides and books available regarding how to effectively market and build a reputation on social media. For example, it is important to update online materials and post on social media on a regular basis.
It may also make sense to use a portfolio of social media tools, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, because each tool reaches different (but overlapping) audiences, and delivers information in different ways.
The PEW report “Social Media Use in 2018” estimates that the median American uses three social media platforms, but user demographics vary across platforms, for example younger people are more likely to use Snapchat and Instagram. 3 Curating content to focus and develop a reputation for a particular type of expertise can help increase visibility, perhaps sprinkled with a few personal posts and ideas to connect to the common human narrative. Such use of ICT should be considered a complement, but not a substitute, for more traditional in-person meetings or other methods of delivery. Personal relationships provide another way of learning and communicating, and can also enhance the value of the ICT tools (e.g., hey, you should check out my website, or “like” my Facebook page, or “follow” me on Twitter). At the same time, Cooperative Extension professionals need to be aware of common pitfalls, such as “trolls” that cause conflict for conflict’s sake, and the potential for misinf ormation being spread around the network, either purposefully or mistakenly, because individual users cannot adequately sort fact from fiction. Cooperative Extension professionals can carefully manage their audiences and content to avoid “poking” the trolls, and also serve as gatekeepers for vetting potentially incorrect information. Like with all ICT, these pitfalls do exist for agricultural Extension and practitioners need to be aware and mitigate. But they should not be used as a justification for avoiding the use of ICT completely--global society is now linked by digital technology, and agricultural knowledge networks are evolving in the same direction. ICT are therefore a crucial tool in the learning arsenal for Extension professionals.
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