Search

While it presents many opportunities, the National FFA Organization faces a variety of obstacles toward achieving a more diverse membership. Research has recognized the role of social identity, or the way a person perceives belongingness to a larger group, in how individuals select groups for hopeful inclusion. Photos indicate who is part of a group and can elicit attitudes and emotions toward an organization. Recent statistics show teenager use of Instagram, a mobile photo sharing application, has increased while other social media applications have declined. This qualitative study analyzed the frequency and themes presented by state FFA associations through their Instagram accounts to promote a diverse membership through an ethnographic approach. A total of 434 Instagram posts featuring diversity were identified throughout the 52 state FFA associations. Of those, state FFA associations with a minimum of 25% overall diversity posts were further analyzed to determine themes. The most common theme within the diversity posts was "participation," which included student involvement in contests, conventions, or conferences. This study illustrates variability in the diversity efforts of state FFA associations in their Instagram accounts, and the need to highlight and promote a diverse membership on a consistent and intentional basis.

Educational technology continues to expand with multi-user virtual environments (e.g., Second Life™) being the latest technology. Understanding a virtual environment's usability can enhance educational planning and effective use. Usability includes the interaction quality between an individual and the item being assessed. The purpose was to assess the usability of "AgriCulture Island" in Second Life™ to identify possible issues, understand of the severity of these issues, and how they could be effectively addressed in order to use Second Life™ as a teaching tool. The framework allowed the identification of constructs that further defined usability related to assessing a virtual environment. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed including pre/post questionnaires, observations, and a focus group session. The study engaged 12 participants during summer 2012 from a college of agriculture. Findings revealed that participants accepted Second Life™ more after initial exposure. Additionally, participants indicated the experience felt "real" and they could sense others in the environment. Observation data provided a picture of participant interaction with the virtual environment. Elements documented were assistance needs, satisfaction, confusion, and deviation from task. The importance of understanding educational technology usability cannot be underestimated. This study adds to the educational technology literature and provides recommendations for use.

Each year, approximately 1.3 million students fail to graduate from high school. One of the reasons cited for dropping out is a lack of connection to the school environment. One way students can connect to their school is through programs and organizations at their school. While there are a large variety of programs in schools that have the potential to promote school connectedness among its students, the parallels to the school connectedness promotion factors present in the foundational principles of agricultural education evoke further investigation. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence that school connectedness promotion factors (i.e. adult support, peer group, commitment to education, and environment) in agricultural education programs have on students' sense of school connectedness. This study utilized a two-phase sequential mixed methods design in which the qualitative data helped explain or build upon the initial quantitative results. The quantitative phase revealed approximately 45% of the variance of the school connectedness scale in the sample can be accounted for by the linear combination of promotion factor measures. The themes from the qualitative phase closely aligned to the school connectedness promotion factors discussed in the quantitative phase with a few additions and modifications recommended.

The incorporation of hot and cold food bars into grocery stores in an effort to capture a portion of the home meal replacement industry is presenting new challenges for retail food establishments. To ensure retail success and customer safety, employees need to be educated in food safety practices. Traditional methods of training are not meeting the needs of the retail food industry. Although many food safety training programs exist, few meet the educational needs of hot and cold food bar employees. In an effort to determine the effectiveness of traditional training methods for employees, a quasi-experimental study was performed. Data was collected from three separate chains within the retail food industry from six geographical locations. The pre-post assessment study utilized an interventional training and included collecting questionnaires from 300 employees. Findings of the study described characteristics of employees within each chain individually and collectively. Food safety knowledge was assessed by comparing pre-training and post-training assessments for managerial and non-managerial employees. The most important finding for this study was determining the change in essential food safety knowledge of employees after traditional food safety training was conducted for managerial employees within the treatment stores and comparing that change to the change that occurred in the control groups.

This study sought to determine the factors that influenced student decisions to participate in FFA in a rural school and their level of involvement as an FFA member. Data was collected from 2,111 high school students in 41 rural high schools in Arizona, Florida, and Texas. Discriminant analysis identified four factors that influence participation in FFA in the respondents: high school GPA, participation in on-campus (non-Career/Technical organizations) activities, agreement with the statement "Leadership activities have made me a more confident person," and the student's year in school. Factors identified that influenced the level of involvement in FFA by the respondents were: involvement in on-campus athletics, involvement in on-campus (non-Career/Technical organizations) activities, high school GPA, and agreement with the statement "My friends would think less of me." Future research is recommended, including a replication of this study with urban students. (Contains 1 figure and 9 tables.)

Technology has the potential to improve education but only if it is applied with purpose and consideration of the audience. Understanding technology's role in education goes beyond the comparison of tools; there is a need to better understand student acceptance of technology so appropriate educational scaffolding and support can be provided. The absence of technology acceptance can become a barrier to the adoption, successful implementation, and use of new technologies. Therefore, the theoretical framework was based on technology acceptance. Described in this study is agricultural students' acceptance and readiness to use specific technologies (i.e., Second Life[TM], social networking, Twitter[TM], and content management systems) as educational tools. The population was all students enrolled in eight courses at Texas A&M University during the Fall 2010 semester. A total of 716 completed surveys were analyzed. Findings revealed that students perceive each of the technologies studied (i.e., Second Life[TM], social networking, Twitter, and content management systems) as unique entities that vary in regard to acceptance. Students overwhelmingly accept content management systems as a useful educational technology while Second Life[TM], Twitter[TM], and social networking are familiar but not as accepted. Findings reinforce the importance of instructors finding specific methods to successfully implement technology-specific educational tools. (Contains 1 figure and 9 tables.)

A study explored the occupational aspirations of 300 (of 503) students with high levels of participation in Future Farmers of America's (FFA) Computers in Agriculture (CIA), Proficiency Award (PA), and Prepared and Extemporaneous Speaking (PES) contests. CIA and PES winners aspired to professional occupations more than PA winners. PES winners aspired to agricultural occupations, CIA winners preferred nonagricultural positions. (JOW)

Experiential learning allows students to connect previous experiences with new ideas. Second Life (SL) is a virtual world that allows students to simulate real-world experiences. SL was utilized as an educational tool in an agricultural risk and crisis communications course. Weekly journal entries pertaining to the SL simulation were analyzed to understand the students' perceptions of the SL simulation. Content analysis within the qualitative research paradigm was used to analyze the student reflective journals. Although not prompted to do so, 14 of the 16 students discussed the SL simulation in their journals on at least three occasions throughout the semester. Upon analysis of the Second Life-related journal entries, six main themes emerged-simulation context, anxiety, capabilities, inabilities, Aha! moments, and suggestions for future simulations. Based on findings from this study, one can conclude that many students involved in the course under study found value in the use of SL as an educational tool. Student comments revealed a strong sense of application in the experiential process. This study sought to document best practices for SL as an educational tool in agricultural courses from the student perspective to allow more efficient and effective adoption for education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States' food supply is among the safest in the world; yet, consumers are becoming increasingly concerned with the safety of the food supply as the number of food recalls and the related media coverage has increased. The purpose of this study was to determine the preferred food safety information sources and delivery channels of Lubbock, Texas residents. A random sample of Lubbock's residents received a mailed survey instrument with 203 (52.9%) responding to the study. Results revealed that print information (including cookbooks), friends and family members and Internet websites were the most likely sources/channels that respondents would use to gain food safety information. None of the information sources studied were completely trusted by the respondents with significant differences found on the demographic variables of age, level of education, presence of children in the home, and ethnicity. Recommendations included a further examination of trust as a factor in food safety information and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many Extension professionals work with journalists in order to get their message out to various stakeholders. Some develop agricultural resource tools for the media. The study reported here examined coverage of cotton articles from 534 Texas newspapers following the dissemination of the CottonLink(c) media resource tool. An overall increase was found in the number of articles, newspapers, and circulation size after the dissemination of the CottonLink(c) media resource tool, while a decrease was found in the number of judgment sentences during the study. Additional research is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]