A national assessment of secondary agriculture teachers' perceptions of and use of the Internet

The purpose of this study was to identify barriers and factors involved in the adoption of Internet technologies into secondary agricultural education. Specifically, this study attempted to identify factors related to the adoption of and Internet use by agriculture teachers in secondary programs. A secondary purpose was to investigate relationships between Internet use and selected demographic characteristics of agriculture teachers.;Internet use factors were assessed by surveying 708 secondary agriculture teachers in 12 states. Findings from the study indicated limited Internet use by agriculture teachers and students (as perceived by students) in secondary programs (41%). Demographic factors such as age and years of teaching experience were not found to influence teachers' use of the Internet. Additionally, low use of e-mail and the World Wide Web in classroom activities was also documented.;Agriculture teachers' responses to factors discouraging Internet use were indifferent, overall. However, factors encouraging Internet use were found to have correlations with actual Internet use. The themes identified that encourage Internet use included: support and training for Internet use; access to the Internet; and equipment necessary for Internet use.;A stepwise discriminant analysis model was created to isolate variables that could classify agriculture teachers as Internet users and non-users. Nine independent variables were entered into the discriminant equation and the final model included five variables. These five variables collectively explained 46% of the variance in the dependent variable, Internet use. Three variables classifying agriculture teachers' Internet use were encouraging factors: reliable access; have equipment needed to access the Internet; and work with colleagues that use the Internet. One discouraging factor was also found to classify agriculture teachers' Internet use: not able to operate software. Recommendations included the need for securing Internet access and equipment for agriculture teachers, and support of Internet training for local leaders.