An assessment of instructional technology in secondary agricultural education curricula in North Carolina and Virginia

Abstract

The purpose of this descriptive/correlationzil study was to evaluate instructional technology availability and use in secondary agricultural education curricula in North Carolina and Virginia. The population for this study consisted of secondary agriculture teachers in North Carolina and Virginia that were listed in the 1998-99 North Carolina Agricultural Education Director (N = 370) and Virginia Vocational Agriculture Teacher's Associatioa Directory (N = 313). Based on Krejcie and Morgan's (1970) formula for a 5% margin of error, a random sample of 242 would be required for a population of this size. The researcher based on the objectives of the study developed a survey instrument. The survey instrument was pilot tested with 40 Iowa agriculture teachers. The test-retest procedure and Cronbach's alpha were utilized to test the instrument reliability, which resulted in adequate reliability. The final mailing of the survey instrument consisted of 210 North Carolina secondary agriculture teachers and 170 Virginia agriculture teachers. After several follow-up mailings 195 surveys were received. Nonresponce error was tested with the Double-Dip procedure, only one significant difference was found. North Carolina and Virginia agriculture teachers utilized desktop computers, compact disk, laser printers, Internet, email, videotape, and television between 1-30 minutes per day for instructional purposes. Agriculture teachers also had adequate access to the aforementioned technologies. Agriculture teachers placed a high priority on computer applications such as the Internet, reference software, databases, spreadsheets, word processing, and content area tutorials/drill and practice software for daily instructional