Abstract
The benefits of Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs) for agricultural extension purposes and activities
are obvious. The main objective of this article is to identify encouraging
and discouraging factors in application of ICTs in
agricultural extension in Isfahan province of Iran. This study
investigated areas of ICTs application by Extension Workers
(EWs), too. The research design was a descriptive method.
The population includes 320 Isfahan province EWs that 200
person were choose by census and stratified sampling methods.
In our contribution we focused on finding. Face and content
validity of the questionnaire was established using a panel of
experts consisting of faculty members in the Departments of
Agricultural Education and Extension, Tarbiat Modares University
and extension officers in the Isfahan Province Agricultural
Jihad Organization. Cronbach's Alpha to estimate the reliability
of the instrument was among 82.6 - 87.8. On the ranking of
principal areas of applying ICTs by EWs in extension “typing
letters/report”, and “prepare and protect file on process basic
agricultural and rural information”, and “access to the latest
agricultural news and information”, had most usage. The main
result of the study revealed that the EWs in the study approximately
use ICT quite a bit. For EWs ICT Encouraging Items
Principal FactorAnalysis extracted four factors which accounted
for 76.24% of the total variance. And Factor analysis for EWs
ICT discouraging Items extracted six factors which accounted
for 62.84% of the total variance.