Attitudes of agricultural extension' personnel towards electronic extension in Assiut governorate, Egypt

The main objectives of this paper were: determine attitudes of Personnel in agricultural extension centers (Respondents) towards utilization of Information communication technologies in extension work, determine personnel’ attitudes towards applications of e- extension (computer, internet, and mobile phone), identify attitudes of the respondents towards the electronic extension service as a final product for the use of these applications, and then to identify the problems of E- extension in Assiut Governorate, and determine the correlation between the level of the respondents' orientation towards E-extension and its applications and the independent characteristics of the researchers (age, educational qualification, training in communication and information technology, supervision space, and experience in the field of agricultural extension). The respondents' attitudes toward E-extension were determined by using 57 directional phrases that were collected from previous measures used by the same purpose Verma et. al. (2014), and Kumar and Ratnakar (2011), and these phrases are classified into five main sections: phrases that measure trends toward the use of communication and information technology in extension work (22 phrases), phrases that measure attitudes toward computer use at extension work (9 phrases), expressions measuring trends toward the use of the Internet in indicative work (14 phrases), expressions measuring trends toward mobile phone use in extension work (6 phrases), and phrases measuring electronic service (6 phrases). To measure the attitudes of the respondents, a stepwise triple scale was constructed according to Likert method, and the grades were allocated as follows (3), neutral (2) and disagree (1). This, and the degrees obtained by each respondent were collected to express the level of attitudes towards E-extension and its applications, and the total degrees of the subjects were divided according to the actual extent of the degrees. Data were collected by means of personal interview using a questionnaire prepared for this purpose. Percentages, and frequency distribution used for data processing and analysis using SPSS program. The results of the field research indicated that the attitudes of the respondents towards E-extension were positive, especially with regard to the use of the mobile phone in the extension work, and that the level of direction was high in all its applications except for electronic service as a final product of the indicative process was average, and perhaps This is due to the novelty of this service.