Dr. Peyton Beattie is a community resource development Extension agent in Clay County. Beattie started in the world of agriculture while working on her bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University in agriculture and Extension education. Beattie continued her education at the University of Florida with master’s and doctoral degrees in agricultural education and communication.
Beattie applies her research and expertise in utilizing instructional communication technology (ICTs) to her work. A typical day in her life involves organizing for the job preparation training program, organizing 4-H camps, working on community strategic plans, and educating and developing the community.
Digital Field Experiences (DFEs) have emerged as an innovative instructional and communication technology (ICT) model for Extension agents to engage with their target adult learner audiences.
“My dissertation is really when I started moving into the adult audience aspect and when I was looking for jobs, I enjoyed working with this adult audience piece,” said Beattie.
DFEs such as cooking classes and beehive tours have been conducted through two-way, synchronous digital platforms, enabling participants to learn and interact with experts from the comfort of their homes. The approach is a game changer and provides a unique opportunity for Extension to engage with a wider audience to promote agricultural and natural resource practices and provide at-home field experiences. DFE adoption has demonstrated its effectiveness as a tool for adult audiences engagement by Extension agents.
Beattie has helped evolve the use of ICTs in Cooperative Extension. Beattie is a Community Resource Development Agent for UF/IFAS Extension Clay County. Beattie said the community development area is newer for UF/IFAS Extension, and Florida only has four extension agents who are in 100% community development roles.
Most of Beattie’s work is focused on an adult audience whereas when she started in Extension, she originally worked with youth. Beattie started in 4-H in the state of Louisiana, while she completed her bachelor's degree in Agricultural and Extension Education and Evaluation at Louisiana State University. She then came to the University of Florida to earn her master's and doctoral degrees in the Department of Agricultural Education and Communication.
For her dissertation, Beattie examined extension agent’s adoption and use of ICTs. Instructional and communication technologies, or ICTs, are how information is imparted via technological mediums.
These technologies are a vital aspect of modern-day communication and education, as they have revolutionized the way information is conveyed and absorbed. ICTs are a wide range of tools, such as computers, tablets, smartphones, the internet, and software applications, which facilitate the exchange and dissemination of information.
Beattie surveyed Extension agents in eight different states to determine what technologies they use to deliver educational programs. Then, she randomly selected agents in Florida who scored as innovators or early adopters in the survey to further participate in her research. Each agent developed a DFE in their county that included an adult audience and a live field experience. Beattie’s dissertation occurred during the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic which somewhat affected her results.
“If I would have been a little bit sooner, we could have changed Extension a little bit,” she said.
Beattie believes that if we had these tools to communicate better on a virtual platform we would have been better prepared to educate the community during COVID-19.
During her research, Beattie learned that the use of ICTs needed to be very strategic, and the agents needed to understand what the community wanted to learn about. An agent planned a cooking show program, but unfortunately, it had to be canceled because no one in the rural community signed up for the event.
“That taught us it's for a specific audience. It's not for certain audiences,” Beattie said.
She started a pilot program and chose three agents from Florida to be a part of this program. They went through the training programs that Beattie had put together and talked about adult education and how to design lesson plans for it. Then each of them designed and created their own digital field experience with the help of Beattie.
One of the three agents was an agriculture agent, and she chose to do her digital field design on beekeeping. It was a live stream where the agent was in the classroom and went through some power points and taught some information. Then they went out to the apiary and went into a beehive so that people could see what the inside was like, and they were able to get more involved and ask questions about what they were seeing.
This is the whole idea of what instructional and communication technologies should be used for so that people can become better educated in a way that is new and accessible.
Beattie has developed a variety of remarkable technologies and resources for agricultural communicators. Her extensive knowledge in agricultural education and communications has enabled her to revolutionize the way Extension agents communicate with the community. Beattie's goal is to publish more of her work and explore new research topics to further the communication efforts of Extension agents. If you are an Extension agent searching for innovative methods to engage people, explore some of the ICTs and apply them to your program:
https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/WC397
https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/WC417