The Tuesday Letter
Agricultural Experiment Station & Cooperative Extension Service
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
(Vol. 19 No. 7)
IN THIS ISSUE...
WORD FROM THE ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR - EXTENSION AND APPLIED RESEARCH
"why" "what" and "so what". It's so important that we find ways to continuously tell our story, relating the impacts of the work we do. In meeting with County Commissioners, it struck me that they were emphasizing the importance of understanding why, why was the program a priority for Extension? Their point seemed to be that while they believed we did good work, they really wanted to understand why such work had become our priority among all other things K-State Research and Extension could be doing. And, they also made the point that it was of even greater importance that the thought/opinion leaders within the community know the priorities of local Extension.
The take home message I got from that conversation was that any time you convey your program message, make sure your message includes "why", "what", and and "so what". In the logic framework, that's situation, outputs, and outcomes. And, be sure to seek opportunities to tell that story to people throughout the community, especially those who don't or won't be involved in those local Extension programs. They may be the ones in that casual discussion with a commissioner, legislator, or other stake holder to become your great advocate because they know the what, why, and so what of your local Extension programs.
Credit for finding the following quote goes to Gregg Hadley and "his better 7/8ths":
"...the longer I live and the more experience I have of the world, the more I am convinced that, after all, the one thing that is most worth living for—and dying for, if need be—is the opportunity of making someone else more happy and more useful." -Booker T. Washington
Have a great week! --Daryl Buchholz dbuchhol@ksu.edu
KANSAS 4-H SPACETECH WICHITA TRAINING DETAILS
The Kansas 4-H SpaceTech Action Team, Kansas 4-H Youth
Development and K-State Research and Extension in Sedgwick County are
sponsoring a Southeast Area SpaceTech Educators’ Workshop on Saturday, January 26,
at the Central Community Church, 6100 West Maple in Wichita. Participants will get to attend two
in-depth entry level workshops offered in different tracks: Robotics, Rocketry, Astronomy,
GIS, and Tech Trunks.
Register by
visiting https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dG1wSThiZHY1QjZQV1pWcEhrQmRBbUE6MQ#gid=0. 4-H
members (12-19-years-old), parents, volunteer 4-H leaders, Extension staff, and
educators working with youth who are interested in 4-H science, engineering and
technology (SET) project areas. This
training is being held in the Southeast Area, but it is open to any Kansas resident
on a first-come, first-serve registration basis. Registration is limited to 20 per each
session with a minimum of 10 required for each workshop session to be
taught. No youths 11 and younger will be
accepted to this training. Consider
sending a team of youth and adults from your county/district to be trained to
take home valuable information. Parents
planning on assisting their older children during the training need to register
for the training. This training is not
designed as a parent-child 4-H project activity, but as a train-the-trainer
program.
Registration will be
on-line and closes January 15, 2013. The
registration fee of $20 includes lunch, breaks, two workshops, workshop
materials and training team costs.
For
full details, visit http://www.kansas4h.org/p.aspx?tabid=52. Registration fees are non-refundable unless KSRE cancels the workshop
due to low numbers. Checks should be
made payable to the Kansas 4-H Foundation. Submit check and Kansas 4-H Participation form to Deryl
Waldren, Northwest Area Extension Office, P. O. Box 786, Colby, KS, 67701. Telephone:
785-462-6281, or email, dwaldren@ksu.edu. --Deryl Waldren
KANSAS JUNIOR SWINE PRODUCER DAY
Kansas Junior Swine Producer Day will be held on Saturday, February 16, 2013 at Weber Arena in Manhattan. This highly interactive, hands-on educational event will be a fun filled day of activities in which youth, parents, swine project leaders and adults can increase their knowledge and experience of swine production and management practices. Presentations and demonstrations will be given by K-State graduate students and faculty, as well as our featured speaker, Kyle Baade. All participants will receive a K-State Show Pig Guide, Skillathon practice, T-shirt, and a complimentary noon lunch. Participants with registrations after February 1 cannot be guaranteed a T-shirt.
Cost is $10/person by February 1 or $15/person after February 1. There will be more than $600 in prizes given away! To view the entire brochure and registration, please visit the website, www.YouthLivestock.KSU.edu. --Kristine Clowers clowers@ksu.edu
2013 KANSAS 4-H AMBASSADOR TRAINING DETAILS
The 2013 Kansas 4-H
Ambassador Training will be February 22-23 at the Rock Springs 4-H Center. It is open to all county/district 4-H
Ambassadors, Ambassador advisors and Extension staff. The theme is “Revolution
of Leadership.” There will be an
all new “60 Seconds to Win It” activity. Exciting workshops include True
Colors Revolution, the Revolution of Leadership, The Revolution of Recruitment,
the Revolution of Games and Initiatives, and the Vibrant Video Revolution with
Greg Peterson whose video “I Farm and I Grow It” was a smashing viral success
on You Tube in 2012. We’ll also have
special workshops for all county/district advisors and Extension staff. Workshop numbers are capped, so don’t delay
in registering.
For full details, visit http://www.kansas4-h.org/p.aspx?tabid=421. Registration will be due on or before
February 1, 2013. To register,
visit http://www.kansas4h.org/p.aspx?tabid=317. For more information, please call Deryl
Waldren at 785-462-6281, or email him at dwaldren@ksu.edu.--Deryl Waldren
ASK THE OEIE EVALUATOR: EVALUATING WEBSITES AND ELECTRONIC MEDIA
Extension
professionals reach their target audiences through various forms of
communication, including websites and other electronic media. In this installment,
we will discuss how to evaluate the impact of such media on participants. This
information may be useful for any evaluation effort using technology, such as
email newsletters, websites, social media, or other online educational
materials.
Q: How can I evaluate the impact
of a website or electronic media?
Just like
evaluating any program component, the impact of websites and electronic media, like
e-newsletters and social media communication, can be measured using both
quantitative and qualitative measures.
Quantitative
measures can be utilized to assess the use and the engagement of participants
with the media. For example, one way to assess the use of a website is to count
the number of views a specific post has received. To do this you can integrate
counting or tracking mechanisms into the website. Google Analytics, www.google.com/analytics/, presents one solution, generating
statistics on website traffic.
In
order to assess participants’ engagement with website content, you can conduct counts
of discussions and sharing of the information. Such discussions and sharing are
often referred to as influence.
Examples of this type of influence are “liked” posts on Facebook or “re-tweets”
through Twitter. Thus, you can assess the engagement of participants with electronic
media with frequency counts of comments, questions, likes, re-posts, and
sharing. Tools that measure participants’ engagement or influence on social
networking sites include Klout, klout.com, and for Twitter, Twitalyzer, twitalyzer.com.
To
obtain a more complete picture of the impact of electronic media on
participants, qualitative data can be collected from those using the website,
receiving an e-newsletter, or accessing materials. You can obtain this
qualitative data through interviews, focus groups, or open-ended survey
questions. To obtain a breadth of perceptions, participants who use the media
to varying extents (e.g., daily users to one-time visitors) should be included.
Focus group, interview, and survey questions should be designed with your overarching
evaluation questions in mind. Examples of such questions may be:- How
many people are we reaching through the website?
- To
what extent are people using the available resources?
- How
did website traffic change after the addition of new content or a redesign?
- How
engaged are people with the content?
To
answer questions like these, focus groups, interviews, and open-ended surveys can
gather information about, for example: the website or electronic newsletter
components used most and least frequently, the amount of time spent engaging
with the social media, how engaged participants felt with the material, and how
participants felt components facilitated or inhibited their engagement.
If you
have any questions or feedback about evaluating the impact of websites and
electronic media, we would love to hear it! As always, we hope to refine Extension
evaluation tools so they best meet your needs, and your input is a very
valuable component in this process.
Questions about
evaluation? Visit the ExtensionEvaluation Resources website or contact Amy Hilgendorf, aehilgen@k-state.edu, 785-532-5538; or Mandi Peters, mpeters8@ksu.edu, 785-532-0648; at OEIE. --Amy Hilgendorf
MARIE'S PICKS . . .
This week my picks are success stories from Byron Evers, Flint Hills
District; and Amy Lorenzen, Golden Prairie District:
*Most of my time has been spent reacting to producer needs
caused by the summer drought. This has given me the opportunity to interact
with producers and conduct farm visits. One producer, who raises both cattle
and row crops, came to me with a question regarding safe levels of nitrate feed
and what strategies he could implement to make winter-feeding easier. After
forage results of his corn stalks and oat straw showed that the nitrate levels
of his feed sources ranged from 4,000 to 12,000 ppm, a management plan was
needed. I sat down with the producer and explained a number of feeding options.
Through grinding with prairie hay, the producer was able to dilute the high
nitrate feed to safe levels. A spreadsheet was also created for the producer to
help guide him in selecting forage proportions for his grinding mixture.
*Working with teachers in the local school districts, two programs
were developed. One was on Manners and Character, while the other was on Money
Management. By presenting these programs in USD 275-Triplains; USD
274-Oakley/St. Joseph; USD 292-Grainfield; and USD 291-Grinnell, 136 students
learned about the importance of manners, respect, saving and money management.
Working with teachers and administrators at these schools allowed me to build
my list of contacts and future stakeholders. --Marie Blythe mblythe@ksu.edu
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