National eXtension Initiative

As of July 7, 2009, more than 10,300 of all approximately 15,000 Cooperative Extension Service professionals had eXtension IDs. We’re working to increase that number to 100 percent!

One of the first steps to being fully engaged with the eXtension initiative is to create this eXtension ID. By doing so you’ll be allowed to work in the eXtension collaborative space, you can become a member of one of nearly 40 Communities of Practice, and you’ll be registered to receive routine email updates on the initiative.

If you don’t have your ID yet, it’s a simple process! Just go to
http://people.extension.org and you’ll be taken to the registration page.

Encourage your friends and colleagues in Cooperative Extension to do so today!

The next Institutional Team meeting for 2009 will be Tuesday, July 21. All Institutional Team meetings run from 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. EASTERN Time and are held at: http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/teammeeting/. There will be one more Institutional Team meeting in 2009:

* December 1

For more information contact Terry Meisenbach at tmeisenbach@extension.org.

eXtension will host its third of four national web conferences in 2009 on Wednesday, July 8, 2009. All web conferences are held via Connect at the following web address: http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/teammeeting/ from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. EASTERN time.

These web conferences serve as a means of updating Cooperative Extension faculty and staff on the current status of the initiative.

Registration is now available for the eXtension National Conference, October 20-23, 2009 in St. Louis, MO. More than 80 proposals for roughly 50 concurrent session slots have been received. Proposals chosen will be featured in future announcements. At this time eXtension can announce that one keynote speaker will be Bob Johansen, author of Leaders Make the Future: Ten New Leadership Skills for an Uncertain World. A second featured speaker will be Russ Roberts, CEO and founder of Russ Roberts, Limited, a management consultant and executive coach for both Fortune 500 companies and start ups. We expect additional speakers to be announced shortly.

The early registration ($225) deadline is September 20, 2009. Registration after September 20, 2009 is $300. Daily registration is also available as follows:

Tuesday – $50
Wednesday – $125
Thursday – $125
Friday – $50

Click here to register

ALL participants MUST register and pay the registration fee. Cancellations for conference registrations received in writing (or email) on or before October 2, 2009 will be refunded in full minus a $25 processing charge. NO refunds will be given after this deadline.

The National eXtension Conference will be held at:

Sheraton Westport Lakeside Chalet
191 Westport Plaza, St. Louis, MO
Reservations – 800-822-3535
Room Rate – $129 single or double
Meeting/Group Name – National eXtension Conference
Room block held until September 21, 2009

eXtension is pleased to announce the formation and call for nominations for the first national eXtension Community of Practice Awards. The awards presentations will occur at the National eXtension Conference, October 20-23, 2009 in St. Louis, Missouri. (For additional conference information see: http://about.extension.org/wiki/2009_eXtension_National_Meeting)

In the five years since the formation of eXtension in the summer of 2004, and its public launch in February of 2008, so many individuals and teams have accomplished so much across the county. The eXtension Governing Committee has decided it is time to begin recognizing outstanding contributions to eXtension with the eXtension Community of Practice Awards. As eXtension continues to grow and develop, additional national awards will be added as appropriate.

National eXtension awards for Communities of Practice will be presented in three categories:
1. Outstanding Community of Practice – One awarded annually. Award to include $5000 awarded to the Community of Practice budget.
2. Community of Practice Achievement Awards – No more than three individual awards presented annually. Award to include $1500 in travel budget to attend and present eXtension information at national/ professional meeting(s) of his/her choice.
3. Community of Practice Partnership Awards – No more than three awarded annually.

Nomination guidelines and evaluation criteria can be viewed at: http://about.extension.org/wiki/National_eXtension_Awards

The Cooperative Extension System has begun an effort to help all Americans facing financial uncertainty to move toward success in these challenging times. Extension colleagues across the country are being asked to review their financial management programs for individuals/families, youth, farm & ranch, and communities and to submit their best work to a national directory. This directory, entitled MiTTNet, will be available in late July for Extension professionals to access as they work with clientele.

The Managing in Tough Times initiative, a collaboration between ECOP, CSREES/USDA, and eXtension, has brought together teams of professionals in personal finance, ag finance and risk management, youth development, and community resource development, as well as communications and marketing, evaluation, and information technology to build this directory.

The MiTT initiative is moving forward under the leadership of Lyla Houglum, Director of Special Initiatives and Western Region Extension Executive Director, lyla.houglum@oregonstate.edu, Jane Schuchardt, National Program Leader, Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, USDA, jschuchardt@csrees.usda.gov, or Tom Coon, ECOP Programs Sub-Committee and Michigan State University Extension Director, coontg@msu.edu. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact any of them.

For another month, eXtension’s Virtual News Room has set another record with 311 releases from 37 universities posted on 33 different topic areas:

Releases by Source

Ohio State University–26
North Dakota State University–23
University of Arkansas–22
Iowa State University–21
Texas AgriLife Extension–19
Kansas State University–18
University of Illinois–16
University of Minnesota–14
Oklahoma State University–12
Purdue University–11
University of Nevada–11
Cornell University–10
Mississippi State–10
University of Nebraska–9
University of Kentucky–8
University of Missouri–8
South Dakota State–7
University of California–6
University of Georgia–6
Oregon State University–5
Penn State University–5
Louisiana State University–4
North Carolina Extension–4
New Mexico State University 3
University of Idaho–3
University of Maine–3
Utah State University–3
Alabama Extension–2
Michigan State University–2
Montana State University–2
Virginia Cooperative Extension–2
Florida Cooperative Extension–1
Rutgers University–1
University of Massachusetts–1
University of New Hampshire–1
Washington State University–1
West Virginia State University–1
Original releases–1
Other sources–9

TOTAL–311

Releases on eXtension by Topics

Horticulture–41
Corn, soybeans–39
Families food fitness–31
Personal finance–23
Dairy cattle–17
Parenting–16
Beef cattle–15
Entrepreneurship–12
Disasters–11
Horses–9
Family caregiving –9
Cotton industry–7
Organic production–7
Geospatial–6
Science, engineering, technology–6
Surviving wildfire–6
Food safety–6
Bee health–6
Urban integrated pest management–5
Animal manure management–4
Swine–4
Ag energy–4
Wildlife damage management–3
Fire ants–3
Diversity–3
Goat–3
Small meat processors–3
Land use planning–3
Freshwater aquaculture–3
Drinking water–2
Small companion animals–2
Ag law–1
Marine fisheries–1

eXtension is pleased to announce a new Community of Practice – Omega-3. Debrah M. Palmer, Rutgers University, provides leadership for this community. This Community is intent on sharing information about omega-3 fatty acids (n-3s). N-3s, and in particular fish and fish oils, have been frequently highlighted in the news in the last few years. Myriad health benefits associated with increased intake of this nutrient have been suggested or implied. However, while some of the health claims made have substantial scientific support, other claims are still questionable due to limited scientific testing. Additionally, differences in types, forms, and amounts of n-3s needed for health must be discerned.

This Community of Practice, largely comprised of scientists from a multi-state project that has been supported by USDA for more than 30 years, will take existing and newly emerging research-based, peer-reviewed information about n-3 fatty acids and compile it into a centralized, consumer-centered, and trustworthy source of information in the eXtension educational environment.

The Families, Food, and Fitness Community of Practice officially launched content in June. The Families Food and Fitness Community of Practice will provide education and skills to help families make informed decisions about healthy eating and physical activity by providing them with evidence (science/research) – based information and learning opportunities through eXtension. Families Food and Fitness is organized around three goals for the Community of Interest:

* Improve diets;
* Increase physical activity; and
* Maintain body weight in a healthy range and avoid excess weight gain.

Initially, the content of the website will be focused on six key behaviors that have been identified in the literature to be association with maintaining and achieving a healthy body weight:

1. Move More Everyday
2. Tame the Tube
3. Control Portion Size
4. Enjoy More Fruits and Vegetables
5. Prepare More Meals at Home
6. Re-Think Your Drink

eXtension’s professional development opportunities are open to all Cooperative Extension faculty, staff and employees. No pre-registration is required. Please share this announcement with others and encourage them to pick a topic and try it out!

30-MINUTE SESSIONS
This month we are offering 30-Minute Sessions on a several topics including the much asked, “Why Can’t Google Find My Stuff?” as well as the Ask eXtension widget, Moodle, Ning, and profiles in the Extension directory, People. Give us 30 minutes and we’ll teach you something useful! These sessions will be held at our Web Conferencing Center at http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/learn and your telephone. Plan to join the session 5 minutes before the starting time. Each session will be held at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time (1:00 p.m. CT, Noon MT, 11:00 a.m. PT, 10:00 a.m. AT; 8:00 a.m. HT) unless otherwise noted.

* July 7 at 2:00 p.m. ET, a 30-Minute Session on Why Can’t Google Find My Stuff? by Kevin Gamble, eXtension. We get asked on almost a daily basis, “Why can’t I find my article when I search for it with Google” (or any other search engine). This session will hone in on the major reasons content is not found, and discuss concrete things you can do to try to fix the situation. Warning: Some of it you may not want to
hear. (For all Extension).

* July 14 at 2:00 p.m. ET, a 30-Minute Session on The Ask eXtension Widget - Aaron Hundley, eXtension Software Engineer. How to use the Ask eXtension widget to receive and answer questions directly from your county Extension web site or Extension-related blog. This widget adds question asking capabilities to your site, but uses the power of the eXtension Ask an Expert and FAQ systems to assist you in
answering. Take questions from your clients, and use the 40,000 questions in the FAQ system to assist you in providing a timely and accurate answer. Check out the widget-tracking feature that allows you to name the widget and monitor questions coming from your site. Also learn about the widget routing capability that will allow you to have questions routed to you from your widgets. This session will introduce you to the tool, show you the latest features developed, and will discuss what is necessary to begin using it immediately in your own county sites and blogs with helpful tips. (For all Extension)

* July 22 at 2:00 p.m. ET, a 30-Minute Session on Moodle Courses, by Jennifer Jahedkar, Texas AgriLife Extension, Extension eLearning. In that session, she’ll show examples of different types of courses and show how the pages and the settings are organized and arranged to better accommodate different topics and better reach different learners. (for all Extension)

* July 23 at 2:00 p.m. ET, a 30-Minute Session on Discussion and Q/A of the Ask eXtension Widget, by Aaron Hundley, eXtension Software Engineer. If you are currently participating in answering questions that come from any of the Ask eXtension Widgets, this will be a great discussion to be involved in. This session will focus on answering questions that you might have on the Ask eXtension Widget or the Ask an Expert system in general. We’ll share tips and recommendations for using the Ask an Expert system and discuss surrounding topics. (For all Extension)

* July 28 at 2:00 p.m. ET, a 30-Minute Session on Your Profile in People, by Beth Raney. The Extension Directory at https://people.extension.org is valuable in helping the people in extension find each others in a variety of ways. It’s important to update your profile to include your interests, areas of expertise, social networks, etc. Come for a tour and suggest how you may use it. (for all Extension)

* July 29 at 2:00 p.m. ET, a 30-Minute Session on Using Ning Groups to Improve Learning in Extension Programs, by John Dorner, NCSU. Social networking is a great way to continue the educational process after the classroom – where the real learning takes place. Ning.com is a tool that is very easy to use and could be used to augment many Extension programs to help achieve better results (participant learning). This session will show you how to create a Ning group for your programs and discuss how it can be used. Ning has lots of features that Facebook has, but with some tools and features that make it more appealing for using in an extension educational program. (For all Extension)

OTHER SESSIONS
* July 15 at 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. ET, Meet-up of Ask an Expert Question Wranglers. Want to help people find answers to their questions? Work with your Extension colleagues from across the country? Help to serve Extension clientele in a new and exciting way? Become an eXtension Question Wrangler! We have opportunities for our public to ask questions through our “Ask an Expert” system, but in order to ramp-up this effort we need good people to volunteer to help make this a reality. If you think this is something you’d like to do please join us to talk about how we can handle this together. (For all who have signed up as Question Wranglers… or to sign up, go to https://people.extension.org/communities/38 and Join). This session will be held at our Web Conferencing Center at http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/learn.

SECOND LIFE
Second Life is an immersive 3-D virtual environment, inhabited by over a million users from all over the world. You can learn to use Second Life to meet with colleagues, to create 3-D models that would be too expensive or impossible to make in reality, to provide guest speakers for a real life group, to teach using role play or group problem solving, to make content in your subject area available to a worldwide audience. This is an emerging and transformative technology, much like the early days of the Internet, and is expected to change the way most people experience web content within the next five years.

In Second Life, you will find that eXtension has a virtual fairground, a model county office, and projects in development on assistive technology, turf grass, pest management, and more. In Teen Second Life, we have Bailey Island available for any 4-H educator to use for programming. Each month eXtension hosts several community events in Second Life. It is best to spend two or three hours orienting yourself to the Second Life environment before attending an event. You should know how to walk, sit, chat, use voice, and teleport.

Instructions for entering Second Life are here: http://collaborate.extension.org/wiki/Cooperative_Extension_Second_Life_Educators

LuAnn Phillips, Second Life educator, is available to assist you, and can be reached at luann.phillips@extension.org or by instant message to Thynka Little in Second Life.

Please consider joining the Facebook group “Cooperative Extension Second Life”.

July Second Life Events:
* July 9, Second Life Roundtable 2:30-3:30 p.m. ET — web conference, meet
at http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/learn
Topic: Visioning session. A functional “virtual county extension” in Second Life: What? When? How? …. And why?

* July 10, Second Life Meetup — 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. SL time (Pacific), 2:00-3:30 p.m. ET. Meet at the Virtual State Fair, Morrill Island, in Second Life http://slurl.com/secondlife/Morrill/118/180/24 Topic: Tour of Rochester Institute of Technology Island

* July 20, Avatar Express 9:00-10:00 a.m. Second Life Time, Noon-1:00 p.m. ET. Freebie treasure hunt, collect avatar customization freebies from
leading SL designers. Meet at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland/60/46/21

* July 24, Second Life Meetup — 11:00 a.m. -12:30 p.m. SL time (Pacific), 2:00-3:30 p.m. ET. Join us to tour the Nonprofit Commons, the SL home of more than 30 nonprofit organizations. Finish up at Real Waves, a virtual swimming experience. Meet at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Morrill/118/180/24

Add these dates & topics to your calendar, and plan to join us on for one or more of these sessions in July!!

TO PARTICIPATE in any of the sessions held in our Web Conferencing Center…
1. Five minutes before the start time, go to our Web Conferencing Center meeting room at http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/learn.

2. You will be presented with a login screen that has an “Enter as Guest” option.

3. Enter your first name, your last name, and your institution/university, then click the “Enter Room” button to join the conference.

4. To hear the audio of the workshop and participate in the Q&A portion of the workshop we will be using a built-in teleconferencing capability of Adobe’s Connect Pro conferencing software. Once you log into the meeting you will be presented with the option to enter your callback number, your phone will automatically be called. After entering your number you will be automatically called and joined into the audio portion of the Web conference on your phone.

EMAIL LIST:
If you or a colleague would like to get notices about upcoming professional development sessions offered by eXtension, go to https://people.extension.org/communities/learn and Click “Join Community.

RECORDINGS:
Recordings of many past professional development sessions can be found at the main eXtension wiki at http://about.eXtension.org/wiki and scroll down under Professional Development heading and find “Recordings of eXtension Professional Development Sessions”, or search on the word Recordings.

Looking forward to having you join us to learn something new in July!!

In an effort to expand our approaches to identify appropriate Communities of Practice that are relevant to the Extension system, a national survey was conducted of Extension field faculty/educators. The purpose of the survey was to engage all Extension field faculty/educators in identifying issues/topics they feel may be appropriate for developing new Communities of Practice.

A total of 985 responses were received from 62 land grant institutions. As to the issues/topics identified, there was some consistency across regions. Perhaps most striking was that many of the issues/topics are already addressed, or will be addressed, by existing and planned Communities of Practice. The only issues/topics among the top 12 overall that appeared not to be directly addressed are volunteers, weed control, sustainable agriculture, leadership, and agriculture marketing. However, some of these may be covered in existing and planned Communities of Practice. It is encouraging to note that a majority of respondents indicated that they would be willing to participate in a Community of Practice. And while a fair number indicated that they didn’t know, only a very small percentage said no.

We encourage all Extension staff to become more engaged in eXtension by participating in our current Communities of Practice, or just by going to www.extension.org

We have a wealth of information and educational resources to share. To participate, just go to the following website and get engaged.

https://people.extension.org/

To see the full report, go to the following website.

http://about.extension.org/wiki/Identifying_Needs-based_Issues_for_New_eXtension_Communities_of_Practice

For further information, please contact Michael Lambur, mike.lambur@extension.org