Piloting internet based support for farmers' situated learning

Our research has found that farmers in a highly variable climate can benefit from computer-aided discussions concerning their planning and decision making. This project investigates how to facilitate farmers’ situated learning experiences about risk management using the internet. The project was motivated by the failure of farmers to embrace traditional computer-based decision support systems (DSS). Our research found that simulation-based decision support software designed to solve farmer problems was not sufficiently meaningful in actual farming situations. But meaning could be negotiated by: (a) collaborative on-farm model evaluation by farmers and agricultural scientists; and (b) using the model flexibly in a ‘what if’ analysis and discussion (WIfAD). Farmers who originally considered models as ‘toys for scientists’ have referred to the benefits of the WIfAD as ‘getting experience fast’. We further found that the WIfAD could be successfully conducted on the internet. This poster describes the background to the problem and the ongoing research.