PERCEIVED IMPORTANCE OF ICT TOOLS BY THE SAAOs FOR EXTENSION SERVICE IN DINAJPUR DISTRICT

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to determine perceived importance of ICT tools by the SAAOs for extension services. Data were collected from the SAAOs of five upazilas of Dinajpur district during 01 to 25 May 2018. The sample size of the study was 72 and which was drawn from a population of 150 using random sampling technique. The perceived importance of ICT tools by the SAAOs was the focus issue of this study. For collecting data structured interview schedule were used. The perceived importance of ICT tools was the focus issue of this study and it was measured by computing a composite effect score based on each of the eight selected characteristics, were: age, service experience, attitude towards ICT tools, cosmopoliteness, innovativeness, planning orientation, frequency of use of ICT tools and effectiveness in using ICT tools. Each of the selected characteristics was discussed and analyzed properly. A number of characteristics of the farmers were selected as the factors for measuring perceived importance of ICT tools and was measured by standard techniques. Correlation test was used to ascertain the relationships between the focus issues and the selected characteristics. More than three-fifths (68.06 percent) of the SAAOs had perceived medium importance followed by (25.00 percent) SAAOs had perceived low importance and only 6.94 percent SAAOs had perceived high importance of the ICT tools for extension service. Out of eight selected characteristics cosmopoliteness, innovativeness, planning orientation, frequency of using ICT tools and effectiveness of ICT tools were found significant positive relationship with perceived importance of ICT tools. But age, service experience and attitude towards ICT tools had no relationship with perceived importance of ICT tools.