The Development of Virtual World Tools to Enhance Learning and Real World Decision Making in the Australian Sugar Farming Industry

In farming, the outcome of critical decisions to enhance productivity and profitability and so ensure the viability of farming enterprises is often influenced by seasonal conditions and weather events over the growing season. This paper reports on a project that uses cutting-edge advances in digital technologies and their application in learning environments to develop and evaluate a web-based virtual ‘discussion-support’ system for improved climate risk management in Australian sugar farming systems. Customized scripted video clips (machinima) are created in the Second Life virtual world environment. The videos use contextualized settings and lifelike avatar actors to model conversations about climate risk and key farm operational decisions relevant to the real-world lives and practices of sugarcane farmers. The tools generate new cognitive schema for farmers to access and provide stimuli for discussions around how to incorporate an understanding of climate risk into operational decision-making. They also have potential to provide cost-effective agricultural extension which simulates real world face-to-face extension services but is accessible anytime anywhere

Virtual discussions to support climate risk decision making on farms

Climate variability represents a significant risk to farming enterprises. Effective extension of climate information may improve climate risk decision making and adaptive management responses to climate variability on farms. This paper briefly reviews current agricultural extension approaches and reports stakeholder responses to new web-based virtual world ‘discussion-support’ tools developed for the Australian sugar cane farming industry. These tools incorporate current climate science and sugar industry better management practices, while leveraging the social-learning aspects of farming, to provide a stimulus for discussion and climate risk decision making. Responses suggest that such virtual world tools may provide effective support for climate risk decision making on Australian sugar cane farms. Increasing capacity to deliver such tools online also suggests potential to engage large numbers of farmers globally

Sweet success: virtual world tools enhance real world decision making in the Australian sugar industry

Investigating the impact of a web-based, ‘discussion-support’, agricultural-climate information system on Australian farmers’ operational decision making

Virtual Discussions to Support Climate Risk Decision Making on Farms

Climate variability represents a significant risk to farming enterprises. Effective extension of climate information may improve climate risk decision making and adaptive management responses to climate variability on farms. This paper briefly reviews current agricultural extension approaches and reports stakeholder responses to new web-based virtual world ‘discussion-support’ tools developed for the Australian sugar cane farming industry. These tools incorporate current climate science and sugar industry better management practices, while leveraging the social-learning aspects of farming, to provide a stimulus for discussion and climate risk decision making. Responses suggest that such virtual world tools may provide effective support for climate risk decision making on Australian sugar cane farms. Increasing capacity to deliver such tools online also suggests potential to engage large numbers of farmers globally

Climate variability and the australian sugarcane farmer: a phenomenographic analysis of farmer experiences of managing and discussing climate risk

This research contributes to the understanding of how Australian sugarcane farmers conceive of their management of the impacts of the highly variable climate in which their businesses are situated. The historical group extension and information communication environment which support farmer discussions and consideration of climate information is described, particularly in the way in which participative Managing for Climate Risk workshops have been delivered in Queensland, Australia. The decline in the provision of traditional extension services is discussed, and the consequent opportunity that improvements in digital networks provide to augment and or replace extension services with different communication tools. Novel discussion support tools (a series of four machinima, animations produced in a virtual world format) are developed, evaluated and tested in a farmer workshop, delivered in a collaborative, social learning environment, using adult learning principles. Developmental phenomenography is used as the principal qualitative research methodology to understand and describe farmer conceptions of managing and discussing climate risk. Post-workshop survey and semi-structured interview data are analysed phenomenographically within the research to articulate the variation in farmer conceptions to related phenomena. Conclusions and recommendations for the climate science and communication community are developed which may lead to improvements in the ways that farmers are engaged and supported in their learning about managing the impacts of climate variability in the future. Additionally, the opportunity to use phenomenography as a qualitative evaluation methodology in agriculture extension programs is discussed

Climate variability and the Australian sugarcane farmer: a phenomenographic analysis of farmer experiences of managing and discussing climate risk

This research contributes to the understanding of how Australian sugarcane farmers conceive of their management of the impacts of the highly variable climate in which their businesses are situated. The historical group extension and information communication environment which support farmer discussions and consideration of climate information is described, particularly in the way in which participative Managing for Climate Risk workshops have been delivered in Queensland, Australia. The decline in the provision of traditional extension services is discussed, and the consequent opportunity that improvements in digital networks provide to augment and or replace extension services with different communication tools. Novel discussion support tools (a series of four machinima, animations produced in a virtual world format) are developed, evaluated and tested in a farmer workshop, delivered in a collaborative, social learning environment, using adult learning principles. Developmental phenomenography is used as the principal qualitative research methodology to understand and describe farmer conceptions of managing and discussing climate risk. Post-workshop survey and semi-structured interview data are analysed phenomenographically within the research to articulate the variation in farmer conceptions to related phenomena. Conclusions and recommendations for the climate science and communication community are developed which may lead to improvements in the ways that farmers are engaged and supported in their learning about managing the impacts of climate variability in the future. Additionally, the opportunity to use phenomenography as a qualitative evaluation methodology in agriculture extension programs is discussed