Abstract:

Mobile application has had a considerable impact on socioeconomic development in sectors such as education, administration, business, medical care, and agriculture in recent years. Farmers will only be able to appreciate the benefits of mobile applications in agriculture if they use them. Research shows a need for agricultural universities to adjust as teaching and learning methods in the 21st century. It is required for institution of higher learning to explore beyond the provision of agronomists in the context of globalization and initiatives to reduce poverty. The incorporation of technology in teaching and learning has broadened in large scale particularly in Agriculture courses in higher education. In order to assist in solving the existing Agroindustry problems, there is a need to explore mobile applications learning and teaching strategies in education. Mobile application commonly known as mobile apps are software programs designed to run on smartphones, tablets and other devices. These applications communicate with the machine through a Wi-Fi network connection to the machine's Wireless Data Server. Mobile apps could be used in institution on higher learning to support student famers and academics to communicate more easily and foster creativity and initiatives.

This paper reports on the impact of mobile apps in Agriculture courses. Participants were 40 students registered for first year Agriculture Mechanisation and Agriculture Extension at a University of Technology in South Africa. The question posed in this study was: How was the impact of mobile apps in learning agriculture? To answer this question, qualitative case study methods was used. Data were collected by through interviews and open-ended questionnaire. Data were analysed using Atlas.ti. It was found that majority of the students used clickers and smart phone for learning. Most of the students used Google play store to download the apps relating to crop production, farm animal anatomy, Socrative, WhatsApp, Facebook, battery, stroke engine, LMS, One drive. It was also found that students experience technical challenges relating to not having access to internet, data being depleted and data loss while using their mobile devices for learning. It is recommended that the institution of higher learning provide students with access to the Internet, Wi-Fi and data bundles for their mobile devices to alleviate the connectivity issue and management system in place regarding which apps downloaded/restricted.

Keywords:

Agriculture, mobile apps, mobile devices, students, higher education.