Knowledge and use of Information Communication Technology by the Scientists

The present study was undertaken to ascertain the knowledge of scientists regarding ICT, its use by them in teaching, research and extension and problems being faced by them in the use of ICT. A sample of 200 scientists working in teaching, research and extension system of the PAU was drawn by using probability proportional to size (PPS) sampling technique. The data were collected by using distributed questionnaire approach. The findings of the study revealed that majority of the scientists were male, had Ph.D educational qualification and belonged to farming family and were in age group of 44 to 56 years, hailed from rural families, were Associate Professors, most of them belonged to total annual income group of 7-11 (lakhs Rs.) and had service experience of 7-15 years with two trainings. The findings of the study further indicated that two-third of the scientists had high level of knowledge of ICT mainly for the purpose of computer information retrieval or data updating while more than half of them had experience in computer use up to 5 years. It was further noticed that among various ICT facilities available, Internet accessing had an added advantage of its ready availability as compared to other ICT tools. The major problem faced by the scientists in the use of computers was the lack of regular training. Therefore, they suggested that scientists should be trained regularly from time to time.