Assessing the effect of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in educationthe role of gamification and simulations as enablers of entrepreneurial attitude in business settings

Resumo

The XXI century of human development is characterized by a strong influence of computer technologies. Nowadays it has affected almost all areas of human activities, ensuring the dissemination of information flows in society, forming a global information space. The emergence of these conditions entailed many educational institutions across all over the world to adopt Information and Communication Technology (Van der Wende and Beerkens, 1999). According to Hawkridge (1990) from educational rationale, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has possibility to improve teaching and learning; from social side, ICT gives possibility for all users to receive real time information; from catalytic rationale, ICT is expected to advance in educational innovations and from economic perspective, future workplace requires ICT skills. In case of a proper implementation into education system, ICT has potential to expand the access to education, effective improvement of educational quality, enhance the relevance of education to progressively digital establishment and to make teaching and learning process more engaging. (Tinio, 2003). According to Blurton (1999), ICT can be defined as a set of technologies with tools and resources used to process, store and disseminate information, and to communicate, create and manage information. These technologies can be considered as important enablers of organizational competencies in educational performance, both formal and non-formal especially to formerly underserved constituencies. One of the determining aspect of ICT-enabled education is the capacity to transcend time and space, the other one excludes dependence on reliance solely on printed books and other materials in physical form (Tinio, 2003). Several authors affirm that ICT equate with improvements at preschool education by inducement creativity and play, their cognitive development and social interaction of learners (Dockett et al., 1999; Downes et al., 2001; Bolstad, 2004; Hatzigianni and Margetts, 2012). According to OECD school case studies, the implementation of ICT is a constant process of educational change, where the teacher plays significant role in ICT adoption and its further practicing (Venezky and Mulkeen, 2002), moreover ICT can be a powerful lever for achieving planned innovations in education (Venezky and Davis, 2002). Undoubtedly, nowadays computer technology has already become pervasive in educational institutions of developed countries and is being implemented progressively in universities and schools of developing countries. Through the years, ICT have been offering a wide range of diverse technological learning tools, as telephony, radio and TV broadcasting for distance learning, computers and the Internet for E-learning (Tinio, 2003) and relatively new technological learning tool, so-called gamification that aims to motivate and engage to study process via software applications and different platforms (Aranda et al., 2016). Computer simulations as a tool of ICT-enabled education are becoming extended resources in universities, colleges and secondary schools, due to their constant acceptance and embracement by society in growing evolution and technological development. A large number of studies have been conducted related to the learning effects of simulations on students’ performance at university and college level (McEnery and Blanchard, 1999; Wolfe and Luethge, 2003; Tao et al., 2012). Recently, some studies are drawing attention towards the extent to which computer simulations encourage entrepreneurship for graduate and undergraduate students (Arias‐Aranda, 2007; Huebscher and Lendner, 2010; Haase and Lautenschläger, 2011). According to Feldman (1995), computer-based simulations are able to create an environment in which students feel themselves as in the realities of the business world, without being involved in all the difficulties inherent for managers of the operating environment of everyday routine. In this way, students are encouraged to become practitioners rather than just learning about practice. Furthermore, gamification as an innovative ICT-enabled education tool is gaining its popularity in academia (Huotari and Hamari 2012). This relatively new concept has already been implemented in business, education, training, health and wellness (Ramaswamy, 2008; Berns et al, 2012; Kapp, 2012; Werbach and Hunter, 2012; Duggan and Shoup, 2013). On this, Huang et al. (2013) claim that a great achievement of a proper implementation of gamification can transform a mundane task into engaging learning process, in other words applying successful gamification techniques can positively effect on students behavior. In this line, Lee and Hammer (2011) assume that gamification has all the premises in motivation of learners to classroom engagement and encourage them to bring their strength into the learning aspiration. While, at the same time it can provide teachers with better reward system and tools to guide, in order to demonstrate to students that education can be a joyful and fruitful experience (Werbach and Hunter, 2012). In light of the aforementioned, this PhD thesis focuses on the role played by ICT-enabled education within the two interrelated concepts: Simulations and Gamification, as learning tools for enhancing entrepreneurial attitude of high school students. These concepts are analysed on the basis of the EAO (Entrepreneurship Attitude Orientation) scale though the participation of students in a gamified business simulation; considering the necessary requirements that play a key role for such purposes. To that aim, the current research provides a vast and detailed theoretical review, which introduces the main concepts of the study: ICT-enabled education, Simulations, Gamification and Entrepreneurship Attitude Orientation with a wide and complete literature review on these concepts. Further, it provides well-defined research methodology to clarify the role of effects of gamified business simulations on entrepreneurial attitude at high school level. This PhD thesis is oriented towards the combination of ICT-enabled education concepts: simulations and gamification to analyse how entrepreneurship orientation attitude is affected, when high school students participate in a gamified business simulation. This thesis attempts to be a nascent contribution to a new educational paradigm, where the role of ICT become preponderant. Apart from the current introductory chapter, the PhD thesis includes three more chapters, in which we develop the main idea of this study more specifically to finally, summarize the conclusions in the last chapter. Chapter two aims at ensuring a comprehensive and vast literature review on the main topics of this thesis. Firstly, the chapter introduces the concept of ICT-enabled education and describes its potential for innovative approaches in learning environments. Furthermore, it describes the features and characteristics of ICT-enabled education based on a relevant and significant European Commission Survey. Secondly, chapter two conceptualizes the role of two concepts represented as tools of ICT-enabled education: Gamification and Computer-based simulations in learning environments. Principally, it introduces the concept of gamification by providing insights definitions, and also explains the core principles, highlighting the importance of gamification for learning and motivational purposes. Further, it describes the features and functions of Computer – based simulations as a tool for enabling efficient development of learning process to increase students’ interest. Thirdly, it introduces an entrepreneurship attitude orientation considering it as a crucial topic in business and economic research; intending to extend the knowledge frontier of business simulations in conjunction with gamification as entrepreneurship drivers/enablers. This chapter also describes specific strategic orientation, which still officially has not been accepted in traditional education system, but with enormous potential to contribute to the modern education system in near future by introducing information and communication technology to foster entrepreneurial orientation of students. Chapter three aims to provide the research methodology and the findings obtained from the study performed, which is presented in this PhD Thesis. For such purposes, this chapter presents the methodological approach and the results emerged from the research study “Effects of gamified business simulations on entrepreneurial attitude at high school level”. Particularly, which by following an empirical analysis examines the entrepreneurial attitude of high school students on the basis of the Entrepreneurship Attitude Orientation (EAO) scale through the participation of students in a gamified business simulation. Finally, chapter four and five, aims to analyse the major conclusions as well as the implications emerged from the study presented in chapter three of the thesis. To conclude, this chapter presents limitations of the study and future research directions. REFERENCES Aranda, D. A., Sánchez, O. F. B., & Djundubaev, R. (2016). 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