Abstract

ICTs are making dynamic changes in society. They are influencing all aspects of life.
Similarly, there is no doubt that ICT brings a massive change in the field of education also.
It makes teaching- learning process effective and interesting. To know the impact of ICT in
education we need to know two basic things- ICT and education. The ICT is an umbrella that
includes any communication device or application, encompassing, radio, television, cellular
phones, computer, and network hardware and software, satellite system and so on, as well as
the various services and applications associated with them, such as video conferencing and
distance learning. Such technologies are used for educational purposes, namely to support
and improve the learning of student and develop learning environments. ICT can be
considered as a sub field of educational technology. The paper discusses the role and effect
of ICTs, and how they can promote future growth and development. In educational system,
the inputs are teachers, students, classroom materials, equipment of teaching, methods of
teaching and the outputs are quantity as well as quality of student learning.

Keywords: Communication, Technology, Collaborative, Evaluative Learning, Innovative

Pedagogies
Introduction

Information and communication technology (ICT) has become an important source of

innovation and improvement of efficiency for many sectors across the globe J. S. Fu, (2013).
In the education sector, particularly, the application of ICT has become a critical part of the
learning process for university students both outside and inside the classroom setting. The
government and other stakeholders in the education sector such as university management
and researchers have invested millions of dollars to adopt ICT in the education system during
the last two decades [1]. Most universities that have fully adopted ICT have recorded
immense advancement in the application of ICT for the improvement of learning methods,
teaching, research, and development. It is, however, not clear what impact the ICT
applications have on the performance and achievement of students.

Concept of ICT

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is a broader term for Information

Technology (IT), which refers to all communication technologies, including the internet,
wireless networks, cell phones, computers, software, middleware, video-conferencing, social
networking, and other media applications and services enabling users to access, retrieve,
store, transmit, and manipulate information in a digital form.

ICTs are also used to refer to the convergence of media technology such as audio-visual and
telephone networks with computer networks, by means of a unified system of cabling
(including signal distribution and management) or link system. However, there is no
universally accepted definition of ICTs considering that the concepts, methods and tools
involved in ICTs are steadily evolving on an almost daily basis.

To define professional skill levels for its ICT professional education products, the IEEE
Computer Society has adopted, for example, the Skills Framework for the Information Age
(SFIA). The value of ICT strategies as a means of bridging the digital divide and as a
powerful tool for economic and social development around the world should not be
underestimated in agricultural and related sectors. Improving extension of ICT services to
farmers would effectively improve the transmission of global open data for agriculture and
nutrition for development of sensible solutions addressing food security, nutrition and
sustainable agriculture issues.

By using ICTs, there have already “been diverse types of innovations taking place in the
agriculture sector, which include commodity and stock market price information and
analysis, meteorological data collection, advisory services to farmers for agricultural
extension, early warning systems for disaster prevention and control, financial services,
traceability of agricultural products, agricultural statistical data gathering, etc." (ICT for
sustainable agriculture, FAO, 2013).

Concept of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship refers to the concept of developing and managing a business venture in

order to gain profit by taking several risks in the corporate world. Simply put,
entrepreneurship is the willingness to start a new business. Entrepreneurship has played a
vital role in the economic development of the expanding global marketplace D. Chan, A.
(2013).

An entrepreneur is someone who is willing to work for himself and by himself. There are
several different meanings of the term entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship is one of the resources economists categorize as integral to production, the

other three being land/natural resources, labor, and capital. An entrepreneur combines the
first three of these to manufacture goods or provide services. They typically create a business
plan, hire labor, acquire resources and financing, and provide leadership and management for
the business.

N. A. Ragavan, (2016) added that Entrepreneurship is an act of being an entrepreneur, or "the

owner or manager of a business enterprise who, by risk and initiative, attempts to make
profits".[14] Entrepreneurs act as managers and oversee the launch and growth of an
enterprise. Entrepreneurship is the process by which either an individual or a team identifies
a business opportunity and acquires and deploys the necessary resources required for its
exploitation. Early-19th-century French economist Jean-Baptiste Say provided a broad
definition of entrepreneurship, saying that it "shifts economic resources out of an area of
lower and into an area of higher productivity and greater yield". Entrepreneurs create
something new, something different—they change or transmute values. [15] Regardless of the
firm size, big or small, they can partake in entrepreneurship opportunities. The opportunity to
become an entrepreneur requires four criteria. First, there must be opportunities or situations
to recombine resources to generate profit. Second, entrepreneurship requires differences
between people, such as preferential access to certain individuals or the ability to recognize
information about opportunities. Third, taking on risk is a necessity. Fourth, the
entrepreneurial process requires the organization of people and resources. [16]

The entrepreneur is a factor in and the study of entrepreneurship reaches back to the work of
Richard Cantillon and Adam Smith in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. However,
entrepreneurship was largely ignored theoretically until the late 19th and early 20th centuries
and empirically until a profound resurgence in business and economics since the late 1970s.
In the 20th century, the understanding of entrepreneurship owes much to the work of
economist Joseph Schumpeter in the 1930s and other Austrian economists such as Carl
Menger, Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich von Hayek. According to Schumpeter, an
entrepreneur is a person who is willing and able to convert a new idea or invention into a
successful innovation. Entrepreneurship employs what Schumpeter called "the gale of
creative destruction" to replace in whole or in part inferior innovations across markets and
industries, simultaneously creating new products including new business models. In this
way, creative destruction is largely responsible for the dynamism of industries and long-run
economic growth. The supposition that entrepreneurship leads to economic growth is an
interpretation of the residual in endogenous growth theory and as such is hotly debated in
academic economics. An alternative description posited by Israel Kirzner suggests that the
majority of innovations may be much more incremental improvements such as the
replacement of paper with plastic in the making of drinking straws.
The role of ICT in Entrepreneurship learning

1. Information technology gives Entrepreneurship the tools to solve complex

problems: Improved hardware (more memory, faster processors, sharper visual
displays, etc) combined with smarter applications (Mindmapping software like X
Mind, collaborative software like Kanban boards, organizers like Google calendar,
etc) have made it easier to research data, analyze it, and plan scalability. Many tools
available to solve complex problems.

2. Information technology allows Entrepreneurship to make better decisions: Good

decisions in business are based on solid market research. This can be done through
engaging teams through video conferences, reviewing public sentiment on social
media and industry forums, and using online surveys to get customer feedback. There
are also tools like Microsoft CRM Dynamics and Google Analytics.

3. Information technology improves in marketing: Internet marketing using online

advertising methods (SEO, PPC, Facebook Ads) are far more accurate ways than
traditional marketing of finding target audiences, discovering their needs, and
building a marketing campaign to persuade them to buy. It’s difficult to see how
many people read a newspaper ad. It’s easy to figure out how many people clicked on
an online banner.

4. Information technology improves customer support: Customers can receive

support from multiple channels telephone, emails, social media platforms, webinars,
and so on. Additionally, customer relationship management systems help businesses
understand customer behavior.

5. Information technology has improved resource management: Cloud computing

allows a company’s employees to use any device anywhere in the world to access
their enterprise level software.
6. Access to Markets: E-commerce as this is commonly referred to has greatly
minimized the need for physical infrastructure for trade to take place. Platforms like
 Jumia give entrepreneurs access to markets in all parts of the country and all over the
world.
7. Virtual and efficient business coordination: Technology has completely
revolutionized the manner in which businesses operate today especially businesses
operating in a niche market. These businesses use of apps and often times do not
require the physical presence of the business owner and can often times be efficiently
run virtually such as Uber.
8. Advertising and Marketing Communication: With the emergence can be reached
with advertising messages via a tweet on twitter, a post on Facebook or videos on
Youtube etc at way cheaper rates.
9. Increasing revenue streams and Saving Time/Money: Technology has provided
new and exciting opportunities to increase revenue. Such opportunities include the
provision of movies and games for relaxation at a fee. For example, Netflix
10. Teleconferencing: Important meetings can also be held via video conferencing
technology systems which allow 2 or more locations to communicate via
simultaneous 2-way audio and video transmissions, eliminating the logistics of
travelling, saving time and money. It is also common practice to reach out to
audiences by streaming seminars, conferences and programs live on the internet.

Prospect of using ICT to Learn

According to J. E. Lawrence, (2015) is stated that Information and communication

technology (ICT) has become an important source of innovation and improvement of
efficiency for many sectors across the globe. In the education sector, particularly, the
application of ICT has become a critical part of the learning process for university students
both outside and inside the classroom setting. The government and other stakeholders in the
education sector such as university management and researchers have invested millions of
dollars to adopt ICT in the education system during the last two decades [1]. Most
universities that have fully adopted ICT have recorded immense advancement in the
application of ICT for the improvement of learning methods, teaching, research, and
development. It is, however, not clear what impact the ICT applications have on the
performance and achievement of students.

ICT adoption in the current study is understood as a gradual switching over to automation of
the educational process not only in administrative activities like students admission,
registration, and evaluation but also developing a customized learning management system
(LMS) and transferring all the courses and the related data onto it. In the sampled
universities for this study, Blackboard is the LMS that has been adopted. The faculty
members as well as the students are allowed access to the LMS along with its all services and
the specialized online learning tools. The adoption of LMS across Saudi Arabia has
facilitated the educational processes to a great extent.

The students’ academic performance refers to the enhancement of the students’ current state
of knowledge and skills reflected in their GPA and also in the formulation of their
personality and academic growth from lower levels of study to higher levels. The rationale of
studying academic performance in the context of ICT adoption is to present a significant
relationship that exists between the two variables Rose and S. Kadvekar (2015).

Challenges of Using ICT to learn entrepreneurship

i. incorrect student selection method

ii. lack of expert professors

iii. inconsistency of courses and business environment

iv. weak Curriculum

v. slow internet connection speed

vi. bureaucratic teaching methods

vii. unfamiliarity of policy makers with entrepreneurship

viii. Business continuity/disaster recovery

Strategies to Overcome Challenges of Using ICT to Learn Entrepreneurship

1. Choosing the right technology according to company’s needs

Investing in new technology can seem like a daunting and overwhelming task. The
many stories of failed implementations, the abundance of choice, and the fear of
choosing the wrong tools can lead any business to hesitation in acquiring new
technologies. In order to stay competitive, businesses must take the plunge. The good
news is that you do not have to make irrational or uneducated decisions because there
are key aspects to look at before making a decision.
 2. Integrating applications
Integrating applications is another challenge that businesses often face. Sometimes
newer technologies do not integrate well with older systems or legacy applications.
Independent systems also prove to be an issue, as they act in isolation and are not able
to be integrated. Due to this, operational and employee efficiency can take a huge hit
such as integration issues like: duplication will be forced of tasks and the inability to
quickly find and track data. Integrating applications assists in comparing performance
with a variety of others and helps with business management procedures.
Furthermore, IT facilities are developed easier and when customers have
expectations, they can be responded to in good time. 
3. Securing company data
Cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated, and small businesses are being
targeted now more than ever before, which means they are at much more risk from a
security breach than larger ones. Imagine if your business data fell into the wrong
hands, just a single breach can be enough to completely ruin people’s trust in your
brand; employee information, customer payments and business strategies are personal
which need to be kept out of the hands of criminals. Taking these important steps
mentioned below is essential to ensure your company doesn’t become a target. 

Conclusion

Information communication technology (ICT) is among the latest innovations that has
revolutionized various operations in the world [31]. It is particularly important in the field of
education since it has recently created such platforms and opportunities that have facilitated
to some extent the acquisition of knowledge. This phenomenon has been highlighted in this
study which indicates how students view ICT as a component of their study program. From
the results of the questionnaire, it has been evident that a majority of the respondents value
ICT, and each of them feels that they should have the gadgets to be able to adopt ICT more
closely.
The study also mentions that a large number of students lack IT gadgets like smart phones
and laptops. The reason is both the cost of gadgets and the internet accessibility. The public
servers, besides the high cost, are very slow in speed which makes it difficult to utilize ICT
platforms on a regular basis. Truly speaking, gadgets such as smart phones and laptops are
critical in the access of ICT facilities and search information on the internet. The study also
reveals that more than fifty percent of the students keep accounts on social media. This
indicates that ICT performs a role more than academic for most university students. Besides
searching for information from the internet, these university students make use of ICT for
communication and social connections with friends and relatives. This explains why it is a
major booster to academic performance of the students in the university. Often the same
students can use ICT to facilitate discussions and feedback on academic matters from
teachers, seniors, and colleagues. This kind of interaction is necessary to improve their study
and research skills.

Another revelation of this study was that students who score higher grades in GPA are more
interested in ICT than their colleagues who score lower grades. This is likely because ICT
demands some basic knowledge for anyone to embrace it. Brighter students are therefore
more likely to embrace ICT. Furthermore, ICT requires concentration of the participants, and
this makes people to remain brighter to embrace the technology. It was also revealed in this
study that social science students readily adopt ICT more than their other counterparts.

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