Potencialidades e desafios do M-learning para o desenvolvimento de competências empreendedoras de microempreendedores individuais

Abstract

The Individual Microentrepeneur (IM) is the person who works on their own account and becomes a small entrepreneur under the law. It is assumed that these entrepreneurs face difficulties to take part of qualification processes due to lack of time and scarce resources, because since they work alone (or with little help), taking part of onsite qualification trainings is not feasible, most of the times. On the other hand, it is known that there is a variety of technologies available in the market, such as the mobile Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), which makes Mobile Learning feasible. In this way, M-learning is understood as learning processes supported by mobile or wireless information and communication technologies, where the major characteristic is the mobility of the learners (SACCOL; SCHLEMMER; BARBOSA, 2011), allowing the IMs to learn in their own context, where learning can be situated, authentic, personalized and collaborative. The main objective of this research is to analyze the potentials (affordances) and the challenges of M-learning for the development of entrepreneurial competences of Individual Microentrepreneurs. The method Design Science Research (DSR) was used to generate an artifact — a method of qualification of IMs through M-learning, using the Whatsapp application as platform. The research process followed the steps of the DSR (understanding the problem, suggestion, development, evaluation and conclusion), and the results generated in each step were crucial for the understanding of the advantages and challenges of the M-learning modality. During the period of understanding the problem, the competences to be developed under the theoretical point of view were comprehended, as well as the learning approaches to be considered: the situated learning (LAVE; WENGER, 1991), and the pedagogy of autonomy (FREIRE, 1996). A survey was also carried out with 206 individual entrepreneurs, through which their main qualification necessities were known; if they try (or not) to get qualification, through which means and to which ICTs they would have access to. During the problem suggestion step, the qualification method, under the point of view of the learning approaches adopted during the study, was developed. During the development step, the artifact (method) was applied to the first group of qualification, with 30 IMs. After that, the artifact was evaluated, enhanced and, later, applied to the second group of qualification, with other 45 IMs. During the evaluation step, it was possible to evaluate the artifact, identifying the attributes developed for the entrepreneurial competence, the potentials and the challenges of the tested modality. Finally, it was understood that the potentials (affordances) of M-learning had a key role for the process and viability of qualification, which are: access to multimedia, connectivity, information and data collection, social presence, personalized learning, interaction, collaboration, motivation, emotional expression, knowledge representation and support to several entry points and ways of learning. In terms of M-learning challenges, two aspects stand out: 1) technology external aspects (internet, cost, data use, memory) and 2) pedagogical and contextual aspects which, it is believed, were partially outdated. However, it was possible to observe that this modality allowed the development of some attributes of entrepreneurial competence related to the category of business and management, which are: management skills, financial and budgeting skills and business operational skills.