Entrepreneurial Learning and Virtual Learning Environment

Abstract

Both entrepreneurial and virtual learning are phenomena that have risen in the turn of the twenty-first century. The needs of the society as well as the technical innovations have sped up their development. The European Union has set entrepreneurial practices as one of the central goals in active citizenship (the European Commission 1999). Finland is committed to it throughout its education system (European Commission 2002). To reach this goal, the Ministry of Education has launched a policy programme for entrepreneurship education. The programme emphasises the importance of entrepreneurship education as a part of teachers basic and extension studies. (Opetusministerio 2004). However, the educational research of the dynamics of entrepreneurial learning has hardly begun. Mainly, this discourse has taken place in business disciplines and in some extent in the field of technology. The American view of both entrepreneurship and education influences the dialogue (Kyro 2005). The conceptualisation of education oriented discourse is still fragmented and searching for its forms. However, a new European multiscientific wave is rising in the contemporary research and this study follows this tradition. It focuses on the cultural background, innovative processes and the dynamics of learning in entrepreneurship (for example Fayolle,