Abstract:

Nowadays, in a globalized context, the importance of new technology is becoming more and more noticeable. In the educational field, a proper application of these tools can transform them into valuable resources for teaching. The use of audiovisual and multimedia resources in classroom is clearly stimulating for the students and a way to motivate them and arise their interest. Moreover, it is important to consider that students are increasingly familiar with new technologies and used to managing them, as these are an important part of their lives.
Furthermore, we are exposed to rapid changes which require constant adaptation to new situations, so it is desirable to design an educational circuit aimed at teaching students to learn to learn, that is, to develop skills and attitudes that will help them face the challenges offered by the environment. Thus, it is necessary that students take a more active attitude; students are no longer passive agents of the process of teaching/learning, but rather the opposite, becoming a central figure. For this reason, it is essential to promote a more independent and proactive learning; in this context, teachers must have the responsibility of showing them the resources and tools that are available and the benefits that new technology offers in preparing a subject or in researching beyond the purely taught in class.
Therefore, taking into account these considerations, the use of new technologies and audiovisual resources could be useful to base the practical part of subjects related to Business Management. This field has some characteristics that imply high level of difficulty, such as unstructured and complex problems, the large amount of variables involved or the important influence of the environment; these features make it necessary to confront students with the complexity of real problems, where all the knowledge acquired during the degree must be combined.
So, this paper aims to focus on the advantages presented by new technologies to encourage creativity and independent learning by students and arouse their interest in the topics covered in the subject. These tools offer the context to present real or realistic cases and situations, closed to the students, to apply concepts and theoretical knowledge and show their usefulness in practice. In this sense, we propose several ways and activities to take profit of these resources in a double perspective: from the point of view of the professor and from the perception of the students. For example, on one hand, the professor can use audiovisual resources to project a film related with the subject agenda and use it during the course as a link between different topics; similarly, the professor can take advantage of new technologies using them as a virtual environment. On the other hand, as a way of completing the activities proposed by the professor, students can use new technologies to search complementary information and to present activities and examples for their mates.
Thus, activities that we propose aim to highlight the benefits of new technologies and audiovisual materials in practical classes as a resource to strength the capabilities of information management (research, analysis and selection), reflective, critical and independent learning and cooperation of the students and, at the same time, stimulate their creativity and entrepreneurial spirit in a fruitful and enjoyable way, making them possible withhold crucial concepts more easily.

Keywords:

Business Management, new technologies, learning methodologies, student motivation.