Abstract:

In today's world, the information, communication, and production of technologies are undergoing a very fast and effective transformation. Digital technology plays an effective and active role in education and training environments as well as in all areas of life. Developing university students' attitudes towards digital technology positively before entering business life and raising their awareness are important in terms of reaching the goals set in education programs, sharing information, increasing studentS success, particularly at the universities, and raising individuals who can keep up with the digital age.

Besides all these changes, the individual based innovation can be defined as the degree to which an individual is open to new ideas and can make innovative decisions independently in their social environment and even in their cultures. The individuals' innovation levels can be specified in the open systems by accepting new ideas and new strategies. In that way, Most of the individuals consistently try to search for new services and products, especially in these digitalization era.More importantly, the continuous practices and performances of the information, communication, and production of technologies directly empower attitudes and behaviors towards innovative and novelty of thoughts and actions.

It is no doubt that the technology and innovation based activities are the most important drivers of global economic growth, particularly after the COVID 19. It is considered that the students, particularly at the universities with a positive attitude towards information and communication technologies: More importantly, during the university education, most of the students would also develop and improve their innovative personality traits which encourage them in the developments of the startups and patents.Hence, most of the he universities are currently participated in sophisticated processes for open innovation by improving complex dialogue among the institutions, companies, startups, Non-Governmental Organizations, and universities in the global economic, social, cultural, political, and technological fields. For that reason, the stakeholders- professors, academics, researchers, students, founders, and other members of the institution, such as legal, financial, and intellectual property institutions, play important roles in the processes of technology and innovation based activities. This is a very sophisticated phenomenon that all the universities, including other institutions, have involved in today’s network society due to digitalization and globalization.

This study aims to determine the effect of 450 Istanbul University Engineering Faculty students' attitudes towards information and communication technologies on their innovation tendencies utilizing a structural equation model. As a result of the deep analysis, a positive relationship of 40.9% was determined between the attitude towards information and communication technologies and innovation tendency. Hence, the information, communication, and production of technologies are essential by knowing the behaviors, attitudes, and habits.The interaction and communication of higher education student have transformed with wider access to the Internet and the development of information and communication technologies (ICTs).

Keywords:

University, ICTs, University Students, Tendency to Innovation, Globalization, Digitalization.