E-learning as new supporting instrument of learning in the knowledge society

5 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 
The technological evolution had a great impact on the teaching-learning 
system in the field both of learning and updating, facilitating the contact and the 
supply of the services to the teacher and the student, improving the 
communication and optimizing the use of human and instrumental resources. E-
learning appears like a real alternative in the knowledge society, no more just a 
supposition for the future, but a further possibility for the learning. 
Properly used, in fact, e-learning allows to change the way of enjoying and 
teaching, turning unilateral communication and supervision from the top down 
in a group work, of interaction and cooperation among equals. The main figure 
is not anymore that of the teacher, but there is the development of a community 
set up by teachers, tutors and students that are depicted like “a community 
which builds knowledge”
1
. Naturally, the presence of the teacher can’t be 
replaced, but computer instruments can represent a valid and powerful support 
to the traditional didactics. Indeed, the better results are achieved with a blended 
choice where one part of the course is supplied with the presence of traditional 
frontal lessons and another online with activities and exercises to carry out 
within a platform and instruments for the interaction among the different actors. 
In short, the way of teaching changes: the student is put in the condition to 
learn something not only and solely by the teacher’s lesson and the study of the 
books, but also through the intellectual exchange among colleagues thanks to 
the interaction favoured by Internet. Therefore, you don’t simply want to pass 
on the knowledge by this method, but the aim is to make the students interactive 
not only with the teacher but also between them and to encourage them to make 
a personal learning path, to think autonomously and to take original initiatives 
for the resolution of a problem of common interest. 
                                                           
1
 S. Cacciamani, Psicologia per l’insegnamento, Carocci, 2002.
6 
 
The main issue of this thesis is just the relationship learning/technology 
and, in particular, how the technology managed to change the ways of supply 
and fruition of learning. A theoretical description is accompanied by the 
development of the prototype of an e-learning course for the learning of the 
English language. 
The chapter 1 includes the definition of e-learning and its historical origins 
with its three evolution phases: the DT of first generation, the DT of second 
generation and the DT of third generation, and the first computer programs for 
the self-learning: Computer Aided Instruction (CAI), Computer Based Training 
(CBT), Internet Based Training (IBT), Web Based Training (WBT). 
The concept of e-learning is introduced in the chapter 2 as the possibility 
of learning exploiting Internet and the diffusion of distance information. There 
is also a description of its technological features, the e-learning platforms, the 
learning objects and the professional figures that are outlining always more 
clearly in the various steps of the planning, production, supply and evaluation e-
learning service. 
The chapter 3 introduces the methods and the instruments used for the 
realization of an e-learning course, while the chapter 4 introduces the contexts 
where e-learning is “involved”. It deals with online courses for school and 
university training and applications of e-learning in telemedicine, business and 
business training. 
In the last chapter, in conclusion, the theoretical applications of e-learning, 
in this case in the learning of English, are put into practice. The prototype of a 
web portal is realized, which contains online lessons and tests of grammar and 
vocabulary.
7 
 
1. INTRODUCTION TO E-LEARNING 
 
“Certo desidero travasare in te tutto il mio sapere e sono lieto di imparare 
qualcosa appunto per insegnarla… Perciò ti manderò questi libri e perché tu 
non perda tempo a ricercare qua e là i passi più utili, apporrò dei segni, per 
metterli subito sott’occhio quello che condivido e apprezzo.” (Lucio Anneo 
Seneca Epistulae ad Lucilium: extract) 
 
 
In the last years, e-learning became a didactic method which concerns 
everybody, both as citizens and as responsible of organizations that are adopting 
it. Learning is one the main characteristics of men that invests the core of the 
potentials of people which can be oriented to technical, economic and social 
objectives. In the knowledge society, e-learning seems to be a solution to many 
of the new problems that the world of learning has to face. In particular, its 
independence from the spatio-temporal ties and its low costs are exalted; they 
would allow faster and more flexible distance learning interventions, and so 
more suitable to learners that are often inserted in the world of work and could 
hardly follow the rhythms imposed by the traditional didactics. 
What that is often forgotten is that the computer technologies, which 
represent a fundamental element of e-learning, didn’t simply give traditional 
learning new technological “paths” but, on the contrary, created didactic 
opportunities unexplored until now, retroacting on the educational paradigms to 
change them completely. 
In spite of the unquestionable advantages in terms of economic time and 
savings, today it’s necessary a reorganization of the whole learning intervention 
which can’t be a “copy” technologically suitable of the traditional one or by 
correspondence, since its conditions are changed.
8 
 
In other words, it’s necessary to understand that the so-called DL of third 
generation is a new way of learning that is different from the two generations 
that preceded it for many aspects, even if it has some of their characteristics. 
 
 
1.1. The distance learning (DL) 
 
First of all, it’s necessary to dwell upon different expressions: 
A. Distance learning (DL) 
B. Distance education 
The two concepts make reference to different types of users: the DL is 
professional learning, while the distance education, which recalls the English 
expression open distance learning, is mostly addressed to people that still attend 
schools and universities. 
In general, the expression DL is mostly used because the word learning is 
most often preferred to education. There are many definitions of the concept of 
 Centrality of the teacher 
(instructor-led training 
model) 
 
 Face-to-face training 
 
 Limited number of 
accessible resources 
 
 Formalization of a space and 
time for learning 
 
 Teaching with a low direct 
involvement 
 
 Strong focus on the class, 
and only indirectly on the 
needs and the learning 
degree of the individual 
 
TRADITIONAL 
LEARNING
9 
 
distance learning and they all make reference to learning actions where the main 
part of the activity of the knowledge and learning transfer occurs in different 
places and times. 
In the Glossario di Didattica della Formazione
2
, the ISFOL defines the DL 
like “a learning strategy which allows to participate to a set of learning activities 
structured so as to favour a way of autonomous and personalized learning, 
discontinuous in space and time”. 
According to another definition, DL is “the set of didactic methods where 
the interactive phase of learning (stimulation, explication, questions, guide), like 
the pre-active phase (choice of the objectives, drawing up of the curriculum and 
the didactic strategies), is carried out by paper, mechanical and electric means 
because of the physical separation between teachers and students”
3
. 
The expression “distance” indicates the lack of spatial and temporal 
continuity between who teaches and who learns. To overcome this interval, it is 
necessary to have recourse to a connection technology which guarantees the 
communication between the two parties according to studying rules and criteria 
formally cleared. 
 
1.2. History of DL 
 
The DL was born to meet the need to release the learning intervention from 
the spatio-temporal limits of the existing one, and it is developed as an 
organized phenomenon only at the end of the 20
th
 century, although there are 
some traces in the ancient world. The amazing development of technology, 
promoted by the revolution of telecommunications from the 80s of the 20
th
 
century, gave distance learning prestige and importance. Its history, which 
begins with the advanced technological development induced by the Industrial 
                                                           
2
 ISFOL, Glossario di Didattica della Formazione, ed. Franco Angeli, Milano, 1991 
3
 M. Moore in G. Costa, E. Rullani, 1999.
10 
 
Revolution, made a very long path since then to arrive to have a particular 
importance in the world of the educational analysis. 
From 1950 to today, we assisted to a rapid progress in the field of the 
distance education and learning which saw all Europe as leader; from England 
to France, from Italy to Denmark, from Scotland to Spain. 
In this period of time, there are three evolution phases of distance learning, 
identified by Nipper in 1989
4
, that correspond to the development of the 
supporting and diffusion elements of the didactic contents: 
1. learning by correspondence (first generation); 
2. multimedia learning (second generation); 
3. e-learning (third generation). 
 
1.3. The DL of first generation 
 
The DL of first generation (50s of 20
th
 century) is linked to the technology 
of the book and to the development of the postal system. The different training 
interventions attributable to this first generation use printed materials (books, 
lecture notes), are based on correspondence (the training institution sends the 
material at the student’s house) and don’t provide for the interaction between the 
teacher and the student, except for very rare meetings. Thanks to this teaching-
learning form, the student uses the material according to his needs and enjoying 
it in his favourite times and places and with personal study methods. 
The training model can be summarized as follows: 
 1
st
 phase of self-learning: the student studies alone the didactic material 
sent to him; 
 2
nd
 phase of evaluation and self-evaluation: the student performs the 
evaluation exercises; so, he has also the possibility to self-evaluate the 
                                                           
4
 Nipper S., Third generation distance learning and computer conferencing. In Mason R. 
and Kay A. (by) Mindweave: Communication, Computers and Distance Education 
Oxford, UK, Pergamon Press, 1989.