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Distance education (DE) tools are conceived, independently from the technology in use, to meet the need of freeing the educational event from space and time constraints. eLearning is considered as a third generation DE tool.

When learning models change, the way we connect our knowledge and integrate it with previous one also changes. The wiser the use of educational available tools the more efficient learning becomes in terms of time consumed, satisfaction and new knowledge stored. Learning tools to support education have not always been the same, they have evolved thanks to the arrival of new technologies. First generation distance education dates back to the 18th century when support technology was just mail service. It was to be in London where the first distance course of which we have some evidence was to take place. It was in 1840 when postal stamps become mandatory being a method that guaranteed payment and collection of transport fares. Isaac Pitman, that developed the most widely used system of shorthand, used the “penny post”1 to teach his own writing method through distance education. Audience answered with enthusiasm. From that pioneer course Pitman held in England and Sweden the first distance didactics courses evolved.  In 1914 in Melbourne, Australia, a primary and secondary distance education course had been put in place as an alternative to normal education for children living in difficult to access areas. These courses were made up of paper material sent via mail, most often with information and guidelines on how to study; when it comes to the examination phase, written exams are used, and the student, once completed, mails them to the return address. These first correspondence courses were followed by short-wave broadcasts courses.
The first educational radio course was diffused by the University of Salt Lake City, in the United States, in 1921.
The second generation of DE develops further on in the sixties and is television the technological innovation that characterizes this period. With television education can make use of visual examples far more efficient than static paper ones or of the intangible radio voices. Also the VHS standard, introduced in 1976 by JVC marks an important stage in DE, given that it offered the possibility of customizing fruition time and of operating forwarding or rewarding the tape as needed. In the mid nineties, teleconference comes into air, a further tool for DE used in a particular way in university education, most often connecting off-centred sites with headquarters.
The arrival of digital technologies marks the transition into the third distance education generation.  We can identify two different phases in the third generation of DE: in the first one we use off-line supports, not connected to internet as CBT (Computer based Training), floppy discs, CD-ROMs; in the second and present one we have eLearning courses, based on the use of internet. Telematics network has meant a radical transformation in pedagogy models and an evolution without precedents in distance education models. Learning becomes a dynamic process grounded on important assumptions:  the teacher’s active role and the concept “learning by doing”.
A precious tool of eLearning courses is teledidactics. Teledidactics entails, at the same time, distance interaction and distant resources access; both can have place through:
- Textual exchange
- Audio-video exchange (for example teleconference)
- Audio-video exchange and screen, software applications or files sharing
Through internet, telematics make exchange and discussion between teachers and students easy. E-mail, that in our private lives has modified interpersonal communications, is the first contact and exchange tool between teaching staff and students. There also exists what we call bulletin board systems, areas in which we can publish news or host forums. Another interpersonal communication modality is the chat, used to exchange text messages in real time. When we use audio –we only need headphones and a microphone- we talk about voice chat. Teledidactics, technically, means receiving and transmitting images and sounds in real time. Lowering logistics costs, and, as a consequence, the possibility of reaching students at different sites is the main reason of teledidactics diffusion in universities.
In this case, distance education, means having access to teaching staff from distance, which means, using a connection that allows us to see and hear somebody in a different place.  This connection can be made through net technologies, satellite or television.
The model eLearning has brought to life is less and less based on centralized education, in which supplier (teacher) and user (student) are set against each other, to become more and more a shared and customized learning, in which exchanging material and messages becomes the most important moment and qualifies the educational process.