“Multifunctional eBook”: a tool to innovate learning situations

eLearning vs. eDistribution So many experiences of (so-called) eLearning report on the usage of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and particularly the Internet, to support the electronic distribution of didactic material that is completely traditional in its contents and structure. Typical is the case of the web sites of most universities, from which students can download the materials prepared by the teachers (working papers, slides, syllabuses, examples of exam tests, ... ) as a support to their courses. ICT are adopted in these situations to help teachers make their materials widely and rapidly available, but they do not specifically impact on learning strategies. Our literature review (for examples see: Carliner, 1999; Carlson, 2002; Koolen, 2001; Dijkstra et al., 1999, Syed, 2001; Trentin, 2000; Tsai and Machado, 2002; Wiesner, 2001) highlights the fact that what is usually referred to as eLearning is best described as what we can call “eDistribution”, that is, traditional didactic material, distributed by means of ICT. As a matter of fact, students often don’t make use of the materials in their electronic format: on the contrary, they often print them out, thus losing the peculiar advantages that derive from the interaction with the computer. With the aim of stressing the didactic relevance of the eLearning (and therefore of enabling us to answer the fundamental question: why and when is eLearning worth doing?), we have devoted some efforts to the development of eLearning-oriented material by pointing out the basic distinction between “eLearning” and “eDistribution”, in terms of two straightforward, although somehow allusive, slogans: