E-Learning: Technological Transformation in Education

Nowadays, all aspects of human life are influenced by the advances in information and communication technologies (ICT). Education and learning are also among areas that have been greatly affected by ICT and the speed of its growth. This affectability results in the creation of a new concept, called e-learning. In this paper, we first define the basic concepts of learning. Then, describing the trajectory of the technological course of distance education, we explain the technological background of e-learning and express how ICT affects the formation of personalized intelligent learning. Evolution of distance education can be divided into six generations: correspondence education, audio-visual education, computer-assisted education, web-based education, e-learning 1, and (social) e-learning 2. Additionally, we address to the researches in e-learning through the examination of published papers in e-learning. Our investigation shows the increasing interest of researchers to technological issues of e-learning as well as attempting to match different information technology appearances to it. Scientific problems around e-learning are interesting for many researchers, and solving each of them helps to the evolution of e-learning from some aspect. E-learning, as the most sensible effect of modern information and communication technologies on education and because of its effects on the mind and behaviour of the learners, is so important that ignoring policy making on it makes it impossible to exploit the advantages of applying these technologies in education, increases the costs in future of education, and also widens the gap between education system and citizens of information era.