The aim of this article is to give a brief framework of distance education in Italy. Doing that it works on two levels: the first one is the history of distance education in the Country, from first experiences in the 50thies 'til nowadays; the second one is the theoric debate among the scholars about the key-concepts of this area. Three main items are considered: the School, the University, and the Enterprise. Of anyone are analyzed the best practices. The theoric hypothesis, clarified in the conclusions of this article, is that Web 2.0 tools are deeply transforming the situation: they'll probably be able to give new dynamism to a movement and to a market that in the last times seemed too fixed on standard models and experiences.
E-learning; Distance education; School; University; Web 2.0
