The ELU Project is supported by the European Union under the Sixth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development.

The vision of ELU is to increase learning opportunities at home, office and school via interactive digital TV (iDTV). Television sets are more commonly available than Personal Computers in European households, and ELU intends to take advantage of this broad infrastructure base. ELU’s objective is to investigate ways to increase the use of television for learning activities through adapting and enhancing methods used for e learning via the PC. ELU intends to define the future of t-Learning (learning via iDTV) as an alternative to e-Learning (learning via PC).

ELU objectives are:

• study the pedagogical and technological aspects of using iDTV as the media for t-Learning
• develop new tools for creating content for t-Learning to be used on iDTV
• develop enhancements to the Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) to meet the t-Learning needs
• share the knowledge in iDTV and t-Learning with new EU countries.

ELU’s technologies will emphasize personal systems and tools to meet the diversity of personal needs in learning techniques. The learning content will be easily retrieved through the personal TV systems. ELU will address the different needs that arise from TV learning including the use of advanced remote control and the greater viewing distance from the screen.

The ELU project will develop the methodology and will design and implement the technology required to enhance the MHP to function as t-Learning middleware, and will develop specific content to demonstrate innovative ways of e-Learning on an iDTV platform.

In particular, on the pedagogical side, ELU will examine how to bridge the gap between “edutainment” and “engaged learning” and how to turn a passive viewer into an active learner. ELU will also provide solutions to integrate learning support systems (human and electronic) into its solutions. To test the effectiveness of iDTV, several types of content will be developed.

More info at: http://www.elu-project.com/