Active learning is not a new idea. It is enough to go back in your mind to Socrates’ idea. As a young philosopher he held meetings with students in order not to teach them, but in order to talk to them. Socrates, through a conversation, through a dialogue shoed his disciples the right way leading to their soul, and this way allowing self-understanding. According to Socrates, “all proper knowledge comes from the inside”. Thus teaching is a mutual process of knowledge attainment. Socrates may be pronounced one of the fathers of active learning[1].

In the broadest sense, the basis active learning is a frequent, direct and diversified (by means of various tools and aids) contact of the learner and the teacher, where the learners role is much greater than in traditional learning.

The activity of all the learners assumes experience and dialog. In the case of experience doing and observing are presented, in the case of the dialogue the Dialogue with Self and Dialogue with Others. The power of interaction show when in the active method learning all the four elements are used.

This is the transition way from the passive to the active type of learning. The new information technologies which came into use at the turn of the century even speeded up the process and the scale had never been observed before.

[1] See D. Ellerman. S. Denning. N. Hanna. Active learning and development assistance. [in]: “Journal of Knowledge Management” vol. 5:2001 issue 2 p. 171-179