Fostering the Digitalisation of Education through Inter-school Collaborations: A Practical Guide to Building School Networks

This technical report provides a practical guide to create school networks with which to promote digitalisation in education. Building networks is a medium and long-term process, which is facilitated when schools belong to the same institutional context and have a previous history of collaboration. In the initial phases of building a school network it is practical to start with those most active teachers, who are especially motivated in the adoption of digital education. Through different examples, it is shown how networks are started by a small group of educational innovators and then spread to the rest of the teaching staff and to the different schools of the educational community. The key factors in the structure and composition of school networks to facilitate educational digitalization are examined. The report discusses the readiness of both teachers and students to engage in digital education when planning its integration into teaching-learning activities. Visual network representation techniques, such as "Netmap" and "Netmirror", are also presented, which can facilitate awareness and behavioural change among teachers. As a whole, the report presents a detailed guide on how to build networks that can harness the potential of regional and local networks to enable digitalisation of education.