This paper explores different dilemmas faced by the Education Administration and schools from Catalonia between “Googlification” of education (Kerssens & Van Dijck, 2022) and the search for alternatives. At the political level, during the pandemic, the Catalan Administration had to choose between improving Moodle – the main platform already used in schools despite getting little public investment – or facilitating the adoption of Google Classroom, which was offered to the administration free of charge (Jacovkis et al., 2023). Since both platforms were authorised, the final decision depended on each school. Therefore, principals faced the dilemma of adopting Google or keeping Moodle. In result, teachers from schools where principals decided to adopt only Google had no alternative: they could use Google or stop using a digital platform at all. Many teachers expressed great concerns regarding the use of Google’s educational ecosystem but felt pressured to adopt it. We identify two sources of resistance to the use of the Google ecosystem in schools. One related to strong political positionings of school management boards and another started by families that demanded an alternative (Rivera-Vargas et al., 2024). A collaboration between family associations, principals, and the organisation XNET created and implemented an open-source suite called DD in some schools in Barcelona with the support of the city council. However, due to the combined effect of decisions made during the pandemic, a lack of financial support, and unrealistic technical expectations from teachers, the previous decisions became barriers. The initiative failed to provide a viable alternative. The case of engaging digital ecosystems in Catalonia begs a series of questions that are key to understanding both the conditions of platformisation as the dominant arrangement of digital ecosystems globally as well as the situated possibility to imagine alternatives. To what extent were pedagogical reasons considered in the process of platformisation? How did Google Classroom attain a seemingly hegemonic position in recent efforts to materialise a digital education ecosystem in Catalonia? If not pedagogical, what are the logics and discourses driving discussions off school digitalisation? After responding to these questions, we argue that situating pedagogical elements at the center of the discussion can lower teachers’ technical expectations and make it possible to use a larger spectrum of digital technologies that can respond to specific pedagogical needs and amplify digital sovereignty in terms of infrastructure, data, and tools design.

Jacovkis, J., Parcerisa, L., Calderón-Garrido, D., & Moreno-González, A. (2023). Plataformas y digitalización de la educación pública: Explorando su adopción en Cataluña. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 31. Kerssens, N., & van Dijck J. (2022). Governed by edtech? Valuing pedagogical autonomy in a platform society. Harvard Educational Review, 92(2), 284-303. Rivera-Vargas, P., Calderón-Garrido, D., Jacovkis, J. & Parcerisa. L. (2024). BigTech digital platforms in public schools. Concerns and confidence of students and families. NAER, Journal of new approaches in educational research. 13(1). In press