Five city schools will get infrastructures, teaching resources and tech support to achieve a secure digital transformation through auditable and agile open-source technology.

A comprehensive set of tools will be automatically rolled out in the next few months, including Moodle, Nextcloud, Big Blue Button, Jitsi and Ehterpad, and become fully operational by March.

By offering an open and auditable alternative to mainstream private software the idea is to facilitate education, particularly online teaching in safe environments, where the data generated are managed, controlled and audited by those who generate them.

The goals of the plan are to:

• Develop 100% auditable and competitive open-source software for digital education.
• Promote the use of completely secure infrastructures which guarantee the privacy and sovereignty of personal data.
• Form an educational community in the use of these technologies.
• Develop critical spirit with regard to the internet and digital environments.
• Foster knowledge of basic concepts on privacy, security and digital rights.
• Generate ethical, evenly distributed and local enterprise.
• Reduce expenditure in the long term and increase the autonomy and freedom of choice of education centres.
• Research and design seeking the sustainability of the project and its application in other education centres.

To this end, the Xnet-designed project is based on:

• Secure servers with ethical criteria which respect human and digital rights.
• A package of auditable open-source apps and tools adapted to the needs of education centres.
• A support service to help centres in the use of the new systems.

The project is part of the municipal shock plan for digital inclusion, developed by the City Council in an effort to guarantee equal opportunities in the current context of social and economic crisis.