Preparing for the 2026 school year is no longer just about choosing which digital tools to adopt. It is also—and perhaps above all—about a team’s ability to decide together which ones to leave out. Convergence Grenoble provides a framework for structuring this discussion, provided you know what to look for and how to match the available resources to the realities and constraints of the classroom.
GDPR compliance for digital tools: what the free version doesn’t tell you
A tool listed as free and suitable for schools is not automatically compliant enough. Compliance depends on how the tool is actually used, not on its name. The account used, the version selected, the sharing settings and the data retention terms all affect the actual level of protection.
Before incorporating a service into classroom practice, you need to examine the data the platform processes. A teacher who uploads documents containing students’ names to a service with servers outside the EU is not complying with the regulatory framework, even if the tool appears on an academic authority’s list. A software’s free version may also monetize data differently from its paid version.
We recommend systematically checking three things before using any tool in the classroom:
- Where the storage servers are located and which legal framework applies to the hosted data
- Data retention terms: how long data is kept, whether it is actually deleted when an account is closed, and whether third parties can access it
- How usage metadata is processed (login times, browsing paths, activity history), as it is often used even when content is encrypted
Teachers who want to log in to Convergence Grenoble will find a starting point for identifying resources approved by the education authority. This reduces risk but does not eliminate the need to check each tool individually.
Deciding together which tools to avoid as a teaching team
The most overlooked part of back-to-school planning is deciding what to remove. General-interest articles pile up lists of tools to adopt. The real problem is the opposite: using too many tools at once fragments practices and exhausts teams.
A teaching team that uses four quiz platforms, three storage spaces and two different messaging apps loses the consistency it thinks it gains through variety. Students, meanwhile, have to navigate conflicting interfaces without a stable point of reference.
Practical criteria for deciding whether to drop a tool
Dropping a tool should not be an arbitrary decision. It takes preparation and shared criteria. Here are some that work well in teaching team meetings:
- Does the tool duplicate a function already covered by an institutional service (apps.education.fr, the academic ENT)?
- Does its actual use over the past term justify the effort required to maintain it (updates, training new colleagues, technical support)?
- Would removing the tool undermine a specific teaching practice, or just a habit?
- Can the data already stored be exported cleanly before the service is discontinued?
This kind of collective decision-making requires dedicated time at the start of the year. It cannot be improvised between two meetings. The benefits become clear the following term: less fragmentation, fewer support requests and greater clarity for families.
Ministry guidelines on AI in the classroom: a factor in lesson planning
AI in education is now part of lesson planning, not just IT provision. The Ministry’s guidelines on the use of artificial intelligence influence the choice of classroom activities and how teachers design their lesson sequences.
In practical terms, a teacher planning to use an AI assistant to generate differentiated exercises needs to check in advance whether the service is actually available in their academic authority. Announcing a sovereign tool does not mean it is available locally. Grenoble, like other academic authorities, may be at a different stage of deployment.
Before building a year-long teaching plan around an AI assistant, it is best to confirm that it is actually accessible. A non-digital backup plan is still needed for every lesson sequence that depends on a tool whose availability at the start of the school year is not guaranteed.
Digital sobriety and local training in Grenoble
Local training on digital sobriety is available in the Grenoble area. This adds another dimension to discussions about tools by prompting teams to consider their actual impact. Adding a tool comes with an environmental and cognitive cost that its zero price can obscure.
Including this perspective in preparations for the 2026 school year makes it easier to justify dropping a service that is rarely used. Combining the environmental case with the educational one strengthens the team’s decision.
Institutional resources in Grenoble: start with the essentials
Apps.education.fr remains the core set of tools approved by the French Ministry of Education. Before looking for a third-party tool, we find that it covers most everyday needs: storage, video conferencing, collaborative editing and file sharing.
The impulse to look for an external tool often comes from not knowing what is already available on the official digital workspace. Exploring the institutional tools before adding anything external reduces GDPR risks and makes technical maintenance easier.
Réseau Canopé also offers free downloadable resources, including a teaching magazine suited to either primary or secondary education. These resources are not a substitute for a daily digital tool, but they can help structure thinking about the first lessons, classroom management and relationships with families.
Planning for the 2026 school year in Grenoble benefits from turning the usual approach on its head. Rather than accumulating digital tools in the hope of finding the right one, start with the institutional tools, check the actual compliance of every addition, and set aside team time to decide what to remove. This kind of collective discipline is what distinguishes a well-organized start to the school year from one that simply happens to you.
