Digital autonomy in education, also a question for AI tools

This week, NEMO Kennislink wrote about digital autonomy in education. The digital learning environment of almost every school runs under the bonnet on Microsoft, Google, or Apple. Not because it is the best solution, but because it is the easiest choice. The result is that pupils learn from a young age that working digitally is the same as working with a handful of American tech companies.

PO-Raad, VO-raad, SIVON, Kennisnet, and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) are therefore working together to give schools more control. Over their own data, their own infrastructure, and their own technology choices, partly by encouraging European alternatives.

The same question arises with AI tools for education, and too little thought is being given to this. Do you choose a tool that locks you into the language models of a single American company, or do you keep control over that choice yourself?

At EduGPT, we give schools that choice. No lock-in to a single model, but a choice of multiple models, including European ones such as Mistral and EuroLLM. Digital autonomy does not stop at the learning environment; it should also apply to AI.

Would you like to read the article from NEMO Kennislink? You can do so here.

NEMO Kennislink (2026). Schools choose digital autonomy.

Image: Computer classroom of the Baozhong Junior High School, via Wikimedia Commons, licence CC BY 2.0