Escolas Conectadas is a project designed to promote inclusion in the world of digital culture and the development of 21st century learning. The courses offered are centered on the experience exchange between teachers and the collective construction of knowledge.

Escolas Conectadas is an initiative by ProFuturo, a program of the Telefônica Vivo Foundation and "la Caixa" Foundation that, among other strategies, encourages distance learning for teachers. By practicing innovative teaching methodologies, the project, which began in 2015, promotes the inclusion of teachers in the digital culture and encourages the development of 21st century skills in the school community.

https://www.escolasconectadas.org.br/

• Brazil

The project's replicability feature is evident in different dimensions. The most striking one is the unfolding of the learning acquired in the courses by the teachers into tangible actions that can be implemented with the students in the schools, adaptable to different stages of basic education.
Also, cases, which are backed up by the Growth Models theory (CAVALLO, 2004), play an important role in replicability. According to Cavallo, in order for teachers, students, and other members of the school community to change education, the coordination of three elements is required: (i) references (examples of what an innovative education can be like), (ii) models (paradigmatic behaviors that translate educational innovations), and (iii) symbolic expressions (language or vocabulary to express the differences between an innovative teaching practice and one considered non-innovative). Along the initiative, cases have been produced with the aforementioned theoretical foundation, i.e., case studies formatted as newspaper language content that promote the dissemination of the project's innovation ideas, and of education as a whole, in its visibility and impact documentation, thereby becoming knowledge management products.
A third and critical element that strengthens the project's replicability is the coordination with education departments. As it is directly linked to public school teachers, Escolas Conectadas has a close relationship with public authorities, including state and municipal education departments and entities such as the National Union of Municipal Education Managers (UNDIME), which integrate the platform's courses in their training proposals, boosting impacts and results.

One of Conectadas Schools' major challenges is to combine the large audience scale with a meaningful and transformative training for teachers and students. To scale up, two acquisition strategies are executed, called "open and closed classes". The open classes allow any Brazilian teacher to spontaneously sign up for the Platform. To this end, processes and interfaces are systematically improved and redesigned according to the results of satisfaction, browsability and impact surveys. Low-cost tactics are utilized to attract new participants, as well as to increase their chances of satisfactorily concluding the courses and joining new ones. As a result, the project has grown to scales of thousands of participants, highly dispersed throughout Brazil, innovating in dissemination, access, and retention strategies.
The closed classes, from partnerships with education departments and other entities, consist of investing in the maintenance and consolidation of relationships with the government, always based on a sound pedagogical background and historical documentation of results. Both fronts ensure that the project reaches a considerable number of beneficiary teachers, a public that is simultaneously strengthened by institutional partnerships and becoming more widespread.
However, attracting teachers is just the first step in the project's objectives. Offering a welcoming learning space and an effective listening process for teachers' needs is another distinctive feature of Escolas Conectadas. Through a Welcome to Educator service, a listening space was established with the purpose of ensuring that the teachers' vision is reflected on the project's directions. The Welcome for Teachers service works closely with Data Science, so that the findings influence pedagogical, communication, and development decisions.

Escolas Conectadas is an initiative by ProFuturo, a program of the Telefônica Vivo Foundation and "la Caixa" Foundation that promotes the inclusion of teachers in the digital culture and encourages the development of 21st century skills in the school community. There are more than 47 training courses in our catalog, with courses such as "I want to innovate, where do I start?", "Incorporating ICTs in planning", and "Basic digital competence for education". The courses are organized into seven learning experiences and possible training paths, so that the teacher is able to increasingly create a unique experience tailored to his or her needs and challenges. The possible paths are based on the themes of Time and Space, Resumé, Practices, Relationships, and Digital Culture, with titles such as: "Rescuing learning and the passion for learning", "Hybrid teaching and active methodologies", "Inspiring uses of technology", "Well-being, welcoming, and emotional development", "Literacy and language practices", "Environment and sustainability", and "School management". To reach out to teachers, we have an open platform for everyone, and we have entered into partnerships with municipal and state education networks and with the National Union of Education Managers (Undime) to include our courses in their teacher training programs. Escolas Conectadas is recognized by the community, with more than 200 thousand teachers registered in our database. The courses offered were thoughtfully designed to meet the demands of the Brazilian educational environment and are distributed in two modalities, mediated and self-training, with varied course loads and themes. The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in its projects is a Telefônica Vivo Foundation distinguishing feature, as a tool to connect people to knowledge. This enables teachers to take an active role in the promotion of the information society, and in the development of learning that meets today's challenges.