Classrooms Without Walls: The Digital Revolution Jalisco and the U.S. Cannot Afford to Miss in 2025
- Editorial
- Sep 10
- 3 min read
If the competitiveness of cities is defined by the talent they nurture, then educational innovation through digital platforms is the main highway. In Jalisco, this shift is no longer a promise: the state’s ecosystem already integrates a public broadband network, content portals, and large-scale teacher training. RED Jalisco, presented as the first public high-speed network connecting all 125 municipalities, was financed with 5 billion pesos and deploys more than 5,600 km of fiber and tens of thousands of access points. Its plan is to provide free connectivity to schools, hospitals, and public spaces, strengthening online and hybrid learning.
The pedagogical backbone is called Recrea. In 2024 alone, the Recrea Academy conference closed with 81,747 participants, more than 784,000 online connections, and 2.2 million streams, clear evidence of large-scale digital teacher training. Added to this is APPrende, the state educational platform that centralizes resources for students, teachers, and families. Together, these initiatives show that Jalisco has moved from simply “using technology” to teaching with technology, with learning communities operating year-round.
The results are built on a foundation of connectivity that showed unprecedented advances in 2024: in Mexico, 73.6% of households already had internet access and 83.1% of the population aged six and older used the web, according to INEGI’s ENDUTIH 2024 published in May 2025. This growth—1.9 percentage points compared to 2023—helps close gaps for online learning, though lags remain in southern states and rural areas. For Jalisco and its metropolitan region, the combination of public fiber and greater household internet usage is the hinge that allows the shift from pilot projects to digital curricular programs at scale.
Across the border, digital school infrastructure also advanced in 2024: 74% of U.S. school districts now meet the FCC’s goal of 1 Mbps per student, a leap from 57% in 2020. That bandwidth enables video, simulators, and adaptive real-time assessments. But the ecosystem is not static: the E-Rate program remains the backbone of internet discounts and internal networks, and in 2024 the FCC launched a cybersecurity pilot of up to $200 million for schools and libraries. Even so, in 2025 the Senate voted to reverse the expansion of E-Rate that allowed loans of hotspots off-campus, a reminder that digital education policy can move forward or backward with a single vote.
By 2024, the political and economic balance was clear: connectivity is no longer the main bottleneck, but rather the quality of content and teacher training. The Recrea figures show critical mass for updating practices; meanwhile, the University of Guadalajara launched UDG Plus to expand its digital offer and skillsets; and federally, Prepa en Línea-SEP maintained more than 128,000 active enrollments, consolidating online high school as a permanent route. These milestones benefit interconnected cities with productive clusters—Guadalajara, Tlaquepaque, Zapopan, El Salto, Lagos de Moreno—where demand for digital skills (advanced office tools, data, responsible generative AI) is already a hiring standard.
What do the 2024 figures tell us for 2025? First, that scale matters: growing from 66,000 to nearly 82,000 conference participants in one year boosts the odds of didactic adoption. Second, that the household matters: with 73.6% of homes connected, the design of assignments and tutoring must assume mixed scenarios (synchronous-asynchronous) and include targeted support for the remaining 26.4%. Third, that educational cybersecurity has become a budgetary requirement—the FCC pilot acknowledges this—and should be replicated with state-level guidelines in Mexico. Finally, that interoperability between platforms (assessment, LMS, identity) makes the difference between a flashy policy and a transformative one.
My diagnosis for 2025: Jalisco and neighboring cities have a unique window to close the usage gap and turn connectivity into measurable learning outcomes. The emphasis should be on three fronts. One, competency-based content and evaluation: producing bilingual learning objects aligned with key sectors (electronics, logistics, digital health) and measuring mastery, not hours. Two, AI-augmented teaching: didactic guides, automated feedback, and learning analytics that reduce administrative load—with ethical safeguards—so teachers can focus on pedagogy. Three, equity beyond the classroom: keeping libraries and community centers as Wi-Fi study hubs, especially if U.S. hotspots are restricted and while BEAD funds finish rolling out to close the last mile.
The risk lies in underestimating politics. Public connectivity can be politicized; cybersecurity budgets can be diluted; and cross-border regulation (children’s data, copyright, AI in education) is moving faster than classrooms. The opportunity is greater: cities that learn at scale—with empowered teachers, robust public networks, and measurable achievement metrics—will attract investment and retain talent. The decision in 2025 is not technological: it is governmental and educational. Do we want classrooms without walls… or walls without learning?
Written by: Editorial
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