The viewpoint of this article is partly political. It seeks to match the realities of digital education with the institutional policies on which it depends, which suffer from a lack of understanding of the non-neutral nature of technology. Instead of claiming to master new technologies and subsequently flooding educational institutions with material, we argue that they should be examined through the prism of the analog devices that preceded them, are still able to accompany and enlighten them. Such is the case with the notion of the network, whose collaborative foundations will be observed through Lipman’s model of the community of inquiry, then subjected to qualitative practical data. We will deduce from these observations that the analogical class-network enables us to better understand its digital counterpart, and that the network’s operating conditions depend on the values that underlie them. These values need to be identified, questioned, and brought together at the heart of classroom practices and exchanges. They are the prerequisite for making use of the network into a virtuous circle.