How to donate laptops for home learning amid COVID19 lockdown
Howard Lake | 12 January 2021 | News
Ten months after the first national lockdown, with schools across England once again closed due to the pandemic, it is clear that many students still do not have access to a computer, laptop or data. Here are some of the initiatives that have been launched, or re-launched, to tackle this as a matter of urgency.
The lack of access to digital technology for all pupils is demonstrating existing inequalities in households. Now that the government has agreed that children in England without access to sufficient technology at home may now attend school, school numbers have gone up in many places, and these children and their families face the further disadvantage of being exposed to coronavirus in a way in which more affluent families are not.
One point to make early on: please do not turn up to a school to drop off donated technology. Apart from COVID-19 safety issues, they will not be set up to accept, handle, store, refurbish and distribute technology equipment. You should use some of the services featured here.
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BBC launches laptop donation campaign for home learning
Local BBC radio stations are asking for laptop donations for students who need them for online learning, the BBC announced last week.
With all schools closed across England, teaching has gone fully online. However, not all students have access to a computer or laptop. The BBC’s campaign aims to reach these children by asking the general public to donate their unwanted laptops, computers, mobile phones or tablets.
The BBC says it is working with charities to collect, wipe and share the laptops with children who need them. One of these is Business To Schools who are working with schools to connect them with donated equipment.
The BBC said on its website: “Last summer local BBC radio stations helped members of the public donate thousands of old laptops and tablets for schoolchildren to use across England. For those pupils, who were sharing phones at home while learning in lockdown, it made a huge difference. With schools now closed again we’re once more asking you to help those pupils still in need.”
If you are a technology or data company with schemes that can help with access to the internet, or a charity not listed who would like to share details with the BBC’s Make a Difference Give a Laptop campaign, contact your local BBC radio station or email en*****@bb*.uk.
Find out more about donating a device on the BBC website.
Greenham Trust launches Laptops for Lockdown Learning fund
Greenham Trust has launched a ‘Laptops for Lockdown Learning’ appeal to raise funds so it can ensure every child in its area of operation who needs one, has one.
Hosted on The Good Exchange, Greenham Trust will match up to £250,000 of donations made to the appeal. Every £1 donated will be matched, with the capability to raise £500,000 to help schools buy laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children to learn from.
The campaign initially serves local children in the Greenham Trust’s area of operation, which is the West Berkshire and North Hampshire region. However, if The Good Exchange also attracts other funders, corporates and the wider community onto the platform, similar programmes could be created in other areas of the UK.
Tech for UK
Tech for UK has published a ‘Lockdown Laptops Map’ to feature nearly 1,000 schools that still need laptops to provide to children to learn remotely. It also features technology providers who will convert donated items, and a guide on how to donate.
Reboot
Reboot is “an interactive platform providing practical steps which enables schools, charities and community groups to set up your own device distribution programme”. Their free guide explains how you can collect, restore and rehome devices, to give them and their new owners a brighter future.
The site was set-up rapidly this month by Third Sector Lab.
Schools fundraising for digital equipment
Some schools and their PTA have set up fundraising campaigns specifically to fund technology donations for all their pupils.
Some, like Cotham School, have experienced not only financial donations but donations of new equipment:
Fundraising via Amazon wish list
Other schools are fundraising for tech equipment via an Amazon wishlist. In this way they can specify the items they require and in what volume so that donors know what or how much to donate:
Other appeals
Other giving platforms are also running appeals to fund tech for pupils at home:
Reduced or free data costs
Studying from home also requires an adequate mobile data or a broadband connection and many families struggle to afford these, in addition to the laptops/tablets required. This was highlighted by MPs in June 2020 according to The Guardian’s Give 1m UK children reliable broadband or risk harming their education, MPs say.
BT is one provider that is helping:
Established sources of donated tech
Of course there are plenty of charities and organisations that have accepted donated tech products for years in order to refurbish them and distribute them to other charities or individuals. In general it is far better to use a specialist service like these rather than dropping off donated used technology products to schools which are not qualified to store, process and handle them.
Other sources include:
- Charity Digital Exchange – part of the TechSoup global initiative, they offer software and some hardware to charities, and have helped 32,000 charities in this way since 2001.
- In Kind Direct – accepts donated goods from companies and delivers them to charities that need them. It covers all kinds of products, and sometimes this can include technology products.
Donate printers?
Focusing on the right equipment is essential in order to help students and schools now. For example, adding printers to the list of essential technology for home-based students is perhaps a step too far. Printer ink is very expensive and, unless donated in bulk with a printer (and the right kind of ink), is going to limit the utility of the printer in households that couldn’t afford a laptop in the first place.
Lessons that do not require printing is one way approach to avoid adding printers to study-at-home requirement lists.
Donating IT to pupils internationally
There are other charities that accept donated technology to donate to disadvantaged pupils outside the UK.
The Edinburgh-based Turing Trust, set up in 2009 in honour of Alan Turing by his family, honours his legacy by providing quality IT resources and training to schools in sub-Saharan Africa. It works in Malawi, Ghana and the UK.
Other government initiatives to support pupils
You can find out more about support for digitally disadvantaged pupils in Wales and in Northern Ireland.
More resources?
Are there other resources in the UK for donating laptops and technology for pupils studying from home? If so, add them in the comments below.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.