For almost a decade, Oak Knoll has published a Christmas Tech Guide capitalizing on the expertise of our Lower School Technology Integrator to recommend educational technology gifts for young people. This year, as a slight twist on the concept, we are providing a list of seven nonprofit organizations that work to provide educational technology tools, resources, and training to women in technology, older people, and students who are across the digital divide. Perhaps this list will inspire some of us to donate this holiday season to one of these non-profits in honor of someone we love and in place of a Christmas present.
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Maybe this holiday season, instead of treating a family member to the latest video game, treat a disabled person to one and help them improve their quality of life and break their social isolation. Since 2004, Able Gamers has been setting up and connecting disabled individuals through video game play while advocating for more accessible equipment and controllers in the video game industry. They were instrumental in Microsoft’s development of the Xbox Adaptive Controller.
Able Gamers partners with organizations, including hospitals and rehabilitation centers, to reach more individuals and link them to a nearby center to assist in setting up equipment and entering the gaming world. Beyond the social and emotional benefits of gaming to disabled shut-ins, there are therapeutic benefits to using control devices and joysticks. Donate here.
Child’s Play charity donates therapeutic games and technology directly to pediatric hospitals and domestic violence shelters around the globe — improving children’s lives through the power of play. This nonprofit funded some of the first Pediatric Gaming and Technology Specialists to work within children's hospitals. Now a new career field, these gaming experts work within hospitals to support gaming as therapy, integrate technology, and interact with and play technology games with young patients to improve their patient experience and outcomes. Make a cash donation or purchase merchandise to support the organization.
Code.org is well known for its popular Hour of Code challenge and for providing free K-12 curriculum to ensure all students across the globe have the opportunity to engage in computer science. The nonprofit’s efforts with teacher training, organizational partnerships, volunteer networks, advocacy work, and translation services are less well-known.
In addition, the organization offers a wide range of free do-at-home courses for any age group.
There are many ways to support the organization. Learn more here.
Girls Who Code encourages girls to study science, technology, engineering, and math, focusing specifically on computer science and coding. Girls Who Code clubs are now chartered worldwide and can be set up through the organization to run after-school coding workshops, short courses, and longer summer courses. So far, half of the young women who have learned coding through the organization come from “historically underrepresented groups.”
In addition to clubs, the organization offers college and career coaching for young women, college networking opportunities, and code-at-home programming. Girls Who Code’s mission is to build sisterhood, foster leadership, and decrease the gender gap in engineering and computer science. Donate here.
While streaming your holiday favorites over the internet or enjoying holiday e-cards and emails on your tablet or laptop, why not offer the same privilege to someone on the other side of the digital divide? Human-I-T turns your donations into low-cost or free internet for the economically disadvantaged and equitable access to devices, digital skills training, and tech support for needy communities.
Their network of community organizations, corporate sponsors, and government partners work together to ensure that access to technology is a right, not a privilege. Their environmentally conscious mission also includes e-waste drives and pick-ups and device recycling and reuse, diverting technology from landfills to benefit the planet. Individuals and companies can donate technology, funds, and crypto at the respective links.
Older Adults Technology Services (OATS)
Established in conjunction with the American Association of Retired People (AARP), Older Adults Technology Services aims to provide older adults with tools and training so they can harness the power of technology as they age and take advantage of today’s technology to lead fuller lives — regardless of their socioeconomic circumstances, geography, or educational background.
Originating in Brooklyn, NY and now located in neighborhood centers throughout New York and across the US, OATS seeks to enrich the lives of aging Americans not as measured by their technological competence but as measured by technology's ability to foster improvements in their social engagement, health and wellness, financial security, advocacy, and creative expression. As you are helping an older relative take advantage of a tech tool to enrich their lives this holiday season, amplify that gesture and donate to OATS here.
While most schools now equip their makers' spaces with 3-D printers, individuals increasingly purchase them for home use. Whether you have a 3-D printer or not, consider supporting this trail-blazing organization, which brings together “digital humanitarians” from around the world who incorporate 3-D printing technology to make free and low-cost prosthetic upper limb devices for children and adults in need.
The nonprofit organization provides open-source designs created by volunteers to help those who were born missing their fingers and hands or who have lost them due to war, natural disaster, illness, or accidents. Join the “Give the World a Helping Hand” movement and donate now.
At Oak Knoll, we believe every individual has a unique purpose and calling – and we help students of all faiths discover and celebrate that purpose to become the joyful, values-driven community members our world needs. Our world has so many needs, and this holiday season is an opportunity for all in the Oak Knoll Community to pay it forward and share the power of technology with those in need to improve their lives and facilitate them as they fulfill their own sense of purpose.
