With many parents working from home since March due to the pandemic, it comes as no shock that many students — from elementary school to university — have also had to adapt to a new reality: e-learning from home.
This has dramatically switched up the day-to-day dynamic for families across Canada (and across the world) with parents suddenly being tasked with staying on top of their own traditional nine-to-five workloads while simultaneously keeping their peripheral vision on their kids, making sure that they’re staying up-to-date with their virtual school work.
While many organizations typically ensure that their employees are equipped with all the tools they need to excel at their jobs, the same cannot be said for most students; the responsibility of buying the appropriate learning technology is often left up to the individual’s family.
In fact, a recent study from Statistics Canada revealed that many Canadian families cannot afford the adequate amount of technology for their children to efficiently e-learn at home — which poses a huge problem and puts many Canadian students and families at a massive learning disadvantage.
When it comes to something as essential as education, students shouldn’t be penalized because their families can’t financially afford to purchase the required technology. Thankfully, certain tech leaders are stepping up and playing a huge part in contributing to solving this problem.
When the pandemic first hit back in the spring of 2020, Samsung Canada was quick to work with their long-standing partner, Autism Speaks Canada (ASC), donating 1,000 tablets to individuals on the spectrum as well as their families with the goal of easing their everyday tech challenges. This resulted in over 4,000 applications submitted across Canada during the first 24 hours of the campaign alone. It became immediately clear that the autistic community in Canada is in need of enhanced access to technology.
Samsung is continuing to uphold their commitment and donate tablets to those in the autism community. They're donating an additional 1,000 tablets to organizations dedicated to education in the autism community. Autism Speaks Canada is now accepting applications.
Samsung Canada is committed to enabling learning for all by connecting people and technology. Since 2014, together with their partner Autism Speaks Canada, they have donated over 3,500 tablets to families and service organizations to foster closer connections and increase access to learning opportunities through technology.