The network of university institutions and multimedia equipment specialist Boulanger is working across France to reduce the digital divide between students. As part of this process, dubbed “#1 student1ordi,” Vannes’s Boulanger store collects your old laptops to give them a facelift, until September 30.
Bridging the digital divide
Next, the Fondation Université de Bretagne Sud will take care of their grants to students who are not equipped, and therefore they must “either work directly on their smartphone, or go to the university library or the computer room on our campus, which are not closed in the evenings and weekends”, explains Véronique. Bosc-Burel, Director of the University of Brittany Sud Foundation. If exams / tests are always done manually, then it is almost impossible to study without a personal laptop, or only to access online resources recommended by teachers, or also to participate in serious games – for example, simulating work situations. “It is so natural that in the end we forget that there is a digital divide, revealed by the first confinement. Since then, we have organized ourselves, and the university has found the resources to finance the purchase and loan of computers and tablets to students. But there are always needs”, assures Véronique Bosc- Burel, Director of Fondation Université Bretagne Sud.
Old computers, but not antiques
At the moment, the harvest of old machines is rather insignificant. By the end of July, the Boulanger Store had received only five computers, only three of which qualified for proper restoration. “We don’t take laptops that have a pre-Windows 8 OS for PCs, and OS 10.9 for Macs, otherwise there’s a whole bunch of apps that don’t work,” defines Arnaud Quignon, Boulanger’s Multimedia Manager Vannes.
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