Donna Tyrrell

Teacher and Software Tester

Director

About

Our Origin Story

DigEd was founded by a group of people, a passionate educator, IT Infrastructure Manager, and an inspired entrepreneur, who spent years working on the frontline of technology around the world.

Faced with tight budgets and outdated hardware, one of our founding members, Evan Connell, found himself tasked with a seemingly impossible challenge: to equip an entire classroom with 30 working laptops on a budget of just $2,000.

Through resourcefulness, creativity, and a lot of hands-on tech work, he sourced second-hand laptops, replaced the hard drives with SSDs, and installed a free, linux based system and Firefox. Instead of expensive desktop apps, students accessed free online versions of Microsoft 365 through their browsers — and it worked.

That moment was pivotal.

What began as a short-term fix quickly revealed a much larger opportunity: schools don’t need expensive licensing, complex systems, or new hardware to give students meaningful access to modern digital tools.

They just need better infrastructure. That’s when DigEd was born.

At DigEd, our mission is to create simple, sustainable, and scalable open-source systems for education — and to offer a credible, powerful alternative to the Microsoft-dominated education ecosystem.

We build systems that schools can own, customise, and trust — without recurring licensing fees, hardware lock-ins, or third-party dependence

• We believe every school should have:
• Secure data and user management
• Reliable, fast access to digital tools on older devices
• Integrated cloud collaboration systems
• Real support from real educators and developers
• Control over their own digital environment

Why Open Source?

Because schools deserve freedom, transparency, and flexibility.

Open-source software lets you:

• Own your infrastructure

• Modify or extend tools to suit your students

• Avoid vendor lock-in or licensing shocks

• Keep your data in your control

• Foster digital literacy and IT skills in the classroom

We believe teaching students on open platforms prepares them for real-world problem solving and empowers future developers, engineers, and tech leaders.

Our Values

DigEd is built on values that matter in education:

• Simplicity – Our systems are easy to use and don’t require IT experts to run.
• Resilience – Built to work on older hardware and limited networks.
• Partnership – We work with schools, not just for them.
• Sustainability – Extending device life reduces waste and saves money.
• Equity – Every school deserves access to quality digital infrastructure, not just those with the biggest budgets.

Let’s Build the Future Together

DigEd was created by educators for educators. We know how powerful digital tools can be — and we know how frustrating and expensive they’ve become under traditional systems.

We’re here to change that.

We’re creating a pathway for schools to thrive without breaking their budgets. We’re building systems that are open, equitable, and built to last.

Thanks for being part of the journey.

Want to Get Involved?

We’re actively looking for:

• Schools to join our pilot program

• Teachers to help shape the system

• Partners in government and industry

• Funders and supporters of digital equity

If you believe in giving every student access to modern, secure, affordable technology — we’d love to talk.