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Acer is taking part in Bett, the biggest education technology exhibition in the world, this week.
The hardware brand is also covering the role of Technology Partner for Esports @ Bett.
The event is being held from January 24th to 26th 2024 at London’s ExCel Convention Centre, in the UK.
Boasting over 30,000 delegates from across the world, Bett is the place to meet a global community of educators and changemakers, create connections and spark ideas, strategies and real solutions to improve global competitiveness through quality and innovation in education.
During the three days of the event, visitors will find Acer in the Esport arena | booth NJ70, where fully functioning 3D and gaming settings will give the opportunity to see Acer’s innovative solution designed for schools.
Esports in education: a data-driven growth story
Esports’ monumental rise in the educational landscape is backed by a staggering 75% viewership increase since 2020, hitting an all-time high of 2.76bn hours watched in 2023, according to a Stream Hatchet and GameSquare report. This surge reflects the sector’s potential to reinvent educational paradigms.
With live sporting events on digital platforms experiencing an increase in viewership, esports stands as a powerful tool to engage students and cultivate skills in collaboration, creativity and STEAM disciplines.
Furthermore, it offers practical experience in video and sound editing, graphic design, broadcasting and event management, laying a solid foundation for academic and professional excellence.
Acer’s success story with Barnsley College aims to demonstrate how esports can be seamlessly and effectively integrated into academic curricula, thereby driving interest in STEAM fields. The company’s technology aligns with the needs of contemporary education, empowering students to channel their passion for gaming into viable career paths.
During a keynote speech at the Bett show on January 25th 2024 – “Level up your academic studies with Esports” – Acer, Intel and Barnsley College will talk about the school’s adoption of Esports into its curriculum, facilitated by technology.
This will include Roberto Rosaschino, EMEA Education Senior Manager at Acer, Snow White, Director, US Education Sales Strategy at Intel, and Enzo Guarini, Higher Education Pathway Leader – Esports at Barnsley College.
The session will focus on the role of esports in creating new educational and career paths within higher education and in cultivating entrepreneurial skills, also encompassing the integration of esports into K12 education, with a special focus on inclusivity and the pivotal role of women in the sector.
The role of 3D and AI in education
Immersive learning is the latest frontier of education, upgrading learners’ experience to enhance their information retainment skills thanks to engagement. Within a dedicated SpatialLabs area, visitors will be able to engage with Acer’s SpatialLabs Experience Center Pro, poised to transform educational approaches within the Esports domain.
This platform empowers students and professionals to visualise and interact with complex 3D models, fostering an advanced level of engagement and understanding. It’s an illustrative example of how Acer’s immersive 3D technologies are being adopted in esports education, enhancing not just the gaming experience but also providing valuable, transferable skills in 3D design and development.
At the beginning of January, at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, Acer announced two new additions to its SpatialLabs stereoscopic 3D lineup: the new Aspire 3D 15 SpatialLabs™ Edition laptop – coming with AI-powered applications for glasses-free 3D viewing and content creation – and the Predator SpatialLabs View 27 gaming monitor.
Like 3D, also the Artificial Intelligence (AI) is impacting the way we learn. AI and education go hand-in-hand to enhance the learning experience for students. Teachers can streamline their lesson plans and create more interesting and appealing class content. Likewise, young learners can utilize AI to enhance the learning process and gain a better understanding of complex topics.
The Acer Chromebook Plus 515 empowers students with advanced capabilities to maximise their productivity and express their creativity with ease. With Firefly-powered generative AI features and the precision of Photoshop together with Adobe Express’s all-in-one app, students have everything they need to create images and designs their content. (Terms & Conditions apply. See chromebook.com/perks for full offer details. Limited time offer. Applicable while supplies last)
There’s also the Chromebook Spin:
Built-in editing capabilities also enable quicker and easier photo and video enhancements. For example, the AI-powered Magic Eraser feature in the built-in Google Photos app easily removes unwanted distractions, while a few easy clicks of the movie creation tools provide advanced video edits.
When Acer Chromebook Plus schools are away from an internet connection, they can now take advantage of File Sync, which ensures Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides are always accessible via Chromebook Plus File Manager, whether online or offline. (You must be connected to the internet to set up this feature. Download required. Must have available storage space in Drive)
Acer’s range of TravelMate laptops with Windows 11 Pro embeds Microsoft’s Copilot, which is an AI-powered chat service created for organisations and schools. It encourages students and workers to be more creative and efficient in their tasks and allows them to quickly generate content, summarize documents, and learn new skills. It can even teach coding and other complex topics.
Most importantly, Copilot ensures data security and will not leak user, school, or business data outside the organization.
Find Acer at Bett 2024
- Acer stand: North Gallery, stand NJ70, Jan 24 to Jan 26
- Keynote speech: North Gallery, Esports Theatre, Jan 25th from 10:30am
- Tournament: North Gallery, Esports Theatre, Jan 25th from 3.30pm
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
