• Acer has joined Schoolscape 2024 as a sponsor and participant.
• Acer will showcase its Acer for Education range at the conference taking place throughout August.
• Acer Africa director Glenn du Toit will host a presentation about AI and what the future holds.

On Thursday, the first of three Schoolscape 2024 conferences will kick off in Cape Town and Acer has announced both its sponsorship of the conference and its participation in the events.

While it may be headquartered in Taiwan, Acer has been steadily affirming its presence in South Africa. Alongside the sponsorship of Schoolscape, the company recently announced it’d be manufacturing monitors locally.

The Schoolscape conference brings together educators from Grade R all the way through to tertiary education. Acer plans to engage with educators to showcase its Acer for Education range which covers primary and high schools, colleges, universities, labs, and even esports.

“Schoolscape attendees can visit the Acer stand and try Acer’s Windows 11 and ChromeOS devices first-hand. These rugged, affordable, and future-proof laptops are designed to enhance education, including specialised features such as user-sensing technology to enhance security and provide reminders to take breaks. They incorporate new AI features to smooth online video lessons and durability for a day at school,” Acer said in a press release.

Acer Africa director, Glenn du Toit will host a presentation during the conference under the title “Shifting from Search to Ask”. The presentation will explore how generative artificial intelligence is changing the world how to prepare for a future with the technology at centre stage.

“There is a lot of uncertainty about AI and how it affects our future, but that’s just one aspect of the larger technology conversation,” says Du Toit. “Schoolscape provides an open and engaging space where all education’s stakeholders will gather and share their thoughts on how we prepare ourselves, our students, and our classrooms. I look forward to having conversations with teachers and technologists, especially to hear their ambitions and concerns on how they want to use technology.”

Schoolscape 2024 takes place on 15th August in Cape Town, 22nd August in KwaZulu-Natal and in Gauteng on 29th August. The conference has five main areas of focus namely Edtech Software, School Management, Coding and Robotics, Edtech Hardware, and Finance and Administration.

Attendees can focus on their top priorities and explore other opportunities to modernise education.

“The top complaint from teachers about technology is that there’s sometimes more focus on adding new gadgets to classrooms and not enough emphasis on aligning technology with classroom goals,” says Ashleig Viljoen, Schoolscape’s General Manager and Director.

“Schoolscape exists to address this issue. We provide a space where educators and edtech providers can meet and share experiences, without any pressure. We also have a great selection of speakers to entertain and inform our attendees, and we’re thrilled to have Glenn and the crew from Acer Africa to be part of the proceedings. Together, we can move education forward,” the general manager adds.

For more information about the conference, including where to get tickets, head here.