How Acer improved learning experience of Escola Global’ students
The Escola Global Group is an advanced education institution in the north centre of Portugal.
Born in 1979 with the creation of the Paraìso dos Pequeninos, a preschool and primary school with english, music and gymnastic classes (very innovative for the Portugal at the time), Escola Global has grown over the years, with the opening of Terras de Santa Maria school in 1994 and Avò Aninhas preschool in 2017, covering all educational needs, from kindergarten to high school.
Today Escola Global employs 39 professors and 5 kindergarten teachers which support 673 students.
Technology is essential to prepare students for their future
Escola Global aims to educate its students in order to make them complete adults, providing them with all the necessary tools to live and integrate in a constantly changing society.
The choice of introducing computers into the school plan was ideal for creating a personalized and integrated school plan that begins from kindergarten to high school, facilitating learning with specific softwares and allowing the students to use technology in their everyday life, a pivot of any profession of the future.
It was therefore necessary tools not only able to provide advanced features to students, but also that they were resistant and adaptable to use by children of all ages, from children to teenagers.
How Acer TravelMate Spin B118 fit with Escola Global needs
In 2017 the Escola Global Group decided to equip itself with 600 Acer Travelmate Spin B118 and to distribute them to all its students, from preschool to 12th grade.
With a long battery life of 13 hours, and a 11.6-inch anti reflective rotatable 360-degree multitouch screen, this Acer notebook model perfectly fits with all the needs of a school environment.
The screen’s flexibility allows for a very multi-purpose usage: it can be placed like a normal notebook, used in display mode or tent mode for group projects and sharing and in tablet mode for learning on the move.
“Every student received the same equipment, regardless of their education level, and started using it as their work-tool, both in the classroom and at home”, says Nuno Moutinho, founder and CEO of the Escola Global Group, “the choice of Acer equipment was made based on many criteria, from robustness and reliability to price and warranty.”
The Travelmate Spin B118 has also been chosen for its versatility: youngest students in fact use it especially in a tactile way, while the older children, able to manipulate more complex features, use – in addition to the touch – also the Acer Active Stylus pen and the keyboard.
The 360-degree screen lets pupils use computers in any environment (in the classroom, in the garden, on the ground) and its resistance guarantees its durability regardless of the intensive use by children. To further meet the needs of Escola Global, Acer has also extended the warranty to 3 years.
School staff made a very positive balance after TravelMate adoption
The new equipment is used by the students in many activities, and the project was put into place with the help of Semicro, an Acer and Microsoft partner, helping configures the machines according to the project needs.
“With this Acer equipment”, explains Nuno Moutinho, “there are no limits to the students’ curiosity and will to learn”.
Professor Carina Carvalho, who teaches primary school, said that “The computers’ introduction made the relationship between students and teachers more bidirectional; and because the classes became more interactive and captivating, the students now relate to us in a different way, they start to see in us someone who understands them”.
In the end, also Diogo Azeredo, middle school STEM teacher, made a very positive balance: “The students have become much more independent, they have become content creators. With these notebooks’ introduction in the classroom, we now have new ways to teach, we can use new teaching models, new ways of pedagogy”.