Education
As technology advances, so does the desire to learn, create and explore. Therefore, we work with local non-profit organizations around the world to promote the exploration of values created by the integration of technology and education. In this way, we create more opportunities for disadvantaged groups and young students and equip them to grow in the information economy.
Increasing Digital Opportunities in Remote Regions
We are proud of our products, but we are even more proud of the things people are able to achieve through our products. We are devoted to increasing digital opportunities in remote regions because we believe that using technology helps reduce the education divide and promote digital inclusion for children. We also believe that children can create greater opportunities for the future through the use of technology. In 2013, the Acer Digital Opportunities for Remote Regions program included Taiwan, China, Africa and Myanmar.
Digital Mobile Vans — Providing Free Computer Education
In Taiwan, we worked together with the Hanguang Education Foundation in launching the Acer Digital Mobile Van in Hualien in June 2010, providing computer courses in a number of small communities. The program received a rousing response from the public. In April 2012, we expanded the program to include Yilan County. We currently have four Digital Mobile Vans carrying 105 laptops, projectors, wireless Internet equipment, lecturers and assistants, providing services to tribes and villages across Hualien and Yilan.
By late 2013, Digital Mobile Vans had already been dispatched 1,727 times, working with over 139 local non-profit organizations and teaching a total of 24,277 participants. These vans have covered a total mileage of 102,820 kilometers, enough to circumnavigate Taiwan 102 times. Their primary targets for service are children in rural areas, immigrants, and the elderly. Several organizations are long-time partners to the Digital Mobile Vans, and with the help of the vans' teams a number of students have earned their TQC (Techficiency Quotient Certification) computing qualifications.
In 2014, we aim to have the Digital Mobile Van project extend to Taitung County, offering even more rural residents opportunities to shape their own futures through technology.
Sowing Hope in Remote China
Since 2011, Acer has worked with the Ying Kuang Education Foundation to change the information education environment for children in impoverished rural China. In these three years, we have donated some 1,200 computers and 60 projectors to Ying Kuang Hope Elementary Schools in Guangxi, Shaanxi, Jilin, Qinghai, Chongqing, Heilongjiang, and Xinjiang.
Through these, we hope the children will have better access to the latest technology and learn computer skills that will help them bridge the education gap.
Building Digital Capability in Africa
In France, Acer is a long-time partner with SOS Children's Villages, providing care for underprivileged children and teens as well as helping empower vulnerable families and communities. Through SOS Children's Villages we have donated IT equipment to schools in Male, Burkina Faso, and Madagascar, and in 2013 we took that further with the donation of tablets to two villages in Togo. Acer France has also worked with the Deauville chapter of Rotary International, donating tablets and promoting IT education to The Rural House of Ambatomanga and the Fracasse School in Madagascar.
Additionally, we have sponsored an international volunteer team from Taiwan's Tsing Hua University as they traveled to the Republic of Sierra Leone. Using donated Acer notebooks, the volunteers were able to promote IT education and start training local computer teachers at Holy Rosary Senior Secondary School in Kenema. The seeds of IT education in the city were further cultivated through help in setting up a computer classroom at the school using Acer computers.
Acer Elite in China
We have been planning the Acer Elite program in China with a theme of "growth originates from practice" to help university students cultivate workplace capabilities through social practice. The program started in June 2011 and will run for a period of three years. The program currently covers 80 universities and colleges in 16 cities.
The elite involved in the project come from different grades and different departments. Students learn about competition and cooperation through a series of rich and colorful themed activities including workplace skills training and social viability training. Students are divided into groups to complete planning, implementation and promotional tasks for the Acer brand, the Olympics and social welfare projects.
By means of the Acer Elite program we hope to allow university students to experience the concepts of thinking outside themselves and exploring infinite possibilities, helping them to realize their value and become outstanding talent.
Digital Opportunities for Remote Schools in China
In China we provided sponsorship to the Rural Education Action Project* (REAP), organized by Stanford University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, by providing 200 computers to rural schools in Qinghai with the hope to help students and policymakers to develop effective policies and appropriate programs to improve the existing rural education system. We also cooperated with the Ying Kuang Educational Foundation in donating, through the Beijing Youth Development Foundation, 533 computers and 19 projectors to 16 Ying Kuang Hope Schools in Inner Mongolia and Yunnan. University students receiving Acer grants guided students in using and maintaining the computers.
*The Rural Education Action Project (REAP) is an organization established by Chinese and American academics to work for study and development of rural education in China.
Philippine Digital Opportunity Centers
In the Philippines, Acer donated to the establishment of three digital opportunity centers in remote areas. These have become community digital opportunity centers, providing community Internet café, printing, and computer learning services:
Sierra Madre Foothill Digita Opportunity Center in Bulacan: Cooperated with the Green Earth Heritage Foundation in donating nine computers.
Bohol Digital Opportunity Center: Cooperated with the Village Online Education Project (VOEP) in donating 20 desktop computers.
Pangasinan Digital Opportunity Center: Cooperated with VOEP in donating 10 computers.
Acer Digital Mobile Project in the Philippines
The Foundation donated 42 computers to another great cause in the Philippines, to the Aihu Foundation’s mobile computer learning center – a 40-feet-long “Van Aralan” (literally, the computer learning container) – that circuits around impoverished townships and villages around the country to offer disadvantaged people a chance at computer learning. Van Aralan makes a stay between three to nine weeks every town it visits, to offer free computer coaching lessons, including word processing, layout, data computing, etc.. Those who pass a qualification test at the end of the term would be awarded a certificate endorsed by the Philippines government.
Digital Opportunity Center Myanmar
Acer has joined with the ADOC 2.0 initiative to bridge the digital divide in Myanmar, donating notebooks and setting up a Digital Opportunity Center to help the newly opened up Myanmar address its technology needs.
Digital Opportunity Classroom in Indonesia
In order to improve the quality of education and reduce the digital divide, Acer Indonesia sponsored a digital classroom in the Putra Sampoerna Foundation's Sampoerna Academy and provided a digital system known as the Acer Classroom Manager to help manage computer learning activities and increase teaching efficiency.
Creating Opportunities for Young Students
The students of today are the leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs of tomorrow. We hope to be able to rouse their curiosity and inspire them to explore their potential. By means of our activities and sponsorships at Acer and the Acer Foundation, we have created educational, vocational and even entrepreneurial opportunities for countless students with the courage to face risks and embrace challenges.
Acer Incredible Green Contest
The Acer Foundation works with the Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy in organizing the Incredible Green Contest to encourage the new generation of young students to use ICT technology, and putting forward innovative, sustainable concepts for green living and making eco-friendly creative ideas a reality.
Over 2,000 teams and individuals from over 100 countries participated in this competition, with the final 12 teams invited to Taiwan for the finals, including teams from top-flight schools like Harvard University and China's Zhejiang University. The judging panel was made up of heavyweights in global sustainable development and the ICT industry, including former executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Yvo de Boer, former president of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Bjorn Stigson, Delta Electronics chairman Yancey Hai, United Microelectronics Corporation vice chairman-emeritus John Hsuan, and ITRI president Hsu Chueh-min.
The Ecobreeze team from National Taiwan University was the ultimate victors, receiving a prize of US$60,000. Using piezoelectricity, magnetism, and resonance, they created a replacement for traditional fan-based cooling systems that requires only 2%-5% of the electricity of traditional systems and can be used in computers and projectors. The 12 winning teams also had their works on display at Computex Taipei, one of the world's top three computer shows, as part of an effort to promote sustainability and green awareness.
Helping Underprivileged Students Gain Digital Competitiveness
To improve the digital competitiveness of economically disadvantaged students in Taiwan, we have