In today’s world of advanced tech and constant activity, it’s more important than ever to be able to communicate effectively and immediately with others when necessary. Nowhere is this more true than in school environments. But unfortunately, old methods of communication in schools have become outdated and are easily overlooked or disregarded by today’s digital, on-the-go students and visitors.
To combat this, digital signage is your educational institution’s best method of communication. Not only is it cost-effective and easy to use, but it connects everyone on campus through reliable, dynamic, real-time messages in the form of general announcements, event schedules, greetings, class notes, lunch menus, and much more.
Displays set up in hallways and common rooms reach a wide majority of your school population, while displays inside classrooms give teachers more options for integrating technology with their lessons. Efficient, highly visible, and always relevant communication is why digital signage is important in your school.
With ongoing teacher shortages and budget challenges, the flexibility of your school technology is vital. IT departments work hard to keep up with the technological demands of education today while choosing tech that integrates with what they already have and is easy for anyone to use effectively. The right digital signage platform allows IT departments to consolidate their efforts, operating all their signage from a central location using the appropriate app.
An agnostic digital signage platform can work on any connected display, including TVs, projectors, screens, and smart screens. New messages can be created on one display in one specific classroom, or you can display the same message on all connected displays throughout the campus. Messages can be text, graphics, video, or multimedia content, giving you the ability to create meaningful, engaging signs for every purpose.
Why is Digital Signage Important and How Does It Work?
Wondering how this all comes together in your educational institution? Broadly speaking, there are at least three main functions of digital signage:
- Content Management and Distribution. Upload images, videos, audio, a live website, social media feed, etc. to several displays to create a media playlist.
- Device/Display Management. Schedule, target, and show messages to specific classrooms, areas, or to the entire school.
- Performance Measurement. Centrally manage feature settings, users, usage and displays – all in real-time.
In short, using digital signage technology gives your school admin, IT department, teachers, and other authorized users the ability to display customized content in targeted areas throughout your campus. You’ll be able to manage everything in real-time from a central location.
The ability to target messages to students and staff at a district-wide, school-wide, or even individual classroom level, immediately, is one significant reason why digital signage is important. Authorized users of the software can instantly change the messages using an app on their own phone, tablet, or other device.
Digital signage gives your school administrators and teachers the power of the digital age in an effective, easy-to-use format. In a time when moments matter, being able to immediately create digital signage and broadcast it to any connected display – or all of them – in any area or building of your school can make all the difference.
Related: The Impact of Educational Technology in the Classroom
Common Ways to Use Digital Signage in Education
There are infinite uses for digital signage in education. Consider these scenarios to begin imagining the possibilities.
- Make an immediate change to a class schedule. Real-time updates are necessary. Your students and staff will never wonder where they need to be at a certain time because you can display a message that lets them know their class is meeting in the library, or their teacher will be ten minutes late.
- Give students access to up-to-date news. If there is an imminent weather alert, a breaking world news story, or other vital information that pertains to your student body, digital signage is an important tool for broadcasting the necessary information.
- Promote an upcoming athletic event. Any after-school event can easily be posted to your school’s displays for a real-time schedule that is easy to maintain and grabs the attention of everyone in the facility. You’ll be able to generate awareness and interest in the events that support and promote your educational institution. Not only that, students and staff who are more aware of what’s going on are also more likely to participate in the events.
- Notify staff and students of emergency alerts. Safety and security is a major issue in today’s schools. Digital signage assists in the overall security of the campus because it is centrally controlled. In moments, digital signage ensures all emergency alerts are broadcast school-wide, to every building you’re digitally connected to. Include safety information, such as where to go in the event of a fire alarm, so everyone can find their way to the right places.
- Share photos and videos that engage the entire student body. Digital signage is attention-grabbing, and you can use it to display images and videos in a format that people are accustomed to. Students in this generation are used to being bombarded by images, skipping over ads, and gathering information in 15-second videos. They can relate to digital messaging more than static messaging.
- Eliminate the need to send out paper notes. Are you an environmentally-conscious organization striving to eliminate paper waste? Digital signage gets your message to the receiver effectively and in a timely manner. You don’t need to send home notes that will get stuffed into backpacks and lost inside lockers. Instead, display frequent reminders throughout the school on your digital signs.
- Program certain messages to display at certain times throughout the day. Administrators faced with the need to display something new at the beginning of each day may quickly feel uninspired. Get rid of the daily pressure by creating a program of messages that will automatically display at your desired times and locations. From weekly lunch menus to the times of your all-school gatherings, digital signage is an important means of keeping your school operating smoothly.
The capabilities of digital signage are constantly evolving. It is no longer a passive system that pushes content. Today’s digital signage is a collaborative tool. With complete remote management, real-time content deployment, and total freedom for multimedia format selection, everyone in your learning facility benefits.
Related: Streamlining the Delivery of Content in the Classroom
Get Creative with Your School’s Digital Signage
Installing software and hardware is not quite enough to maximize the use of digital signage. The potential of applying new technological advancements is directly linked to the way it will be used. One way of getting the most out of the benefits of digital signage in education is getting creative with it, making it something students and visitors will increasingly want to look at for relevant, up-to-date information and other interesting information.
Maximize the benefits of digital signage in education with essential and creative uses of your technology:
- Welcome new students, teachers, or staff with motivational and friendly messaging at the main entrances.
- Show maps of important areas like library, laboratories, classrooms, washrooms, teacher staff room or cafeteria.
- Remind students about exam schedules and upcoming events.
- Share lesson plans, notes, reading lists, and assignments in certain school corridors.
- Feature awards, recognitions and school traditions to build school reputation and values.
- Display your institution’s social media feed.
- Encourage global awareness by displaying clocks from different time zones around the world.
- Display motivational messages that inspire students to learn more, expand their horizons, focus on quality relationships, or take a deep breath between classes to reduce stress.
- Display school-wide contests or leader boards for activities or goals.
- Promote school-wide themes, such as “Be Kind” or “Together We Can Succeed.”
- Build a sense of community through student-generated content.
- Share evacuation procedures when necessary.
- Keep students and staff updated on world, national, state, or local news as it happens.
- Use your digital displays to showcase your school’s merits during tours.
Why is digital signage important in education? It’s important because it gives you a modern, efficient solution to reaching out in a world that is more and more focused on the individual.
Unite Your Educational Community with Digital Signage
One of the major problems students face today is the drive to do more. Students feel compelled to achieve more, participate more, and keep up with higher expectations. Even a small set back, such as a missed assignment or being late for an activity, can send someone into a downward spiral. On the other hand, some students are simply so busy that they easily lose track of the details.
Digital signage helps keep students on the right track. It gives them a reliable source of relevant information throughout the day, and helps them stay on top of their busy schedules.
A large display in a hallway or an entranceway can become a place of gathering and community. Instead of walking with eyes focused on their personal devices, students may stop and take in the digital signage message together, discussing its contents with each other.
It’s a place to share messages that are common to everyone in the community, which helps students and staff remember that they are part of a community and not one person striving alone in a difficult place. Although digital signage is technologically advanced and features fast content changes, it can actually serve the purpose of slowing people down for their own good.
Related: Beat the Clock: How We’re Brainwashing Our Kids that Busy Is Best
Planning for Digital Signage
Ultimately, as an IT administrator, finding the right software solution for your displays is key. Ask the following questions before choosing a software solution for your displays and school.
- Why is digital signage important to us?
- What content will we display?
- Who will be the main content creators/managers?
- What software do we need?
- What hardware do we need?
- How will we connect to it?
- Does the solution offer digital signage and screen mirroring in one product?
- Can the digital signage and screen mirroring be managed in one account?
- Will IT be able to control every screen centrally and communicate dynamically in our school?
What IT Administrators Need in a Digital Signage Platform
The technical capabilities of a digital signage solution determine how beneficial it is to your facility. These capabilities and features allow IT departments to manage the schools’ communication effectively and seamlessly. Selecting a platform with features built specifically for a school setting will ensure better control and efficiency for IT administrators as well as independence and flexibility for other users.
What are some features to look for when comparing digital signage systems?
- Central control. Administrators should have central control over the entire platform. From remote troubleshooting to analytics and content deployment over the entire platform or individual devices.
- Multi-content support. Multiple types of information can be run on the same display with no need for reformatting, which gives freedom to users and saves time for IT. These formats include schedules, live weather, news, TV, menus, calendars, PowerPoint presentations, etc.
- Agnostic. When there are incompatibility and interoperability issues between media players and displays, minor things can be a hassle. An agnostic product is very helpful for IT departments. You don’t have to figure out how to connect devices to displays. Any connected display will work, and there are no hardware or software issues to manage.
- Schedulable content. Information can be planned and programmed ahead from multiple sources at the same time. Signage for all of the main events of the school year can be organized and scheduled before the school year begins. This relieves the pressure of determining what needs to be sent to the display every day but also leaves room for any emerging items, which can be quickly added at any time.
- Flexibility. Digital signage is one of the most customizable forms of communication. No matter if you schedule it, or need a last-minute modification, information can be changed easily in real-time by approved users. It’s important that the digital signage platform you choose is fully-featured yet simple, so that you can easily manage any signage needs that come up, without being frustrated by a lack of features or capabilities.
The Most Effective Digital Signage Software for Education
The static signs of the past just don’t cut it in an increasingly digitally connected space like a school or a college campus. Advances in technology, wireless connectivity, and screens using LEDs or LCDs to display graphics, dynamic text and video, have all helped keep higher education institutions in touch with students and faculty.
When educational institutions first look into using digital signage technology, they sometimes start with DIY solutions that use a regular PC and a regular web browser. Other times, they may try a USB drive and a local digital signage solution. But these solutions are time-consuming, inefficient, and difficult to manage or keep up-to-date.
Although it’s possible to run a digital sign from a USB drive, a network with any sophistication, complexity or scale requires a properly designed platform built for flexibility and control. Schools need a much smarter system that enables them to fully manage their content. This is how digital signage offers significant benefits over traditional signage systems.
Digital Signage is Important. Get Started with the Right Platform Today
Vivi is a digital signage software solution that is wireless, fully-featured, display-agnostic, and enables users to easily upload, manage and update a variety of digital signage experiences in minutes. It offers total freedom for multimedia formats and facilitates streamlined collaboration and remote deployment between IT administrators, teachers and school staff.
Request a demo from Vivi to see for yourself why digital signage is so important and how we can help your educational organization realize its true communication potential.
