Today’s schools are using advanced technology for a variety of tasks and learning objectives. In fact, 90% of district leaders report providing devices for middle and high school students and 84% for elementary school students. Undeniably, digital learning has become a big part of modern education, and this learning requires modern communication throughout the school system, as well. The solution is digital signage for education.
The truth is that the methods schools have traditionally used to communicate with students are outdated and ineffective. From hard-to-understand intercom systems to verbal teacher announcements, some methods have worked fine, but most have left something to be desired.
A wireless digital signage solution built for education can make a substantial difference in how a school reaches its students, staff, and visitors. Here’s what you need to know about modernizing communications with a digital signage solution and its importance in today’s learning environment.
Why Digital Signage for Education is Essential in Today’s Learning Environment
First and foremost, a modern learning environment needs more advanced communication tools to reach students in the Digital Age. As David Warlick, a well-known educator and author, once said, “We need technology in every classroom and in every student and teacher’s hand because it is the pen and paper of our time, and it is the lens through which we experience much of our world.”
As the world evolves, the education sector must do the same in order to ensure students are getting the most out of their learning. Digital signage for education offers a variety of interactive and engaging digital opportunities for students and teachers to be on the same page with announcements, lessons, events, urgent alerts, and more. Since communication has always been the key to keeping everyone in the school building on schedule, modernizing communication with digital signage has become particularly popular throughout many school districts in the U.S.
At the most basic level, there are several ways digital signage can be used:
- Admin can wirelessly send information throughout the entire campus via connected screens to welcome students, help direct visitors through the building, etc.
- Teachers can share lesson plans with students in individual classrooms, providing them with information in the palm of their hands via laptops, tablets, or any device connected to the same wireless network.
- Lunch staff can share daily menus through large display screens.
- IT can manage and deliver any kind of content, in moments, whenever necessary.
Digital signage in schools means less time finding where you’re supposed to be and more time in the classroom learning. It means getting students to their correct testing sites without issues on big test days. It means increased attendance at school events because more students remember the day and time.
It means more engagement between students and teachers, and it means improving student and faculty safety with updated safety tips and resources. Most importantly, digital signage for education means modern communication in a sector that needs it more than most others.
Related: The Impact of Educational Technology in the Classroom
5 Ways to Modernize Communications with Digital Signage
There are several ways that a modernized communication tool, like digital signage, can improve the efficiency of your school building(s). Important information and messages can be shared, updated, or modified in seconds by the content creator, ensuring staff and students are being communicated with in real-time with the information they need precisely when they need it.
Here are five ways digital signage for education can modernize your school’s communication.
1. Teachers Can Manage Classroom Tools Individually
According to one study, most students spend about half of their school time — 40% for elementary students, 53% for middle school, and 58% for high school students — on laptops for learning. With devices already in hand for most lessons, quick and efficient communication between students and teachers is crucial to a successful day of learning.
Each teacher can use digital signage to share important information with students. This may include simple class labels at the front of the classroom, such as the teacher’s name, the class number, and the class start-to-end time. It’s also an excellent way for teachers to countdown until the lesson starts so students know when they can socialize and when they must be ready to learn.
Another great way teachers can manage digital signage in their classrooms is for updates like upcoming testing dates they need to prepare for, dates assignments are due, or an outline of the day’s lesson. This ensures students are always aware of what’s coming up and where they should be in their studying.
In addition, the right platform will enable teachers to use the same digital signage in their classroom for socially connected, interactive lessons, where students can be given permission to access the display, connecting their own screens to the digital signage display for discussion or presentation.
2. Deliver Time-Sensitive Messages Like Emergency Alerts
According to The Federal Emergency Management Agency, all plans, procedures, and announcements must be “effectively communicated” to staff, students, and parents to ensure the safety of everyone on the premises. Digital signage can ensure that message is delivered at all touchpoints.
Schools can quickly create signage for important or emergent events, getting information out quickly, clearly, and to multiple locations in one simple step. This kind of communication can make a big difference in times of safety concerns. A few examples include clear safety instructions in every classroom and hallway during a drill or in the event of a real emergency. On the other hand, safety precautions may also be displayed in certain areas to inform staff and students of spills, accidents, and closed-off areas.
3. Send Messages to Individual Rooms or Streamline Across the Building or Campus
The ability to manage what and where customized messages are delivered throughout school buildings is a great way to streamline communication and ensure staff and students are receiving important information in its entirety. This may be typical morning announcements to all classrooms to inform students of upcoming school events or remind everyone of rules and regulations.
In some regions of the building, personalized messaging can also be used to help guests understand where to go, direct students to their classrooms on the first day of school, and offer a warm welcome to all who enter without wasting resources (paper, ink, etc.) and with very little prep time.
The uses for digital signage in an everyday situation, school-wide or in individual classrooms, are limited only by staff creativity. Wishing a certain teacher a happy birthday or happy retirement? Updating the entire school on which teacher is winning the “Shave Your Head Fundraiser?” All of this communication is made simple, consistent, efficient, and wide-reaching with digital signage.
4. IT/Admin Can Pre-Plan Virtually All of Their Routines
Education is arguably the most important sector when it comes to ensuring daily schedules and routines are pre-planned and executed efficiently. Communication and organization is crucial for ensuring not only that IT administrators are prepared for the day but that staff and students are as well. Everyone can stay on schedule by planning digital signage to reach staff and students at the right time.
Take, for instance, the second period. Graphics can be schedule and delivered just before 10 in the morning to signal the beginning of the second period, so students know they should be heading to their next destination immediately. Or, lunch schedules can be highlighted to ensure students make it to their lunch hour in enough time to get their food, socialize, and finish before class starts back up.
If there’s a routine monthly pep rally in the gym that disrupts the students “daily” routine, pre-scheduled digital signage can begin being displayed the day before so that everyone is prepared for the rally.
According to a now aging but still relevant report from Old Dominion University on the ‘Use of Classroom Routines to Support the Learning Process,’ school routines positively impact a student’s academic performance and behavior in a learning environment. A digital signage solution can help schools embrace an environment that encourages better performance and behavior by assisting students in keeping to routines and avoiding common distractions or disruptions.
5. IT Can Manage Digital Signage for Multiple Rooms/Locations From a Single Platform
The right digital signage platform will provide a single source for managing all messages and their delivery time. Different classrooms in different periods throughout the day may require an array of customized content, not to mention the numerous displays throughout the school, so having a single source for management can ensure the efficiency of your school’s IT team.
A full-featured, simple-to-use platform is particularly important because there is not only scheduled content that must be provided each day or week but also messages that must be delivered to a given location as quickly as possible when the occasion calls for it. If different rooms or locations are handled differently, the school risks delays in communicating important information to students and staff.
Managing multiple rooms and locations from a single place, however, helps your IT department avoid the problems that can arise with errors or a delay in messages, helping keep everyone updated and on track for the school day.
Related: How Do Teachers Integrate Technology in the Classroom?
Modernize Your Communications with the Leading Wireless Digital Signage Solution Built Exclusively for the Education Sector
Vivi is a wireless presentation and screen mirroring tool built exclusively for the education sector. Not only can your IT department schedule routine content and effortlessly add emergent content to any connected display across your school building or district, but teachers can use Vivi within their own classrooms to contribute to a socially connected, interactive learning environment. Trusted by districts all across the nation — including Kennewick School District (WA), Bryan County Schools (GA), East Providence Public Schools (RI), Elkhorn Public Schools (NE), and more — Vivi is today’s top solution for digital signage for education.
Contact us to learn more about how Vivi can help you modernize your institution’s communication systems.
