Digital Signage in the K-12 Ecosystem

May 25, 2022

In an effort to improve student, visitor, and faculty communication, educational institutions of all levels are adopting Digital Signage. Used for way-finding, emergency notifications, events of the day, cafeteria specials, announcements, and other applications, Digital Signage offers the educational sector an effective medium to increase communication. Some leading-edge schools are even incorporating the creation of Digital Signage content into their classroom curriculum.

Replacing traditional message boards and posters, Digital Signage networks enable immediate, up-to-date, highly engaging rich-media content to be shared throughout educational facilities.

Managed by volunteer committees, school communications staff, marketing officers, or web administrators, Digital Signage networks can be internal-facing for the staff or external-facing for students and visitors.

A collaborative approach to content is becoming increasingly popular, with students and faculty sharing responsibility for creating and managing Digital Signage content.

“We’re seeing a large increase in schools wanting their students to contribute to—and even take ownership of their communications. In the past, we were responding to requests to create a largely one-way communication system, (for example, with messaging from staff to students) now student contribution ranks near the top of the requirements list.” says Tracey Cochrane, Owner of Points West AV.

Automatic feeds

In an effort to reduce the costs and complexity of operating these networks, the automation of on-screen content—such as class schedules or photographic and video coverage of school events—is gaining popularity among educational organizations.

Photos are remarkably straightforward to feed to Digital Signage in real-time, by uploading them to designated shared network folders or public data storage services, like Dropbox or Google Drive.

Managing emergencies

As it is increasingly integrated into crisis management plans, digital signage is also helping educational facilities prepare for—and react to— emergencies. Screens can be connected to existing IP-based emergency systems and the software can be programmed to display a broad array of pre-set content accordingly, based on the types and locations of alarms.

This way, emergency messaging can be localized to each sign (display/TV) in the network. The content can react to a wide variety of scenarios, from school-wide lockdowns to hazardous substance leaks, or even a wild animal on the school grounds. In these situations, staff may use mobile apps, web-based tools, or texting to trigger and publish alerts via digital signs.

For more information get in touch with the team at Points West AV at [email protected] or by phone at 250.861.5424 / 800.761.7928