Digital signage is a growing trend and today we will discuss why it is an invaluable tool at every level, from elementary and middle grades to high school and college. By keeping students informed, digital signage ensures that students of all ages as well as faculty are kept safe and can focus on learning.
Digital signage provides an easy way to display important and/or timely information in a highly visible format. These kiosks can be spread throughout school campuses at areas with substantial foot traffic to ensure students are always informed about current school events and happenings, as well as other information such as local and international news and weather. Some schools choose to use digital signage to sell advertising space for area businesses, too, as a form of incremental revenue, in order to support school activities and other similar initiatives.
Video Walls: Video walls utilize multiple displays to showcase a variety of information and images. They can be used together to create one large image, such as a photo of an entire graduating class. Or they can be used individually to display unique information on each at the same time. For instance, one may update the weather, another could show a school calendar, while the display next to it offers a map of the campus. They are best placed in areas that receive heavy foot traffic, and can be used both to communicate and beautify a given environment.
Transactional Kiosks: Transactional kiosks are a form of digital signage that is integrated with various software and physical components to enhance their interactivity and usefulness. Kiosks can be customized for a wide range of uses, from printing tickets to prom or sporting events, to tuition payment, and can be outfitted with components including printers, bill and coin collectors, credit card readers, and signature pads.
Wayfinding Kiosks: Wayfinding kiosks are perhaps the most common form of digital signage, and can assist students in navigating larger campuses. This can decrease stress, especially for new students, and ensure that they get to classes, buildings, offices and events on time. Through the use of wayfinding, a student will learn to familiarize themselves with the campus grounds at a much faster rate than a campus without a wayfinding system set up.
Digital signage provides an important means for schools to communicate directly with students, staff, and visitors. It can be updated quickly, easily, and via remote means to ensure all information, from events to changes in class locations, is up-to-date. It can also be used to disseminate critical guidance in the event of an emergency.
Digital signage provides many benefits, including:
Digital signage can provide a large amount of information, even when space is at a premium, to multiple people at once. It lessens the need to have additional personnel on hand to assist visitors and vendors. Because it can be updated quickly via remote locations, the information displayed is easy to keep up to date, giving everyone on campus access to the latest school news and events.
Digital signage can not only be updated easily, but it can also be customized for a wide variety of purposes. It makes rotating through different school announcements, advertisements from local businesses, and event information -- all in the same place -- possible in a way that paper signage simply cannot match.
Digital signage functionality isn’t limited to showcasing simple images because true digital signage isn't simply a nice-looking television. Instead, it includes specialized hardware and software that are purpose-built to handle more than the display of attractive pictures. This means digital signage can be integrated with components to enhance its functionality, including printers, credit card readers, and bill collectors, and software that can handle wayfinding, ticket printing, and event registration.
The last benefit of digital signage is consistent branding and the ability to communicate messages of school and student pride to the school community. Digital signage provides a clear and concise message that helps to promote the accomplishments of the school, students, staff, alumni, and educators in a nonintrusive format.
Digital signage is quite commonplace in schools and universities. Below are some examples found in many schools today.
Keeping students up to date regarding school events is perhaps the most valuable use of digital signage. Digital displays can be spread throughout the campus, both indoors and outdoors, to inform students of important dates, providing directions for those lost on their first days on campus, and to assist with orientation as well.
Digital signage helps to provide general school announcements such as lunch menus, important dates, holidays, days off, weather updates, and can even be used with software that provides a constantly-updated social media feed to help keep students informed.
From parent-teacher conferences and graduation dates, to social events like dances, digital sigange can provide up-to-date information. It can also be used to communicate during emergencies in the case of a fire, severe weather, or lockdown situation.
Digital signage helps to spread campus news without the need for daily announcements and can track things such as club and sporting events for those who are interested.
For school elections, digital signage helps to digitize much of the process, providing a quick and accurate way for students to get the results much more quickly.
Finding the right company with which to partner to create the right digital signage solution for your school or university environment and purpose can be complicated. Reading reviews, consulting with different manufacturers and doing your own research will all be important to the process. Installation and maintenance of the kiosk or digital signage should also be considered when reviewing options.
REDYREF is a leader in kiosk and digital signage manufacturing and one of the most trusted names in the industry. From wayfinding solutions for college campuses and self-order kiosks for restaurants, to COVID-19 temperature taking kiosks, REDYREF manufactures kiosks tailored to organizations' specific needs via a collaborative design process.
Digital signage provides an invaluable service for schools, students, faculty, staff, and visitors. By giving them easy access to information and services, digital signage helps to ensure that everyone on campus is kept safe, secure and well informed.