Pinecrest Academy, is an independent college preparatory Catholic school located in Georgia. This vibrant Pre K-12 educational institution has a strong commitment to using modern technology to enhance communication across their campus. John Huynh, the IT Manager at Pinecrest Academy, sat down with Rise Vision to discuss how they've effectively integrated Rise Vision into their school's daily operations.
John Huynh, IT Manager at Pinecrest Academy, brings a wealth of experience and expertise to his role. With over five years at Pinecrest Academy, he initially served as the Instructional Technology Coordinator before stepping into his current position. His background has given him a unique perspective, emphasizing the importance of enhancing the school's operational flow and embracing innovative technologies for both educational and administrative purposes.
John's experience, combining his instructional expertise and IT proficiency, positions him as a valuable figure in implementing solutions like Rise Vision to address the school's diverse communication needs.
Around six years ago, before John moved into his current position, he noticed that the campus had displays in the hallways and common areas that were not in use. With his experience in the classroom, John understood the importance of enhancing and utilizing the school’s amenities, which meant getting the black displays up and running.
Not only were the displays a missed marketing opportunity, but the academy had been paying for digital signage on blank screens.
The digital signage software they were paying for was better suited for small businesses. As it was not a school-specific platform, the software didn’t have pre-made templates, didn’t connect to Google or any other programs, and the presentations were choppy on the media players. The process of updating the school’s signage involved uploading PowerPoint presentations onto individual media players. If there were any changes or additions to the presentation required, John had to remove the existing presentation and re-upload it with the updated slides. It was cumbersome.
Additionally, the academy was paying per display, so there was little incentive to add new displays when the product was cumbersome to work with and expensive to scale.
Like many schools across the world, Pinecrest Academy faced the challenge of effectively communicating with students and staff across their 68-acre campus. They needed a more user-friendly and flexible digital signage platform to help manage their various messages, updates, and announcements.
Pinecrest Academy sought a digital signage solution to improve communication in their common areas and hallways. With Rise Vision, Pinecrest can now use digital signage for almost everything from sharing photos, to advertising and promoting events, sports games, and clubs.
The user-friendliness and cost-effectiveness made Rise Vision digital signage software an attractive choice for their school.
Pinecrest Academy has successfully integrated Rise Vision into various aspects of their school's daily operations. Here are two key examples of how they use the platform.
Pinecrest uses Rise Vision to broadcast dynamic content across their campus. From showcasing student accomplishments to posting daily announcements, the digital signage solution serves as a vibrant channel for keeping students engaged. They frequently leverage Rise Vision's user-friendly templates to display vital information in an attractive and engaging manner.
John remarked about the wide selection of templates available, saying “[Rise Vision’s] templates are easy to use. I love your templates. They work out nicely. Just because there's stuff that I don't even think about. I'm like, oh yeah, that [event is] coming up.”
The younger students on campus are very fond of the Animal Facts template. In a conversation earlier in the week with the front desk staff, the receptionist shared with John that the little kids were excited to be learning about blue jay birds while they were waiting to be picked up from school in the lobby. The middle schoolers like the Word of the Day template, which is also used in their classrooms.
The students at Pinecrest are digital natives, meaning they have spent their entire lives with technology. Plus, it’s been shown in recent years that the average attention span of students (and some adults) has drastically gone down. That’s where digital signage comes in as a way to communicate with this audience.
In the cafeteria common space, the school often shares pictures of students. And every now and then, students can be seen taking pictures of themselves or their friends on the displays. So John knows they are seeing the content.
The communication and content strategy used mixes important announcements and information with fun content like student photos and Word of the Day slides. John says that he knows their communication strategy works, “...you know that [students are] looking at that… So you throw a couple photos, you throw an announcement, you throw a couple more photos, so… clearly, they read the announcement, you know, because they were looking at it, and so it's actually a good way of us [communicating] to them.”
With various departments contributing to the display content, Pinecrest Academy manages multiple devices efficiently. Their system allows different individuals to update and manage specific content within a framework that ensures consistent branding and messaging. Rise Vision's ability to integrate with Google Slides streamlines the process of creating and sharing content for different departments.
Pinecrest is a Google powered school, so having the ability for their digital signage to integrate with Google’s platform makes a difference in managing and delegating content creation. John delegates content creation to various school stakeholders who are then responsible for updating their Google Slides. Teachers or other non-technical roles can update slides with quick announcements, photos, or other content as needed.
With this strategy, John says that the content is “constantly fresh”. The ability to delegate is a nice feature and ensures that the displays aren’t stagnant because the content management process isn’t bottlenecked by one person.
The Pinecrest Academy case study highlights the importance of adopting a flexible and user-friendly digital signage solution like Rise Vision. Schools, or any organization, seeking a cost-effective communication platform can benefit from the versatility and ease of Rise Vision. It demonstrates the power of digital signage in keeping a campus community engaged, informed, and united.
Incorporating Rise Vision at Pinecrest Academy has transformed their on campus digital communication strategy, allowing them to connect and share dynamic content seamlessly, ultimately enhancing their students' educational experience.