In the U.S., digital signage is headed towards rapid growth. From being valued at $4.8 billion in 2017, experts estimate that the American digital signage market will rise to $6.9 billion by 2025. Not surprisingly, video walls comprise the most dominant segment in the market. Large, digital, and high-definition flat panel displays are now being used by enterprises, organizations, and educational institutions for digitizing and improving communications and branding.
With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at the top trends that are shaping the future of digital signage.
Visual Explosion with Video Walls
Credit: Julien Seignol, YouTube
Any and all digital signage is competing for attention with smartphones, the immediate environment, and a host of other factors. As a larger medium, the simplest and most effective way to get the audience’s attention is through the use of ‘visual explosions.’ This means highly eye-catching graphics or visuals that are impossible to ignore, like a timelapse video of a sunset, an agile surfer catching a wave, or colorful waving flags in the wind. In short, one of the trends we can look forward to is more dynamic and eye-catching content of different kinds. Visual explosions are as useful for branding as they are for getting the attention of students in a school setting.
Donor Walls
Another increasingly popular way of utilizing digital signage is by displaying the names and pictures of individuals who have donated to the school. Apart from being an effective way of honoring those who are generous enough to be donors, this may encourage others to become donors as well. Just make sure to ask the permission of those donors before you use their names, images, and other information.
Digital Hall-of-Fame
This is a good way to teach students about their school’s sports heritage and history. What sport is your school known for and who were the students that put your campus on the map? Whether it’s basketball, football, soccer, chess, or any other sport, a digital hall-of-fame can be an awesome way of not just remembering but picking up lessons from the past. This type of content can be particularly effective during game season, especially during the finals wherein athletes and spectators alike need the most encouragement.
Social Media Walls
Credit: EventAgratE, YouTube
Feature the interesting comments that students and other users leave on official school accounts and posts. Livestream the amount being raised by a student-led charity Facebook group in a coordinated online event. Post pictures of last night’s game and let students relive the biggest moments. Give your social media announcements on the official school accounts more visibility by putting them on your digital signage system. Improve your engagements by using digital signage to reach actual academic spaces. Using social media is one of the most effective ways of reaching students, and developing social media walls can make this process easier for schools.
Using Digital Signage to Improve Classroom Learning
Today, technologies like Airtame are enabling smart screens and even projectors to be used for quickly displaying vital and dynamic information to students. This can greatly improve engagement in classes that entail tremendous amounts of focus. Coupled with Rise Vision’s digital signage templates, this technology is streamlining the creation and dissemination of engaging and dynamic educational content across campuses. As traditional classroom projectors are replaced with dynamic digital signage that can do and feature more, teachers can be free to create more engaging and immersive experiences for students in active-learning classrooms. Make livestreams, Twitter posts, live graphs, and other cutting edge content a part of students’ classroom experiences.
Gamification Through Quiz and Puzzles
Online contests are much easier and more fun to join when digital signage is involved. Simultaneously broadcast different content on different screens as clues for a school-wide hunt or mystery. Use your digital signage to announce the progress of those who’ve joined whatever contest you’ve cooked up. Post the questions or riddles on display for limited times only, or use different screens as way-points for a physical campus course. You can even randomly post math pop quizzes and reward whoever sends in the correct answer the fastest. Rise Vision enables endless customizability, which can be used to create a variety of compelling puzzles and quizzes.
Outdoor Signs at Pick-Up and Drop-Off Points
Ensure that pick-up and drop-off points remain organized by using digital signage. Apart from identifying specific points on campus, dedicated displays at these areas can be used to post updates on schedules, delays, and other important announcements. Rather than relying on paper and other physical signage that exacerbate delays and add to logistical concerns, digital signage can be used to instantly respond to pick-up or drop-off issues at schools.
Safety Updates and Reminders
Credit: Fort Bend ISD, YouTube
As campuses reopen for live classes, safety and streamlined communication are top-of-mind concerns for educators. There will be more content related to public health and safety reminders, emergency response, and the corresponding internal updates and communications. As this technology becomes even more user-friendly and accessible in the future, it will become even easier for schools to create and display such content. Think of digital signage as a visual, engaging, and interactive public announcement system for the digital era.
Staff Updates and Internal Communications
Rather than just relying on the personal devices of teachers and other school staff, you can use your digital signage to streamline internal communications as well. This can help optimize the school’s emergency response or just enable clearer lines of communication between administration and the day-to-day staff. Quickly announce changes to the schedule or venue of an upcoming staff meeting. Audio-visually page a specific staff member or department head if necessary. Wherever administrative duties need support, digital signage can help pick up the slack and push for productivity.
Event Announcements
As schools grow their digital signage systems, digital displays become the perfect way to announce specific events or updates to students. This can help things to move faster during special, school-wide events. And should there be changes to the schedule, venue, or other factors, dynamic digital displays make it easy to announce them with ease.
Live Weather Updates
This will be particularly useful for schools located in places with extreme weather. While weather updates from local bureaus are nice, students and school staff alike will appreciate live and more accurate weather updates from the school itself. Apart from eye-catching graphics, this can also include actual live shots of outside conditions, which in turn can inform students what to tell their parents and guardians who might need to pick them up.
Contest Winners and Academic Achievers
Pay tribute to the students who’ve taken home math or science trophies from national competitions. Show the academic overachievers how much their hard work is appreciated and recognized. By using digital signage to honor those that work hard to win, students can be inspired to do better and improve themselves.
Digital Celebration and Freedom Walls
Digital signage can also be used as a way to enable students to express themselves in a public medium. You can use your school’s social accounts or any other app that can allow you to display and manage messages from students. This can be a powerful way for students to not only express themselves, but also to engage in healthy debates, express support for certain causes, and explore deeper social involvement.
Art Exhibits
Credit: Joe Carl Bunda, YouTube
Campus-wide digital signage can also serve as the ideal way for displaying a wide range of art. Whether created by students or invited artists, schools can schedule the display of certain digital paintings and sculptures across campus halls. This can be a great way to feature the works of local talent, artist-alumni, or even donors who also pursue artistic endeavors. Short films and experimental video or computer-generated works also perfectly suit this type of localized broadcasting medium. Different screens may also be used to display different artworks during a scheduled exhibit time, which essentially turns a digital signage system into an instant digitized gallery or museum.
These are just some of the content trends we can expect to show up on digital signage in schools by 2022. As digital signage systems get more streamlined for use in academic settings, there will be more content trends and new ways to use digital displays that will surely emerge in the coming years.
Learn more about the benefits of combining Digital Signage and Android for your classroom here.
Article Written by: Alicia Haley
