2020 has been a whirlwind year, to say the least, with everyone adapting the way they operate due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In the education sector, pupils and staff have been forced to adapt quickly and find new ways of learning and teaching. As the number of cases begins to drop, schools are hoping to welcome the majority of their pupils back in September – albeit with strict guidelines in place to ensure everyone is safe. Many schools are turning to digital signage to ensure that the latest information and guidelines are shown to visitors, pupils, and staff. Here are some of the ways that digital signage solutions for schools are being used as a post-pandemic communication tool.
Looking to enhance your knowledge of school digital signage? We’ve written a complete guide to digital signage for education.
1. Promoting Hand Hygiene
Many schools teach hundreds of pupils, with an average of 281 pupils in each primary school. This means that hundreds of pupils are traveling to school from their individual homes and mixing with other pupils every day. Poor hand hygiene can make this environment a catalyst for the spread of coronavirus. Therefore it is highly important that pupils are aware of the correct hygiene practices to keep themselves, their friends, teachers, and families safe.
The Scottish Government has highlighted the importance of promoting proper hygiene throughout the day to staff and pupils. In their guide, they specifically advise schools to use signage to “build awareness and maintain personal hygiene standards throughout the day”.
A great way to achieve this is through digital signage solutions for schools. Digital screens are a great medium for schools to display content encouraging pupils to wash their hands whilst demonstrating the most effective way of cleaning your hands. Dynamic content, such as videos, captures the attention of pupils and is ideal for consistently reminding pupils of their individual role in reducing the spread of coronavirus. Showing educational content and the latest guidelines are just one way that schools are using digital signage to help them become COVID secure.
2. Digital Hand Sanitisers
The UK Government has also stated that places that people frequently visit should have easily accessible hand-sanitising facilities. In light of this, the addition of hand sanitisers has been paramount amongst organisations, including schools. Hand sanitiser is a convenient way to ensure your hands are clean when you’re on the go.
A popular addition to digital signage solutions for schools is digital hand sanitisers. These units are being used by schools to encourage proper hand-hygiene, whilst promoting messages to their users. Due to being electronic, digital hand sanitisers come with a host of benefits that increase the effectiveness of hand-hygiene promotion efforts. For example, digital units offer a contactless solution in contrast to traditional, pump-action hand sanitisers.
The greatest benefit of digital hand sanitisers comes from the link between their screen and the hand sanitiser itself. When hand sanitiser is dispensed, content can be triggered on the screen immediately. For example, when someone takes a pump of hand sanitiser, a video could play that demonstrates in real-time how to correctly apply the sanitiser to your hands. Not only can this help pupils learn, but it may also reduce the spread of germs within your school.
3. Welcome Pupils Back to School
After having a lengthy period of time away, some pupils may find it difficult to return back to normal school life. Ensuring pupils receive a warm welcome is a great way to start their year off right. With digital signage solutions for schools there are many ways to do this.
One way is to simply display welcome messages on the screens around your school or at the entrance. Your school can go even further and display a welcome video featuring their teachers to give pupils some familiarity.
If your school uses RFID tags to access the main entrance or buildings, you can take your welcome messages to the next level and make them fully personalised. This technology means that when a pupil touches their RFID card to enter the building, the content on-screen will be triggered to show a personalised welcome message. For example, if the pupil’s name was James, the screen could read “Welcome back, James!”. This can be a great way to put a smile on your pupil’s faces and help them settle back in.
4. Promote School Events With Google Calendar
Throughout the academic year, schools host an impressive number of events to entertain, educate, and inform. These include productions, parent evenings, school trips, sporting events, award ceremonies, and much more. With so much going on, it’s important to make sure everyone knows what’s going on and when.
Through the power of digital signage solutions for schools, you can integrate dynamic countdown timers to help notify pupils, staff, and visitors when events are happening. For example, if sports day was approaching, the countdown timer could display a message that says “Only 24 days till sports day!”.
Another popular use of digital signage solutions for schools is google calendar integration. Integrating your google calendar with your digital signage displays is a fantastic way of showcasing events on an easily accessible digital display.
5. Promote School Social Media Accounts
Social media has become an important medium for schools to keep parents, pupils, and alumni up to date with everything that’s going on. This could include pictures from school trips, important updates regarding school guidelines, and even feedback from regulating bodies such as OFSTED. Digital signage solutions for schools are a great way of expanding social media outreach and raising awareness of social media accounts.
Through powerful widgets, digital signage software allows schools to display live social media feeds directly to their screens. The great thing about live social media feeds is that they’re fully automated, which means that the screens update whenever a new tweet is added. This enables senior leadership teams to distribute important announcements around the school using social media, without having to manually update individual departments.
