Educating students and preparing them for the future is not the only role of today’s learning institutions – today’s school systems are also called upon to engender greater awareness from events information to emergency broadcasts. According to industry experts, digital signage can play an important role in the mission of K–12 institutions: to educate, inform, notify and alert.
Today’s media-savvy youth respond well to a medium where the message is projected and amplified on a larger scale, according to the experts at Black Box (News - Alert).
“Young adults today respond to dynamic real time media. It is why communication mediums like MySpace, Facebook, Hulu (News - Alert), You Tube and Twitter have millions and millions of users,” said Steve Acquista, director of digital signage at Black Box, in a recent interview with TMCnet. “This demographic gravitates to these mediums. Text messaging is a perfect example of how communication has changed and will continue to change. Digital signage is dynamic, immediate and talks to students in their preferred communication medium.”
From daily messages about activities and events to notifications and alerts, digital signage can play a role in increased and effective communications, Acquista said. It gives faculty, staff and administrators a “very easy and effective” way to inform, educate and notify, he added, and uses may include everything from sports updates, extra-curricular activities and school news.
When it comes to deploying digital signage, schools have many different options – from the “ultra-affordable,” single-screen/single-zone/single-room display to advanced, multiple-screen/multiple-zone/multiple-room display with extensive functionality, such as individual screen messaging.
According to Acquista, higher level learning institutions have been quicker to adopt digital signage solutions, and K-12 schools sometimes lack the necessary resources to implement this communication medium in their district.
“In education, we would say that colleges and universities are leading the charge toward digital signage, but K-12 is not far behind. The demands and needs of digital signage are apparent in all levels of education, it’s securing the necessary funding that’s lacking,” Acquista said.
However, there are federal and state resources available; a recent Black Box whitepaper outlines several ways K-12 institutions can secure federal or state funding.
If you plan to use the signage system for security purposes, federal funds are available from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for pre-disaster mitigation and preparedness, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice, which has grant monies available through its Community Oriented Policing Services program. These “Secure Our Schools” grants – approximately $16 million was slated to be available in FY2009 – are provided through local law enforcement departments and can be used to purchase equipment for the enhancement of school safety. There is, however, a 50 percent local cash match requirement for this grant. If the school system will serve as a tool for communicating with buildings on the outskirts of its district, it’s possible the state has distance-learning funds available.
Beyond federal and state sources of funding such as grants and technology-related awards, education officials can also consider applying to foundations and tapping individual benefactors in the community, as well as corporate sponsors and local businesses, Black Box officials said.
Erin Harrison is a senior editor with TMCnet, primarily covering telecom expense management, politics and technology and Web 2.0. She serves as senior editor for TMC's (News - Alert) print publications, including "Internet Telephony", "Customer Interaction Solutions", "Unified Communications" and "NGN" magazines. Erin also oversees production of TMCnet's weekly iPhone (News - Alert) e-Newsletter. To read more of Erin's articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Erin Harrison