Information Screens around school....

[kennysarmy]

These were all the rage several (maybe 10) years ago - do school's still maintain and refresh information screens around their schools or were they just a fad?

[FishCustard]

We have one at Reception with pictures of school activities and student achievements (obviously with photo permission etc!), and one in the staffroom with the staff rotas (e.g. playground duty, etc.) on.

 

EDIT:

 

Sorry, forgot to say that we use Google Slides and a Chromebit for this, happy to explain further if you want.

Edited November 1, 2019 by FishCustard

[Mark182]

These were all the rage several (maybe 10) years ago - do school's still maintain and refresh information screens around their schools or were they just a fad?

 

https://www.thelifechannel.co.uk/ was the big push. We have x 6 screens around school. We bagged off the life channel and host content ourselves (powerpoint updated by heads PA) if a TV breaks we would replace the TV. Not had one break in 10 years so far.

[robyholmes]

We currently have two although are looking to get another if budgets allow. One in reception shows Ofsted statements, key results, news and upcoming events (All from the website). Our corridor display shows messages to students (Lost property, lunch clubs etc) plus attendance and which assembly it is on what day (As we do them in houses). Both screens also display the Weather, News and our School Twitter.

 

All the above is run using Xibo. We also have a temporary laptop with the client installed on it which gets used during events on a mobile screen we have in our meeting room.

[The_Techie]

We have several around the school and they show relevant information depending on the location, for example the screens in the dining hall show healthy eating information along with the weekly menu. the reception screen shows the welcome to the school information, library has a live news feed with subtitles and so on.

We use Planet Estream to manage them

Edited November 1, 2019 by The_Techie

[3s-gtech]

We have six around school, some are replacements now after 12 years. They get fairly regularly updated (somehow I end up often doing content as people think that’s my job). They do look good, and are useful. Not expensive if regular TVs (with scheduling for on/off) and Xibo are used.

[Linfit]

We have nine around school, and have had for many years. Most people ignore them and although I frequently ask staff for stuff to put on them I rarely get anything. The stuff that is on there now has been on since Sept and no-one has asked me to change it.

If I was asked to put them in from new I would argue strongly against as its not worth it - better to focus on stuff thats actually useful and makes a difference.

[Rob_D]

We've got 7 (at least one in each building around the site), running xibo signage.

They're used to show news (both in school and global), posters for upcoming events, club and revision timetables, that kind of thing.

During parent's/open evenings they get used for maps and promo photos

So ours are really well used.

[hardtailstar]

We have one in reception that shows school news, upcoming events, reminders and more.

 

Its run by a Intel Compute stick with PowerPoint

[Chris_Cook]

We also do google slides and chromebits or Raspberry pis.

 

This means it can be someone else's problem once setup and made to work.

 

Used to use Xibo, but only 1 or 2 staff were ever trained on it. It was way over complicated for putting slides on screen unless you need to do complex schedules.

[fiza]

We have one at Reception with pictures of school activities and student achievements (obviously with photo permission etc!), and one in the staffroom with the staff rotas (e.g. playground duty, etc.) on.

 

EDIT:

 

Sorry, forgot to say that we use Google Slides and a Chromebit for this, happy to explain further if you want.

How are the Chromebits updated with content? Are they secure so students can't get into them?

[mavhc]

https://www.thelifechannel.co.uk/ was the big push. We have x 6 screens around school. We bagged off the life channel and host content ourselves (powerpoint updated by heads PA) if a TV breaks we would replace the TV. Not had one break in 10 years so far.

 

Hah, what a scam that was. Useless content for schools they tried to resell from GP waiting rooms, didn't support a proxy, ran on Windows that never updated, had VNC server that I guessed the password to first try. Sales people lied to the Head about what it could do.

[keyboards]

We do Google slides and Chromebit, once it all setup we don't touch, the staff manage the slide depending on where it is ie cateen, reception, sixth form, staff room and so forth

 

They work really well when sensible do them and they have quick concise messages on, it's when people try to turn them into a full-on presentation they become pointless

[TechMonkey]

Have 6 and looking to push more out including at least one, possibly more, external signs.

 

The biggest issue is formalising who is creating the content, as it should not be IT, and what is appropriate to go on there.

[Chris_Cook]

That's the big advantage of google slides.

 

At the last school we set up, I found an old powerpoint with pictures and converted it to slides. Then when someone asked to put something on there I just shared it with them and told them they were now responsible for it.

 

Next time someone else asked, I shared it with them as well. If anything gets deleted or changed there is the history.

[DrBeaker]

Echo a lot of the problems here...

 

No updated content...

I know one place the "celebratory" photos were the same ones on there when I started 5x years ago and never changed.

 

No-one bothers to look at the screens...

students aren't allowed out of lessons, you stand there looking at the screens yourself and people wonder why "you're not doing any work".

 

No one wants to do the actual work to update the content...

As it's extra work with no "glory" to make them look good - despite instructions being written for them.

 

All of these issues and more means that IT end up doing the content, when they're simply not the best people to be doing that. Which sort of defeats the whole purpose of the system in the first place. The Google slides thing we'd started looking at ourselves to push it back to the people who should be doing the content.

[mavhc]

Never underestimate how terrible people are at using computers, if it's not 1 click and foolproof, they're not going to bother.

 

Copy photos to this folder, they'll be on a slideshow automatically (don't forget to make it ignore the pdf someone copied in)

Or click this link in your bookmarks to edit the gslides file.

 

Anything more isn't going to happen.

[TechMonkey]

New and fresh content is the way to make people look, and this gets the important items noticed. One good method to try is finding sources that are updated and tioe into them. Does the School use social media or a photo site like Flickr? If so use those to get fresh content, using something like RSS. Use the Newsround news feed so it is safe but continuously updated. A quote, riddle or puzzle site with a daily RSS is a good shout as it catches the eye, even adding a weather widget will get people looking. All of that makes the screen ever changing (as long as your Social Media is updated often) with no effort on your part.

 

If the screens really haven't been updated for 5 years I'd put forward a proposal to take them down and redeploy the resources. See how quickly they either sort out new content or just agree. If they agree, one less thing for you to worry about.

[howartp]

We're just replacing ours with TrilbyTV.

 

We looked at it 12 months ago but didn't have the right staff to do the content justice.

 

We now have a social media/marketing person, ex-student, media communications degree, running our social media, website and publications, so she's taking on the TV screens as well.

[DrBeaker]

We're just replacing ours with TrilbyTV.

 

We looked at it 12 months ago but didn't have the right staff to do the content justice.

 

We now have a social media/marketing person, ex-student, media communications degree, running our social media, website and publications, so she's taking on the TV screens as well.

 

That's exactly as it should be, to allow the IT staff to get on with .... you know.... IT stuff.

[mavhc]

That's exactly as it should be, to allow the IT staff to get on with .... you know.... IT stuff.

 

But it's got more than 1 button and has a plug, can you fix it/teach me to use it/explain why foreign governments can now hack our network?

[dapaulio]

I have used xibo in the past at a few schools. Think one still use it. Was in one school with several 65+ inch tv dotted around corridors etc all turned off

 

But generally Notice displays seems to be less and less used nowadays mainly because of of the people’s incompetence to utilise a valuable marketing and information delivery tool solution at somewhat zero cost because they “don’t have time”

 

That’s ok you just wasted my time then good job you didn’t pay for it

 

Rant over

Edited November 5, 2019 by dapaulio

[DrBeaker]

I have used xibo in the past at a few schools. Think one still use it

 

But generally Notice displays seems to be less and less used nowadays mainly because of of the people’s incompetence to utilise a valuable marketing and information delivery tool solution at somewhat zero cost because they “don’t have time”

 

That’s ok you just wasted my time then good job you didn’t pay for it

 

Rant over

 

 

Yes! Like one time when the content had spelling mistakes, but nobody bothered to let us know. After all, we didn't create the content, but we still got blamed.

[mavhc]

Yes! Like one time when the content had spelling mistakes, but nobody bothered to let us know. After all, we didn't create the content, but we still got blamed.

 

About a month ago: Can you put this policy on the website?

 

Me: Do you want me to correct the literally 100 mistakes in it? Did anyone who signed off on this read it?

[DSapseid]

We're just replacing ours with TrilbyTV.

 

We looked at it 12 months ago but didn't have the right staff to do the content justice.

 

We now have a social media/marketing person, ex-student, media communications degree, running our social media, website and publications, so she's taking on the TV screens as well.

 

Another vote for TrilbyTV. Its great set it and forget. I have alot of my content pulling from google slides that the staff can edit themselves and they love how easy it is and the fact they can update it from home at the weekend knowing that on Monday morning it will be showing.