Building a classroom with digital signage can help you get more out of the limited time that you have with your students. But if you’re unfamiliar with digital signage, the idea of suddenly starting to use it to teach lessons and communicate with your students can feel overwhelming.
That’s why we’ve put together the following article. It covers everything that you need to know to start taking advantage of the benefits that digital signage offers in the classroom. Keep reading to learn more.
Benefits of digital signage in the classroom
Before diving into the how of adding digital signage to your classroom, let’s first take a moment to analyze the why. Here are four benefits that you can enjoy by adding digital signage to your classroom.
Interactive features to aid learning
When you use touchscreens to display your digital signage content, it becomes interactive.
This can have a huge impact on your student’s learning process, as research indicates that interactive lessons are six times more likely to help students learn.
Digital signage also opens up a ton of new opportunities for you to be creative with how you teach. You can use games, dynamic video lessons and whatever other interactive ideas you can think of to provide your students with lessons that stand out.
In this way, you can leverage digital signage to provide your students with a more engaging education.
Easier to share important information
Digital signage also makes it much easier to share important information with your students.
When your digital signs aren’t being used for a lesson, you can set them up to display reminders about upcoming events, assignment due dates and classroom rules.
You can even set up a rotating series of displays to share all of these messages with your students on a single screen.
It’s also worth mentioning that electronic screens tend to be more attention-grabbing than printed signs. So your students may see and retain more of the information that you share with them through digital signage.
Build more engaging lessons with dynamic displays
Digital signage gives you complete control over what you share on your screens and when. You can do things like use animations, share videos and even add sounds to your displays.
Teachers can use these features to help their students remain engaged throughout a lesson. This can be incredibly beneficial as engagement is a key factor in retaining what is being learned.
Integrate with external learning materials
Digital signage also opens up new possibilities to pair your lesson plans with external learning materials. There are tons of ways to do this.
For example, you might add an informative YouTube video to a physics lesson. Or you could display a web-based example of a certain type of writing that you’re trying to teach your class. The options are almost only limited by your imagination.
What you need
Now that we know why you would want to use digital signage in your classroom, let’s look at what you need to get started.
Screen(s)
The first thing that you need is a screen to display your digital signage content.
Any smart screen that can connect to the internet will work. But if you don’t have one of those, don’t worry — you can use a media player to turn any TV screen into digital signage.
Depending on your goals and the size of your classroom, you may want to invest in multiple screens. Doing so could help students engage with your lessons regardless of where they’re sitting.
Another thing to think about here is whether or not you want your digital signage content to be interactive. If you do, then you may want to invest in touch screens instead of standard TVs so that your students can interact with the content you display.
Digital signage software
Next up is digital signage software. This is what you’ll use to create, manage and broadcast your display screens.
A good digital signage solution (like UPshow) will enable you to manage your content from any internet-enabled device. Our platform also has a ton of integrated features and templates to make it easier to get started.
Content to display
Finally, you need content to display through your digital signage software and on your screens. The types of content that you display will depend on what you want to do with digital signage.
If you want to lead entire lessons through digital signage, then you can create engaging full-length presentations. But if you only plan on using your digital signage to keep your students informed, then you may just need a few screens that rotate and share important pieces of information with your class.
Step-by-step instructions for adding digital signage to your classroom
1. Understand your goals
The first, and perhaps most important, step in adding digital signage to your classroom is understanding what you hope to get out of doing so.
That’s because your goals will inform the optimal way for you to set up your digital signage solution.
Most people who add digital signage to their classroom want to accomplish a few different things. Your list of goals may include:
- Reminding your students of important classroom rules
- Leading more engaging lessons
- Sharing important announcements with students
- Providing students with interactive learning opportunities
- And more!
2. Install your screens
Once you know what you want to achieve with digital signage in your classroom, it’s time for you to set up your screens in a way that will allow you to meet those goals.
For example, if you want to offer interactive learning opportunities to your students, you would want to make sure that you set up touchscreens in a way that makes that easier for you to do.
Similarly, if you want to keep your students informed, then you would need to strategically place your screens throughout your classroom to ensure that all students can see the announcements you display with ease.
Many teachers will only need one screen to accomplish their goals. But you may need several–especially if you have a large class. Be sure to keep class size and the classroom layout in mind while installing your screens.
3. Sign up for UPshow
Now you’re ready to sign up for UPshow. Our software is the perfect way to digitize your classroom with digital signage. When you sign up, we’ll ship you a powerful device that runs all of your content so you won’t have to worry about connectivity.
Additionally, our software is full of features that make designing custom content a breeze. With UPshow, you get a single solution that can be the only thing you need to turn your classroom into a more engaging, informative and interactive place for your students.
4. Easily create and share content with your students
Once you have UPshow, you’re ready to begin creating and sharing content with your students.
You can use our platform for this entire process, from start to finish. Simply figure out what you’d like to share with your students and our software will guide you through the rest.
Ideas for digital signage in the classroom
There are tons of different things that you will be able to do with digital signage once you get it set up in your classroom. Here are some examples to get you started.
Display your daily schedule. Digital signs are the perfect way to give your students an overview of what their day is going to look like.
Recognize achievements. Want to give your students some positive reinforcement? Digital signage makes that incredibly easy to do. You can whip up a custom display in a few minutes and save it as a template for later use.
Highlight students’ work. You can also use your digital signs to share some of the cool things that your students have been doing. In the past, you would have to display these on your walls or countertop space and it would be difficult to keep your room tidy while doing so. Now, you can simply share a picture of impressive work through digital signage.
Display assignment instructions. Teachers can also use digital signage to keep their assignment instructions displayed in a spot that’s easy for students to read. Instead of having to restate instructions every few minutes, you can now point students to your digital signage display.
UPshow makes building a digital classroom with signage a breeze
Adding digital signage to your classroom can be an incredibly effective tool for facilitating engaged learning. But in order to do that effectively, you need the right software.
That’s what makes UPshow worth trying–our powerful platform has everything you need to start leveraging digital signage to provide your students with a superior learning experience.The best way to see how impactful UPshow can be for your classroom is to give it a try and see it firsthand. You can do that by signing up for a free custom demo today. We look forward to hearing from you.
