Last month, we had the pleasure of catching up with ICT Systems Manager Daniel (Dan) Sapseid and Deputy Head, Nick Brown at The Academy, Selsey. They spoke about how TrilbyTV enabled them to implement a successful digital signage system through our friends at friendly IT reseller Haptic Networks.
After talking about signage, Dan and Nick kindly did an Under the Hat session with us.
Under the Hat session
What’s the best thing about your job?
Dan: “Bringing in more software solutions to move the school forward with ICT. Also when I find that the staff really embrace it and it’s helping them teach smoothly and more efficiently. When we moved to Google last summer, it made a massive difference in the school.”
Nick: “Working with the community that we work in! The children are fantastic on the most part and the staff are a really cohesive group. I actually think they’re probably more cohesive than any other group I’ve ever worked with, so that’s definitely the best part of my job.”
Brilliant from an ICT management point of view
Why is sharing and showcasing digital content important to you?
Dan: “I’ve been into a lot of schools and have seen a lot of digital signage that’s useless. This is usually because it’s massively out of date on a poorly thrown together PowerPoint. Just having something that’s easily configurable from an admin point of view where you can link it to a Google Slides document is great. This is because you can delegate access down to the staff, they edit the Google Slides and it instantly updates on the digital signage screens. From an ICT management point of view and from my point of view, it’s brilliant! You just set it and forget it, I haven’t even got to touch it!”
Nick: “Student engagement is really a key factor. This is because it addresses students in a non-verbal way and certain kids really respond to public recognition and how well they’ve done. They don’t need to get a certificate in front of their peers, which some children don’t want to do. It also gets across ethos, culture, a particular focus in terms of getting buy-in from students. We’ve done quite a lot of work on our career’s guides over the last two years and I’ve found it really useful for this. When you’ve got a particular focus on a particular week, you’ve got that information rolling continually as they walk upstairs. The signage is placed in very strategic places which really helps because we can bounce different information across different screens.”
Value for money
Why TrilbyTV?
Dan: “I looked at four digital signage solutions and the cost of TrilbyTV was a really big selling point. You don’t need to buy a specific player, you can just use a ChromeBit, Firestick or an Android Box. It was really flexible, I’d seen the demo of it and I just thought that this is the perfect solution for us and didn’t look back.”
Nick:“He [Dan] came back so enthused from seeing a demo of TrilbyTV and said that we had to do it. Anything that’s ICT related, defaults to Dan!”
Updating automatically
What’s been your TrilbyTV eureka moment?
Dan: “One of the things that I’ve been quite impressed with has come to light while the school has been closed down. I added a Google Slides presentation to TrilbyTV and then used the public links feature to embed examples of students’ work into our school’s website. Pictures of food students had been making at home for their food technology course and artwork they had been creating. It’s great for sharing them with the staff and with the general public easily. Once the Google slides is updated, it updates automatically on the website, so from my perspective, it takes the management off.”
Nick: “I think definitely the accessibility for our staff. Once we had Google training last year, it’s made the interactive display so much more ‘interactive’. People are really thinking about what message they’re trying to get across so the hook up between TrilbyTV and Google has been fantastic.”
What are your future plans for growing your school’s digital signage?
Dan: “Maybe a few more screens and just keep on adding in the content really. We’ve got 14 screens already so there’s not too many more we can put up. It’s more about getting flashier looking content that the kids want to see.”
Nick: “I want us to connect with the wider community beyond the school reception. The ability to communicate with the outside community without them coming through the front door would be great. Perhaps with a big screen that’s outside the school.”
Google Slides takes away the work from ICT
What idea or resource are you leaving in the hat?
Dan:“Get into Google Slides as it takes a lot of work from the ICT team. This is because you can delegate editing all of the slides to a non-technical user.”
Nick: “Your signage is only as good as the platform that you’re putting the information onto. Google Slides meant that people could work on the same system and continue to update it every week.”
Thanks guys! If you would like to try out the number one digital signage solution made for education you can get a 30-day free trial here.