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AV SMARTS
al levels for the appropriate people to be in control, and you have a network capability that is profound in what it can do.
Most of what we have spoken about involves a combination of hardware, operational software and networks. This is the raw material of the next phase of technological evolution in education. What’s next you might ask? Our crystal ball tells us that the next phase is using the tools that exist to their best advantage to create what some are calling smart schools. We will see an expansion of the use of personal devices like smartphones and tablets connected to educational networks. Interactivity will become commonplace, with real-time annotations on screens. Online learning will supplement what takes place in the “confines” of a traditional classroom. We are entering the era of big data and increased and expanding access to the collective knowledge of the world, and a keyword is collaboration.
Colleges and universities are leading the way in digital signage for a basic reason: More than most other institutions they have a wide range of applications under one environmental envelope with the requirement to communicate with people both on and off campus, and do so in real time with the best security that can be brought to bear. The challenge is how to solve the problems of reaching people with such diversity of needs for information and content, and manage it all effectively and efficiently. The edu- cation communities’ answer to these needs ends up incorporating digital signage in more diverse ways, spanning the classroom to the campus and beyond. Perhaps some of this experimentation and development in digital signage is an unintended conse- quence, but we can look to colleges and universities to continue to lead the way in communicating the information viewers need as they go about their daily lives. Evolu- tion? Nope, revolution in education where it should be.
Alan C. Brawn, CTS, DSCE, DSDE, DSNE, DCME, ISF-C, is a principal of AV consulting, training, educational development and market intelligence company Brawn Consulting.
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