Page 23 - THE Journal, April/May 2017

“Once word spread that we had this inexpensive solution that cost just the hardware, our campuses decided that they wanted a digital signage solution where they can display things
for when parents enter the building.”
Designed to bring parents and visitors quickly up to speed on school events, such as PTO meetings and important dates, the screens are also used to inject “something positive” into the school’s culture, Fulton stressed. That might look different at every campus, but in general the displays pull in everything from Twitter posts to exceptional student graphic work and even video.
For the rollout, Manor partnered with
a vendor, RiseVision, which provided the screens and cloud-based software to run the presentations. While they started off powering the displays with old laptops
dug out of storage, they quickly switched
to using Raspberry Pis, which are small and cheap to replace. And while Fulton’s district office maintains a master account that oversees every campus, allowing him to push out alerts and updates to every campus if he needs to, mostly the campuses update their signage autonomously.
“What’s great is that each campus has its own digital signage manager who’s
in charge of updating both their campus website and digital signage,” Fulton said. “They can log in from any computer, even from home, to their RiseVision accounts and update. The response has been overwhelmingly positive because of how easy it is to manage.”
WiFi for the Community
When Kyle Berger first came up with the concept of placing WiFi-enabled kiosks
in community businesses and common meeting places, he was working as a tech director at his former district, which had just gone 1-to-1 despite serious issues around digital equity. “I was sending devices home from school to places without connectivity,” he recalled. “So I came up with the idea of saturating the community with free WiFi that my students could connect to with their devices.” At the same time, the district was experiencing low
levels of parent engagement — another top priority for Berger, who is now the CTO of Duncanville ISD, south of Dallas.
Enter the kiosk: a small computer terminal with direct access to the district’s student information system, with a small “MiFi” device or two strapped inside that beamed out a WiFi signal anyone could connect to. Berger then approached local businesses and asked if they would donate an electrical outlet and a small patch of floor space in exchange for providing
free WiFi to their customers. A bunch of businesses jumped on board, and before long there were kiosks in local laundromats, grocery stores and pizza parlors.
Three years ago, Berger moved over
to Duncanville, which at the time was considering raising funds via a bond election. When brainstorming how to get more of the community on board with the ballot measure, Berger once again hit upon his kiosk idea. “Sometimes it can be a hard sell for those who might not have a vested interest,” Berger said. “We worked in the free community WiFi aspect into the bond, so now those that don’t have kids in the district
started seeing an extra added value service.” The bond ably passed, and now
Dunanville has plans to put 45 kiosks around the community, not just in local businesses but in churches and low-income housing areas as well. In addition, a new partnership with the city will see up to
10 kiosks placed in community parks.
The terminals will still be locked down, providing access only to a chunky version of the district or city’s websites — Berger likens the look to a mobile site — but the signal strength of those outdoor kiosks will be greatly increased.
To keep costs manageable, Berger
has always favored working with local businesses to provide advertising screen space right on the kiosks, with all proceeds going right back into the program to help cover expenses or purchase new kiosks.
Although Berger’s years of experience means he’s plagued with few problems, he did originally have a difficult time
just finding a vendor that was willing to work with him. “It took a while to find a partner that would entertain even talking to us because they don’t do business with
Every campus in Manor ISD has at least one monitor outside its main office.
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