Executive Summary:
High March School set out to resolve compatibility issues with teacher devices and classroom SMART boards, protecting their significant investments in classroom display technology. Vivi enabled teachers with a range of technical skills to easily connect with their classroom displays without requiring additional cords or cables. As a bonus, Vivi also addressed their needs when it came to digital signage.
Background
High March School enrols approximately 300 students from Nursery to Year 6 (Ages 3-11) in Beaconsfield, UK. The school is staffed by 65 teachers and administrators in two separate physical building locations. High March deploys 20 SMART boards across their classrooms, with desktop computers hardwired to the boards. Many teachers, particularly those in the Maths Department and the Years 1 and 2 teachers, use SMART Notebook software to design and conduct interactive lessons for their students. High March struggled with their digital signage solution, and in their own words, were “fudging it” with their current solution.
Mike Wright, the Network Manager for six years at High March, is tasked with managing the technical implementation of the School’s Digital Strategy. The strategy aims to protect their investment in the existing SMART boards while improving their staff’s ability to connect to those boards using individual digital devices such as Surface Pros.
Challenge
Wright faced the significant challenge of ensuring that both existing and new staff devices were compatible with the SMART boards. Previously, device compatibility wasn’t prioritised since teachers primarily used dedicated desktop computers connected to the boards. However, senior staff experienced delays and frustration while attempting to connect their personal devices, such as Surface Pros and iPads, which often disrupted lessons. The logistical impracticality of using various cables to connect these devices led Wright to seek a more efficient solution, as the multiple cords were cumbersome and restricted mobility within the classroom.
For years, High March struggled to deploy an easy-to-use digital signage solution and admittedly did not have good digital signage capabilities in place, which involved pushing huge PowerPoint presentations to old workstations connected to the TVs used for digital signage.
This presented a significant challenge for a school spread across two separate buildings and made it cumbersome to manage even minor content updates.
Solution
As he embarked on the new Digital Strategy to equip more teachers with their own devices, Wright was committed to optimising the existing boards, and accommodating various devices. That’s when he discovered Vivi. Wright quickly realised he could solve his compatibility issues, and easily upgrade or add teacher devices to increase interactive usage for lessons without being concerned about how they would work with the interactive displays in the classrooms.
As a bonus, Wright discovered he could address their patched-together digital signage solution. “When I was looking at a brochure, I saw the signage aspect of Vivi too; that was something we’ve struggled with for a number of years, not having good digital signage capabilities. So it wasn’t just one thing about Vivi that attracted my attention, it was a whole bunch of things.”
High March installed Vivi boxes to connect to their SMART boards, focusing on rollout in the Upper School (years 3 to 6) classrooms first, then adding them to the younger student classrooms.
In addition, they installed Vivi boxes to run digital signage at Reception so parents know what’s going on at the school and prospective parents can learn more about the school and culture. They also use Vivi-powered digital signage to communicate the daily programming schedules to the girls, which vary for Speech & Drama and Music throughout the week. In the lunchroom, a dedicated screen displays content produced by the Young Journalists Club during lunch, providing a platform for the girls to share their creative work with classmates.
Outcome
Vivi immediately addressed High March’s challenge of connecting individual devices to any SMART board, upgraded and enhanced their Digital Signage displays, and offered many bonus features to draw in more users while minimising manual support from IT.
Cross-compatibility to protect existing investments and support updated digital strategy
After making a significant investment in SMART boards, High March was generally happy with the boards but saw a need to improve the ability for teachers to connect. With Vivi’s introduction, teachers and staff are now leveraging the boards more effectively, benefitting from enhanced compatibility and user-friendly features. According to Wright, “The staff that have already got devices can use them, but for any new devices that we get for staff, we’ll know that they’ll just be able to connect. The biggest thing? It just makes our interactive displays more useable.”
Increased SMART board usage, from technophobes to technophiles
Initially, evidence of increased usage was most prominent among Year 4 to 6 teachers, who switch classrooms for different subjects. The Maths and Science teachers are among the early adopters of Vivi’s interactive features, such as having students request and then present their work on the screen to their classmates.
The tech-savvy Drama teacher loves the new Vivi solution. As she no longer needs to run back and forth from the sound desk during rehearsals and performances, she can focus on observing and directing from the hall or stage area. Stopping and restarting the music directly from her Surface Pro in between feedback and instruction can now be done wirelessly.
Even the Junior House teachers (younger levels) are beginning to understand the benefits, regardless of their skill and comfort level with technology. “They couldn’t see the benefit as they’re only in one classroom, but over half-term, I showed the most technophobic staff member how to create playlists and she was gob-smacked. She spent the next half an hour creating a whole bunch of playlists to support her teaching because she was so thrilled at the idea that she didn’t have to send me the YouTube links so that I could extract them to remove ads and other distractions, which of course takes up my time as well – so I’m thrilled too!”
Improved school communication and student engagement
Managing two physical locations, High March utilises Vivi to easily synchronise digital signage across both buildings, ensuring everyone is informed about school activities. Digital displays help streamline schedules for Speech, Drama, and Music, prominently posted so students are clear on their daily commitments. This reduces the need for students to check schedules during Form time, minimising disruptions. Additionally, the Lunchroom display offers a creative outlet for the Young Journalists Club, who produce and share content like field trip reports and jokes, enhancing student engagement and enjoyment during lunch.
Wright plans to continue to adopt more digital signage features in the future, including integrating more dynamic messaging and alerts throughout the school. He also envisions posting a screen in the window by the pick-up area, so parents and students can see important information without coming inside, an improvement over printed and posted announcements that get destroyed by the rain.
Minimised labour-intensive IT support tasks
Because Vivi strips out ads and unwanted distractions from YouTube videos, teachers love it. And even the most tech-averse teacher can easily and confidently build playlists to enhance the children’s learning from the Vivi app. Wright also loves these features, as he no longer needs to “rip” videos and load them on the network for safe playing to students, saving manual labour and lots of storage.
Wright concludes, “With Vivi, our teachers can simply walk into any room and start teaching. As the Network Manager, what I appreciate most about Vivi is seeing how it elevates our existing resources to their full potential. I’m hopeful that this will lead to more productive use of technology, enhancing both teaching and the girls’ learning experiences.”
