You just have to walk into virtually any high school in America and you will see them, the trophy cases of the hallways, the blurry team photos of dusty glass, the plaques with the names so old that they are almost unreadable. The displays are destined to celebrate success and motivate the future generation. But too often they do not. They accumulate dust, remain unnoticed, and slowly fall apart gradually.
How are forward thinking schools rethinking the process of preserving and sharing their history? More and more, the solution lies in digital format and the outcomes are impressive indeed.
Why Physical Displays Fall Short
It seems somewhat nostalgic about a traditional hall of fame wall. Nostalgia does not scale well. There is one inherent issue with physical displays, namely, a lack of space.
- Space Constraints: A century old school has a hundred years of history to share , championships, standout alumni, educational achievements, gifts. There is no way that you can get all of that on a wall. So, schools have to make difficult decisions on the basis of who is the one to be recognized and who is not.
- Maintenance Problems: Plaques become obsolete. Photos fade. The software developed for hardware kiosks becomes slow and starts to lag within a few years. The schools are left with costly installations that simply cease to work and there is no easy way to fix them
- Limited Reach: The only people who will see the display on the wall of your gym lobby are those who will be going through that door. Alumni around the nation, prospective families investigating the school on the Internet, donors interested in giving a gift ,none of them can see it.
Enter the Digital Legacy Platform
The only difference in recent years is that there have been cloud-based platforms that have been created exclusively to use in schools. These tools allow institutions to put all that they have traditionally kept in trophy cases, filing cabinets, and yearbook archives and make it dynamic, searchable, and shareable.
Consider it in the following manner, rather than having a fixed plaque with the years of the championship, the school can create a more interactive experience. When you tap a picture of a team you get the entire roster, the season record, highlight videos and where those athletes continued to play in college. It is the contrast between a picture and a narrative.
They are created on the best platforms with intuitive content management systems implying that the staff members do not require a technical background to keep things updated.
- Real-time updates: A new state champion added within minutes.
- Personal spotlights: A teacher who is retiring is given an adequate spotlight.
- Donor recognition:A donor's contribution gets recognized with context and warmth, not a name on a wall.
Athletics: Where Digital Preservation Shines Brightest
Athletics are the place where digital preservation has had the greatest influence, as far as I can see. Schools have a rich long history of sports, decades of records, coaches , captains,stories of comebacks and most of it has never been systematized or distributed.
A well-designed digital hall of fame display changes that completely. Schools are able to display all the individual championship records and leaderboards all the way up to the college commitments and professional athletes that were promoted through their programs.It is a living archive, expanding with each season.
This is important particularly in recruitment. When a potential student-athlete comes to campus, the appearance of the area becomes what creates an impression of the program. There is a well-polished interactive screen that informs them that this is a school that pays attention to its athletes, gives them due credit, and makes its own story.
A digital sports hall of fame also gives alumni a reason to stay connected. It is something impressive to see your name or the name of your coach listed in a beautifully archived computer file a few years after you graduate. It generates pride and pride generates donors.
Beyond Sports: A School's Full Story
The most apparent use case can be athletics, but the schools which do this successfully are going far beyond that.
Academic achievements, theater productions, student government, arts programs, STEM initiatives, everything can be recorded and celebrated.Clubs that used to receive a single line in a yearbook, now are able to have dedicated pages containing photos, videos and highlights of the members. Valedictorians from fifty years ago can share their seats with National Honor Society inductees. Not only the athletic achievements of the school, but also the entire image of the school, receives the attention it deserves.
In the case of private schools and universities, in particular, this type of end-to-end digital presence is not an amenity, it is a competitive edge. Families that are researching schools are on serious research. A school that has an opportunity to demonstrate its traditions, its values, and its track record in an appealing, understandable manner stands out.
Making It Accessible Everywhere
One of the most underappreciated benefits of going digital is reach. A cloud-based platform does not just appear on a screen somewhere in the hallway. What is displayed on a touchscreen in the gym lobby can be used on a phone from any place around the world or embedded in a school web site to be read by the family of a prospective student at home.
Such accessibility makes the legacy of a school no longer something that you have to get to by walking but something that goes with the community wherever it goes.
Keeping the Story Going
Schools are living institutions at the end of the day. They grow, evolve, and produce with fresh stories each and every year. Their tools to preserve those stories should be increased with them.
Digital legacy platforms have the advantage that physical displays could never have that it is possible to maintain the narrative without having to restart all over. No renovation expenses. No obsolete equipment. Only a living record, that reflects what a school is today, and in generations to come.
The history of a school should not be behind a dusty glass. It ought to be what everyone can discover, visit and be proud of. Digital preservation makes that possible.
