How Your School Can Benefit From Launching A Mobile App

These days, connectivity is essential for effective communication. There is no better example of where communication is needed than in schools and educational facilities. According to recent findings, 68% of American adults own a smartphone, making it easier than ever before for school administrators to engage and communicate with faculty members, parents, students, and the community as a whole. Here are some ways that a mobile app for your school can be beneficial to your community.

An Information Epicenter

These days, there are many other uses for apps than just playing your favorite mobile game or catching up with the people in your social networking circles. A mobile app is a specialized technological offering that allows you to quickly send important updates to anyone who has downloaded the app, regardless of whether they are students, parents, teachers, or auxiliary staff members. These updates can include anything from sports schedules and scores, school closings and delays, information on extracurricular activities, and other administrative updates that concern students and parents. Additionally, a mobile app for your school allows administrators to have a centralized location to work as a reference point for nearly everything that concerns the school. Your app can provide a wealth of information to users, including a list of the teachers, faculty, and staff members, the student handbook, access to forms and permission slips, bus route information, field trip itineraries, and school menu options.

Offer Access To School Records

Mobile apps are useful for not only sharing general information about the happenings at your school, but they can also get used for sharing progress reports on students throughout the school year. Instead of parents being ‘in the dark’ about troubles like truancy, slipping grades, or missing homework, they are granted access to this critical information so they can get ahead of the problem and address it quickly.

Mobile Is Quickly Outpacing Desktop

Technological trends are always changing and evolving. As mentioned before, 68% of American adults now own a smartphone. The widespread access and use of wireless internet, in combination with affordable and powerful tablets and smartphones, outpaced the desktop market years ago. Now more than ever, people want to be able to get access to the information they want with just a few touches of a button. A mobile app launches cleaner without needing to open up a web browser and conduct an online search. While the overall desktop use and search have slowly declined over the years, you still want to be sure to cater to whatever audiences you have on this operating system and platform by having a classic website available as well.

Push Notifications Send Instant Alerts

Most parents want to stay abreast of everything that’s going on at their child’s school. A mobile app is an ideal way to engage with parents and ‘keep them in the loop’ about valuable information concerning their kid’s education and wellbeing. Everyone dreads the thought of an emergency taking place at a school. If something were to happen, a mobile app serves as the fastest and most efficient way to communicate using native ‘Push Notifications’ that pop up automatically on mobile users smartphones or tablet computers. This capability is especially useful for announcing school delays, cancellations, early dismissals, and other events that parents and students need to be aware are happening.

Streamline Calls and Emails

Depending on how extensive you want to make your mobile app, adding a “Click to Call” or “Click to Email” button helps streamline how parents, students, and other community members conduct their outreach. In today’s day and age, almost no one takes the time to memorize phone numbers and email addresses. A mobile app that offers users a convenient way to call or email makes things a lot easier for them and helps encourage two-way communication, whether it’s to report an absenteeism or to schedule a conference with their kid’s teacher. In higher-education settings, such as colleges and universities, these features offer students a way to stay in touch with professors, advisors, and other key faculty members.

Build A Stronger Community

While it might sound silly to hear that a mobile app can help foster a stronger sense of community, it really can! Many school districts have turned to their mobile app as a way to leverage their connection in the communities they serve. Instead of having to cut through miles of red tape to get in touch with staff or board members, mobile apps make it much easier to get in touch. Further, they can get used to promote events, sporting events, and fundraisers to support class trips, intramural and extramural sports teams, or other causes and initiatives the school stands behind.

Deploying A Mobile App Doesn’t Have to be Difficult

For many school districts and independent school systems, making technological advancements are sometimes difficult. Undoubtedly, making significant investments in the education system such as computer lab upgrades, textbook purchases, as well as building maintenance are always needed to remain competitive. Adding a mobile app to your school’s roster of ‘must have’ technology makes a lot of sense because of all the controls it gives you for sharing information with students, parents, and the larger community. When you work with a skilled team of Mobile App developers who have a thorough understanding of how to put everything together for your school system’s mobile app, you’re taking all the right steps to assure that your school is using cutting-edge technology.

Mobile apps are ideal for keeping in touch – and increasing engagement – with students, parents, faculty, and other key personnel. The team at Colleen Eakins Design is ready to tackle your school’s mobile app project with enthusiasm and skill! To learn more about our mobile app service offerings, visit our mobile app services’ page and give us a shout to discuss your unique project needs, we’re always happy to help!