Features

All school content management system vendors are not created equal.

We understand that it takes more than just great technology -- it takes the people and processes behind that technology. Our foundation consists of three key building blocks for the Digital Bell service that set us apart from the competition:

Designed by teachers, for teachers

Automates the tasks that teachers already do in the way that they do them
The user interface is intuitive (there’s a user guide but you won’t need it)
Teachers can get in, make their updates, and then get back to teaching quickly

Helps schools to connect with parents

Makes finding needed information intuitive and easy to do
Up-to-date school website means no outdated information problems
Interactive tools allow parents to easily connect with teachers

Makes collecting and generating funds much easier

Student payments for field trips and such can be made securely online
Collected funds flow automatically into bank account -- no manual processing
School can permit and control advertising of local businesses to create revenue

Not only does The Digital Bell service produce great looking and easy to navigate websites for schools, but it has been designed to create a student safe social learning environment and to be easy to use for the people who provide the information that the website displays. This includes district staff, school staff, and teachers.

The ease of use starts with form templates that are provided in order to simplify the creation of web pages within the system. As users create high-quality web pages using The Digital Bell’s content editor that provides them with Microsoft Word-like editing and formatting functionality, content can be checked for both spelling errors as well as profanity.

Users can use the service’s image library that contains copyright-free graphics while entering data. Content can be scheduled to display in the future based on pre-specified dates and times. Presentations, spreadsheets, PDF files, word processing files, video, audio and graphics can all be uploaded individually or in batch.

The Digital Bell service has been designed to look good no matter what system is being used to display its pages. This means that The Digital Bell website designs are responsive and adjust automatically to display on computer screens of different sizes as well as mobile device screens.

The Digital Bell service has been designed to support the growing popularity of video content on school websites. A video management feature is included that permits hosted videos to be displayed on The Digital Bell pages. The Digital Bell provides a photo editor that allows users to crop and resize the photos that they have uploaded into the system.

A website is only as valuable as its content. The Digital Bell service supports an unlimited number of users and allows them to be configured into multi-level groups each of which has a permission-based login. The ability to create useful content is further enhanced by The Digital Bell’s support of integrated comprehensive survey and polling generation software, forms generation software, and an integrated message capacity.

In order to present the latest updates to users who visit the website, The Digital Bell service provides the ability to have a scrolling news section that contains both text and photos. Support for the use of an image rotator is provided in order to allow multiple pictures to be displayed on the website’s home page. Each user may have a different way that they want to be contacted. The Digital Bell provides school and district administrators with the ability to push specific types of messages to particular users via email and / or text messages and / or a mobile app after the user has subscribed to The Digital Bell notifications.

The Digital Bell service has been created with the goal of allowing school districts and individual schools to work together more closely in order to achieve total integration. This can be accomplished by The Digital Bell’s approval based calendar function, the ability to place school or district information with a location map and directions, and the ability of the school district to push down calendar items, announcements, site messages, and resources to the school pages. Calendar functionality is further enhanced by The Digital Bell’s ability to support a virtually unlimited number of web-based calendars. Once created, calendar data can be exported.

Users can be almost anywhere when they want to check on school information. That’s why the The Digital Bell service provides its users mobile web applications in order to facilitate their “on the go” access to The Digital Bell. The Digital Bell mobile applications are available for both the iOS and the Android mobile operating systems.

Once data has been entered into The Digital Bell service, it becomes important to permit users to be able to locate and share what they need. That’s why The Digital Bell comes with a smart and efficient search engine. Links in The Digital Bell can be shared with other users as well as data from calendars and document managers which can then be incorporated into any page within The Digital Bell service for a given school. There’s no danger of losing any of this information because The Digital Bell comes with an automatic archival system that makes a complete backup of the system every evening.