Smartboards in the Art Room!

I've had an Epson Brightlink board in my class for a little bit over a year now, and I love it! If you're not familiar with this brand, it's an interactive whiteboard (similar to a Smartboard, without as many features).

The Brightlink is only interactive using the 2 pens that come with it. With the pens, you can click on things on the screen and write on the screen (the student above is using one of the pens, not a dry erase marker to write). You can save things written this way, or erase them.

I use my Brightlink mostly for participation activities. Each project that I do has a different set of these activities. The Brightlink participation is usually done as a class at the start of the class period. It usually involves the elements of art. The student above is identifying organic and geometric shapes in a Matisse Painting. I also have students identify space techniques (size, horizon line, detail, overlapping, placement) in various landscape paintings, compare and contrast African cloths using a Ven diagram, identify color schemes in famous paintings, etc.

The students really enjoy using this, doesn't everyone like to write on the board? Besides the interactive functions, it also serves as a normal dry erase whiteboard and a screen to project images onto.