This morning I attended a packed session hosted by Epson in the Four Season’s Ballroom. Discovery’s own rock star, Hall Davidson showed attendee’s Epson’s new Bright Link projector. I have to say, I was quite impressed.
This past year every school in our district used federal dollars to purchase SMART or Promethean boards for classrooms. This was a major undertaking. At our school, we were faced with taking down old static white boards, installing new boards, installing projectors, and more. Typically, the setup consists of a proprietary board, a projector, and the software required to run the program. The software connects the computer to the board. Without the board….nada.
The Bright Link is a short throw projector with built-in Interactive White Board software. No board is required. Anything that can reflect the projector’s image and is sturdy enough to press against with a pen (much like the Promethean Board), can become interactive. In addition, the projector has ethernet capabilities. This allows the projector to broadcast over the Internet if a teacher chooses, or it can be controlled remotely. For instance, if the school or district office notices that a projector has been left turned on after hours, it can be turned off from across town if necessary.
The software doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of SMART or Promethean, but it was still impressive. The downside to all those bells and whistles is the training it takes to create some of the more interesting interactive lessons for kids. The upside to Epson’s simplicity is that it can pretty much be used right out of the box. Hall was showing pictures of a room he visited where the teacher had literally just had the projector installed that day and had not used it yet. He gave a pen to a student and the student intuitively understood what to do to run the program.
The projector currently retails for $1799. Bulbs are around $169. Without a proprietary board, any wall, white board, bulletin board, or even file cabinet can become interactive.
If you attended this session, I would appreciate your comments.