Evaluating Web 2.0 Presentation Tools

The first tool I tested out was Prezi (http://prezi.com). Prezi is a nice tool for creating multimedia rich presentations. I was really amazed at how easy it was to set up a presentation. I have never used the program before the other day and it was very easy to set up a presentation. It has many different tutorials for every level of user. The tutorials also were very easy to understand and very informative, which is nice.
Prezi also allows for easy collaboration with others and the ability to share your presentations over the internet.
Another great thing was they offer a teacher and student account that gives you extra data storage over the normal free account.

The next tool I'm going to discuss is Google Docs. Google Docs is another free program that allows you to share all types of files with collaborators around the world. You can create and share power-point type slideshows, word documents, spreadsheets, drawings and many other file types. I currently use Google Docs with my fellow teachers. The nice thing is how easy it is to share and collaborate on projects. I currently use it to share and edit lesson plans with my In-Class-Support teacher. It has a chat feature that allows you to discuss while you are working on your project, or in my case, lesson plans. It has come in very handy.

Lastly, Promethean Planet is a free online community for educators developed by Promethean Ltd.   It currently hosts over 1,000,000 teacher accounts from 140 countries. ^[1]The purpose of Promethean Planet is to support teachers in using technology effectively. Teachers are encouraged to interact with each other using online tools such as forums, blogs and conferencing.

New features and functionality include:
The option for users to preview flipchart lesson plans online

• Improved search facilities
• Events calendars
• Video teacher features with practitioners
• Activtips area, containing bite-sized professional development

There are plenty of other wonderful tools out there but these were the ones I  like the best. For some more suggestions, check out these sites:
1) http://webtools4u2use.wikispaces.com/Presentation+Tools
2) http://edudemic.com/2010/07/the-35-best-web-2-0-classroom-tools-chosen-by-you/
3) http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Presentation+Tools

After evaluating the three tools I will be choosing between Google Docs and Promethean Planet.  I am more familiar with Promethean Plant but Google Docs has some very nice unique features that would be fun to use.

I am looking forward to exploring more tools that I can use for my project, classroom instruction, and with my students..