More and more over the past few weeks, I’ve found that I have been recommending that faculty visit a wonderful Wiki site called CogDogRoo, which was developed by Alan Levine. I usually make this recommendation when the subject of student presentations—and how to do them effectively in an online class—comes up. While there is nothing wrong with having students create PowerPoint presentations, I find that there are often other tools available that allow for better interaction and more creative presentation or just allow students to explore a new way to present information. Most recently, I have been working with faculty from our School of Education, and there is often a mandate that their students be able to effectively integrate technology into the classroom. As a parent, I am well aware that “technology integration in the classroom” often means using PowerPoint (including all of the crazy animation—don’t even get me started there) and Google. But I am finding that the faculty I work with feel empowered knowing that there are sites like CogDogRoo out there that can help inspire not only them but also their students to think about classroom technology in new ways.

Browsing the list of over fifty tools that Levine links to is certainly one way to inspire some creative thought, but I decided to highlight a few of my favorites from the list:

• Blabberize – Perhaps not the most “sophisticated” of tools, but who hasn’t wanted to create an animated talking animal! Think about using this tool for students to do their class introductions instead of the traditional discussion forum.
• Toondoo – Instead of a traditional PowerPoint, why not have students try their hands at creating their own educational graphic novels? No drawing skills are required, and the results are not bad.
• Glogster – Have students create poster sessions that distill the essence of their research projects and present them with Glogster. (See this example from a 6th grade class on polar bears.)

And of course if you are looking for slideshow/presentation tools, there are lots of those as well—many will allow you to simply upload existing PowerPoint/keynote presentations, allowing for better Web sharing and viewing options. Some of the best of these include:

• Slideboom
• Google Presenter
• Zoho Show
• Slideshare

For slide-like tools but not PowerPoint presentations per se, try one of these:

• Imageloop – Upload images or PowerPoint slides, and choose from interesting templates (see this example). Presentations can be embedded on other pages or shared via a link.
• PhotoPeach – Upload images and overlay them with music (library provided), add captions and effects, and share.

Try some of these favorites or some of the others from the list, and be creative with your next “presentation” assignment.