During the last years, there has been an explosion in the number of Web 2.0 tools available for educators to use with their students. The open, collaborative and contribution-based nature of Web 2.0 and its associated tools hold great promise for the nature of education.

The use of Web 2.0 tools in educational practice highlights a constructive approach to knowledge. In this approach, the teacher becomes a coordinator of teaching activities encouraging students to explore, experiment and collaborate while seeking for knowledge.

The literature discusses a number of interesting possibilities for the use of blogs, wikies, social networking and social bookmarking tools. For example, it is suggested that students can use blogs to publish their own writings, peer review each other’s work, etc. However, to better understand such possibilities, more data from actual classroom implementation are needed. The research reported in this work is an attempt to address this issue.

In this research work we briefly describe a teaching intervention using a Web 2.0 presentation tool and we look into students’ views on the use of such a tool in the classroom.

The teaching intervention was conducted in 3 classes of the third grade of Senior High School as part of the Multimedia course. For each class 6 teaching hours were devoted during the first term of the school year 2012-2013.

As part of the teaching intervention, students had to create (working in teams of two or three people) a multimedia presentation in a series of suggested topics following certain specifications. Instead of using a traditional presentation tool such as Microsoft Powerpoint, we decided to use Prezi (http://www.prezi.com). 

Prezi allows for the nonlinear organization of information that can be naturally navigated in multiple directions and at a variety of scales. The presentations that were created were visible both to the teacher and students in each class allowing free commentary and exchange of ideas.

The rationale for this intervention was based on the finding that the exploratory, experiential and collaborative learning can emotionally and rationally engage students in a creative process of search, selection, reflection and synthesis of information, promoting active participation and self-acting.

The main objectives of our teaching intervention were for  students: a) to be able to design and implement a multimedia presentation by associating and linking various forms of information (such as images, text, video, audio clips), b) to develop skills on the use of Web 2.0 tools in order to collaborate and comment on the work of their classmates and c) to develop a proper attitude towards the advantages and disadvantages of the use of Web 2.0 services.

The fundamental guiding question lying at the heart of our research was the following: in what ways does a Web 2.0 presentation tool lead to an improved learning experience?

Further research questions included:

• How would you characterize the ability of your teacher and classmates to comment on your work online?
• How important is for you the ability to monitor the progress and work of your classmates?

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