In his webinar on animation techniques this week, presentation skills guru Rick Altman of Better Presenting had the audience oohing and ahhing over a text polling tool he demonstrated during the session. The tool Altman used was Poll Everywhere (www.polleverywhere.com), which enables the webinar presenter to ask a question, have the audience answer using mobile phones or web browsers, and the responses are instantaneously revealed onscreen in PowerPoint, Keynote or the web.

Poll Everywhere replaces proprietary audience response hardware with basic web technology. In addition to posing audience questions, it can be used for things like texting questions to expert panels, texting feedback to presenters, brainstorming with large groups and anonymous polls for sensitive topics.

Poll Everywhere, just one of the polling tools on the market, is free for audiences of 40 people or less and has paid plans for larger audiences. For example, its Presenter plan for audiences of 250 starts at $65 per month.