User Requirements for Zoho Show
Zoho Show is web-based, making it independent of an operating system. So, all you need is access to the Internet and a browser to utilize it. Zoho stores all your work on its own secure servers so it is accessible from just about anywhere. You are also able to download your projects and save them on your computer. This is great for those who want to host their own projects for embedding them into webpages.
Where to get Zoho
zoho.com is the main website for all of the Zoho applications which can be accessed by logging in with your personal Google or Yahoo account, or by creating a Zoho account. You only need to create one account to access all of the applications.
mobile.zoho.com is the the website to use if accessing Zoho applications via an iphone. If not using a Google or Yahoo account to log in, you will have to create a Zoho account.
More About Zoho Mobile
To learn more and to download applications for your mobile phone, visit the following link:
Zoho Show's Main Features
First of all, Zoho Show is free for personal use. You can access, import, edit and share presentations from anywhere and anytime you want because all you need to access it is a browser and an Internet connection. Zoho Show has built-in sharing and collaboration capabilities enabling students and teachers to share presentations that can be viewed and edited right through the browser. Presentations created with Zoho can even be shared and and worked on by others internationally. Presentations can also be shared publically by using the html embed code located in the Zoho Show creator interface. Another great feature is that completed presentations can be exported and saved on your computer in other formats that work with other popular desktop publication suites such as Microsoft PowerPoint. You can even import existing PowerPoints that you created within Microsoft PowerPoint. This is a much easier, not to mention cheap, way of making embeddable multimedia presentations for your own website or blog. Click here to view a more detailed list of features.
How Zoho Show Supports Learning
Students and teachers can create and share documents online easily. Not only will these free tools help organize classrooms in new ways, they provide self-guided learning opportunities that extend beyond the confines of the classroom where students can build communication and collaboration skills. Students can create their own presentations, which in turn promotes creativity, communication, collaboration, and a higher level of thinking because it encourages the use of techniques and strategies.
Research Concerning the Use of Zoho Show for Learning
I could not find any significant research pertaining directly to Zoho Show and how it supports learning. However, I did find many research articles related to multimedia learning. Research pertaining to multimedia learning is appropriate for this project since Zoho Show is an application used to create multimedia presentations.
According to research conducted by SEG Research, multimedia can enhance learning based on how the brain processes information as long as it is designed effectively. The brain uses multiple channels to process information which include the auditory channel and the visual channel. The auditory channel processes information that is heard and the visual channel processes information that is seen. These processes take place in working memory, also known as short-term memory. Therefore, information travels through these channels and enters the brain’s working memory first. Working memory can only hold small amounts of information for about twenty seconds. So, if information obtained is not meaningful enough to make it through working memory into long-term memory, it is lost. (SEG Research, 2008)
A 2008 report conducted by the Metro Group goes a little farther in explaining that the brain has three types of memory which include working memory, sensory memory, and long-term memory.
“Working memory is where thinking gets done and is actually more brain function than location. It is dual coded with a buffer for storage of verbal/text elements, and a second buffer for visual/spatial elements. Within working memory, verbal/text memory and visual/spatial memory work together, without interference, to enhance understanding. Overfilling either buffer can result in cognitive overload and weaken learning.” (Metiri Group, 2008: Page 9)
Sensory memory is triggered by experiencing things through the five senses; sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. “Experiencing any aspect of the world through the human senses causes involuntary storage of sensory memory traces in long-term memory as episodic knowledge. These degrade relatively quickly. It is only when the person pays attention to elements of sensory memory that those experiences get introduced into working memory. Once an experience is in working memory, the person can then consciously hold it in memory and think about it in context.”
“Long-term memory in humans is unlimited estimated to store up to 109 to 1020 bits of information over a lifetime – equivalent to 50,000 times the text in the U.S. Library of Congress. The brain has two types of long-term memory, episodic and semantic. Episodic is sourced directly from sensory input and is involuntary. Semantic memory stores memory traces from working memory, including ideas, thoughts, schema, and processes that result from the thinking accomplished in working memory. The processing in working memory automatically triggers storage in long-term memory.” (Metiri Group, 2008: Page 10)
So how does memory and multimedia learning fit together? According to Mayer, “People can learn more deeply from words and pictures than from words alone.” (Mayer, R. E.: Page 1) Mayer defines multimedia, multimedia learning and multimedia instruction as follows:
Multimedia – Presenting words (such as printed text or spoken text) and pictures (such as illustrations, photos, animation, or video).
Multimedia Learning – Building mental representations from words and pictures.
Multimedia Instruction – Presenting words and pictures that are intended to promote learning.
Drawing on the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, Mayer’s model of meaningful learning points out that “in multimedia learning the learner engages in three important cognitive processes”which include selecting, organizing, and integrating. Selecting “is applied to incoming verbal information to yield a text base and is applied to incoming visual information to yield an image base,” organizing “is applied to the word base to create a verbally-based model of the to-be-explained system and is applied to the image base to create a visually-based model of the to-be-explained system,” and integrating “occurs when the learner builds connections between corresponding events (or states or parts) in the verbally-based model and the visually-based model.” (Mayer & Moreno: page 2, para 2)
The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning lists some basic principles for designing multimedia learning environments:
Multimedia Principle – People learn better from words and pictures than from words alone.
Split-attention Principle – People learn better when words and pictures are physically and temporally integrated.
Modality Principle – People learn better from graphics and narration than graphics and printed text.
Redundancy Principle – People learn better when the same information is not presented in more than one format.
Segmenting, Pretraining, and Modality Principles – People learn better when a multimedia message is presented in learned-paced segments rather than as a continuous unit, when they know the names and characteristics of the main concepts, and when the words are spoken rather than written.
Coherence, Signaling, Spatial Contiguity, Temporal Contiguity, and Redundancy Principles – People learn better when extraneous material is excluded rather than included, when cues are added that highlight the organization of the essential material, when corresponding words and pictures are presented near rather than far from each other on the screen or page or in time, and people learn better from graphics and narration than from graphics, narration, and on-screen text.
Personalization, Voice, and Image Principles – People learn better when the words of multimedia presentation are in conversational style rather than formal style and when the words are spoken in a standard-accent human voice rather than a machine voice or foreign-accented human voice; but people do not necessarily learn better when the speaker’s image is on the screen. (Mayer R. E., 2005)
For Your Review
The following link is explains the water cycle with text that is accompanied by a picture. The picture has text on it as well, but I look at this presentation as one where the words and picture are far rather than near.
http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/msese/earthsysflr/water.html
The following link will take you to an animated diagram of the water cycle. This animation includes text on the diagram; however, there are no spoken words.
http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/earthguide/diagrams/watercycle/
Visit the following link to view a water cycle learning game that uses a computer sounding voice rather than a human voice. This is a fairly good game for learning. However, I can see where the computer sounding voice could throw a learner off.
http://www.gudli.com/kids/games/water-cycle.html
I saved the best for last! Visit the following link to view an interactive, animated, diagram of the water cycle that not only includes narrative text, but a human voice that speaks the narrative text as well.
http://www.epa.gov/ogwdw/kids/flash/flash_watercycle.html
You decide which one you think is the most appropriate for teaching the water cycle.
Conclusion
Multimedia such as PowerPoint presentations, webquests, tutorials, etc., must be created in a way that makes the message they are trying to say meaningful to the learner to ensure that the message makes it through working memory into long-term memory.
Why Zoho Show is Appropriate for Learning
I can see how Zoho Show can be used in the classroom by teachers as well as students. Teachers can use Zoho Show to create tutorial presentations and slideshows that complement different lessons. Students can create their own presentations that can be shared with their teachers, as well, as other students. Students can create their own digital stories, scrapbooks, projects, and reports pertaining to a particular lesson. Students can also be placed in groups that work together on a presentation. To do this, each student could be given a particular part. For example, a group of five students could do a presentation on dinosaurs. Student number one could design the first part of the presentation which talks about when the dinosaurs were here. The next three students could pick a dinosaur to talk about and design individual parts of the presentation talking about their dinosaur of choice, and then the fifth student could design his or her part of the presentation which talks about how the dinosaurs became extinct. This is just an example. However, this type of project could be worked on collaboratively by the entire class, since there are many types of dinosaurs, making it an entire class masterpiece that everyone had a hand in making. Once finished, it could be printed into a book that all students would have a copy of to take home with them at the end of the school year. Just being a part of such a great project would foster excitement and cooperation among students, while teaching them how to work efficiently and effectively together. The possibilities are endless!