Would Yahoo! Answers make a good educational tool?

Question

Should I introduce my first year college students to this site or is it too... ????

Oh, yes, I heartily agree that much of the answers on here are suspect! Even some of the questions are a little suspicious! I like philosophy, but really I'm an advisor and will be teaching an intro to college course. There is definitely something to the randomness of information here that seems to me to be instructional in itself... "Assignment: compare information gathering through Y!A vs. academic research methods?" Is this academic or entertainment?

janine_rs,

You DID get solid facts, BUT that's not what I see. I see people learning about asking questions in that the answers they get might not be what they wanted or expected depending on how they phrase it. Badly phrased questions get lousy answers...

Answer 1

The answer is yes & no. It's sometimes hard to distinguish between acccurate & inaccurate information. I think if you're using this site to find information, it would always be a good idea to double-check the source. If you're used to using something like Wikipedia, then I'd say yes, but it might actually add time rather than save time with regard to any research you might need to do.

Answer 2

I'd say Yahoo! Answers is mostly a form of entertainment and hardly academic. I see it as another form of social networking, which certainly has some positive and beneficial aspects. But unlike services like MySpace, it is much, much harder to know what kind of people you're dealing with. For one question I answered, the other answerer could well have been a 12 year old, as their response was way off the mark:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AtelRyBweHHfNK0sQ6.T_8Psy6IX?qid=20060614215935AATaPbz

On the other hand, I did get one decent response for one of my own questions. Books and on-line sites weren't helping me get certain details about wounded soldiers' experiences in Viet Nam for a fiction story I'm writing and I got one vet who provided some useful tidbits. So I think Y!A is most useful in seeking out personal, subjective experiences rather than cold, hard facts.

I'd also like to toss in the caution that participating in Y!A can become addictive for some people, which doesn't seem like a good thing to turn your students onto. However, I suppose social networking through sites like MySpace and Yahoo 360 can be addicting as well, so what can you do? How about letting your students know that online addiction IS possible and recognized by psychologists as a real problem. Look up the warning signs to share with your students.

Answer 3

It depends on the subject you are teaching. Much of the history or science in answers on this page is very, very suspect. However, if you want to use this site for philosophy, sociology, or any subject that is not fact based, it could be a good tool.

It may also teach students not to take what they are told at face value. Everything fact given on this site should be confirmed before it is accepted.

Answer 4

I think that it would be an interesting tool if you were studying the idea of group knowledge or the way people will rely on the advice of total strangers above people they know or professionals. Otherwise, I don't really think that it is necessary for you to introduce it, unless you want your students spending more time reading it than they do studying.

Answer 5

this is a site which is like the yahoo answers, well it even has a leader board, check it out, http://www.friendscyberclub.com/ though it went under maintainence, and is to be online from july, means more 20 days from today expected, i was late to join in yahoo answers, so my rank is bad, here am going to start it from the very first day,