Is it necessarily a good thing that Yahoo answers is a sub for doing homework/research?

Question

I've noticed that a lot of these questions are clearly homework questions and can easily be resolved by the individual doing research at the library or using a search engine. It feels immoral and almost like cheating. What do you think about that? Also if you could provide your age and if you use the forum for homework help.

Answer 1

Well, if they are cheating, it wouldn't just be at Yahoo.

You can't stop someone from cheating at homework. The only way you can do that is to sit down with that person and watch him do it himself. That's the parent's job, assuming he/she has time and the inclination to do so.

A true measure of a student's knowledge is in the test. Yahoo Answers won't help a student there.

When I see someone asking for homework help, I assume that he is looking for honest help and not just the answer. Not only will I give the answer, but I'll explain how I came to that conclusion. This hopefully gets the student rolling in that direction so he can do his other questions.

If someone writes out the question, I'm going to assume he needs help. For example, it is pretty easy for many people to solve for x: x + 5 - 5x -10 = 2x. It would have taken a student less time to solve it than to write it in. So, if a student takes the effort to type it in, then he clearly does need help. It's not laziness (or he just sucks at being lazy).

I will eventually ignore someone who posts eight similar questions that are obviously from his assignment. I'm fine with answering a question or two to get the ball rolling. If someone thinks he can just copy and paste the answers, then I won't play ball. I'm interested in only teaching the student how to fish...I won't give him fish beyond the first one.

Oh, and I am 35. I certainly am not using the forum for homework help. I frequent forums dedicated to the software I use and ask questions there...it's like homework help but it's to help me in my job.

Answer 2

I'm in my 30s, so I've been out of school for several years. But asking for answers to homework questions on Yahoo is a BAD idea. There are several reasons:

With all due respect to those who post answers, there's no guarantee that the answers are correct. The answer you get here may not be as good as one you get from a friend.

Whether you get the answer here or from a friend, you're cheating. Cheating is wrong. If you get caught you'l get punished. If you don't get caught you'll be punished anyway because you won't have learned the material. And you're going to need that material some day, either in an advanced class, or in a job, or in a social situation.

If you don't understand the question... ask your teacher. If you don't know the answer, do the research. Otherwise you're cheating yourself.

Answer 3

I agree, It does seem like cheating. When I was in school we never used the internet for homework help, we had to research everything with books lol. Don't get me wrong, the internet was certainly around but it wasn't at as big a scale as it is now (I left secondary school around 4 years ago). I'd feel wrong asking homework questions here but hey, if people want to do that then it's their loss because they wont have the knowledge that homework is intended to promote. I wouldn't even ask questions now, I just read cases on the internet so I can write case-notes to study for my exams.

Answer 4

Word...

I'm 17 going on 18 & for the most part I like to rely on boring books & encyclopedias from the library.
The only time I actually use forums & such is to debate or ask other peoples' opinions, but pretty much I don't like to feel like I'm cheating on my assignments.

But there is a site out there that has biographies & encyclopedias uploaded. I forgot the name of it but I do believe it's a governernment project sort of thing to help make students & researchers so they don't have to go down to their local library. The thing about it is you have to pay to use it.

Fortunately for me, my AP English class last year were one several classes in my county that were picked to test drive the site to decide whether the county would purchase subscriptions for the high schools to use.

Personally, I found it confusing... But then again I hardly ever used it so I never really gave it a chance.

Answer 5

You could see yahoo answers people as the librarians of life, just waiting for someone to need their knowledge and they are all more than happy to help. Some are lazy; some just truly don't know.

The intent is on the questioner. Their conscience has to deal with the cheating and ethics of the matter. Answerers are just being helpful.

Figure my age by the vocabulary I use.

Answer 6

But doing it on Yahoo answers is so much easier! No research, no using of the brain, just a little typing and a few clicks and thats all. We belong to the Instant Gratification Generation, except for when we make purchases online.

Answer 7

people need help
not everyone is magically equipped with the smart gene

i wish this would have been available when i was in college
college student can't afford to pay someone 50 bucks an hour and the professor never help

i think that it is a great idea and why even have answers if you can't ask whatever you want.

what i think is stupid is the nonsense questions that no one can answer like the meaning of life

apparently you have never needed help with any of you education at all.

Answer 8

I'm with you on this. Many of the questions asked can easily be looked up either on-line or using reference material at the library and that's why I refuse to answer them.

Answer 9

First I view my profile. Then I examine my digital mail to work out which suited solutions I have been given. Then I answer some million or 2 pages of P&S, then a million website of fb, a million website of Yahoo solutions, ans then I answer my contacts. If I actual have a question, I ask it. Jonathan :)

Answer 10

sometyimes people dont understand and need help and ask someone to explain it for them