Is Yahoo Answers for Homework Cheats?

Question

Two part question?
Is Yahoo Answers for Homework cheats -- should we be enabling kids by doing their homework for them (i.e. answering their obvious test questions)?
Should Yahoo "fine" us for telling kids to do their won homework and not cheating? After all, that is a helpful answer, even if the kids don't want to hear it?

Answer 1

Is it for cheaters?

I have to say yes, and enablers, too.....most questions asked on here are by kids too lazy to look up their own questions, or who never had the "search" function explained to them, or as we frequently see, have an hour left to do 3 hours work........

now some questions are folks trying to expand their knowledge, or are asking opinions that don't come from cut and dry facts and dates.......like why did WW2 start is maybe a legit question..When did WW2 start is pure laziness.

The disturbing fact is too many people will do kids work for them.......and this ties to the second question should Yahoo fine people for telling kids to do their own work? Not only should that be a Best Answer, worth at least 10 points, but Yahoo should consider either having more monitors to delete obviously lazy questions What year did Columbus sail? Who was JFK? What color is the White House?........or Yahoo should eliminate the homework help cat. entirely and start educating folks how to do searches.....

Answer 2

Of course it is. Kids always find the easy way out and this is the easiest right now. You will notice, though, that those who choose to answer the questions usually go into more detail than the student needs and some are darn good teachers.

No, I don't think Yahoo Answers should do a thing. We are capable of answering or not answering as we choose. Students who come here usually find themselves skimming the text looking for the answers while they are waiting for responses. The really lazy students who post all their questions on here generally fail to get responses anyway.

Answer 3

1) I try to give them a nudge in the right direction instead of just serving up the answer on a platter. Or at the very least, I'll say **why** the answer is correct. That way, I'm providing assistance without enabling laziness.

2) I don't think Yahoo should get involved with "do your own homework" responses unless the answerer is rude, calls the asker names, or otherwise violates the T.O.U. In other words, "do your own homework" is a fair answer, but don't get ugly!

Answer 4

I find it totally unfair that anyone can report you regardless of whether you have committed a violation or not. If you contest a violation, no one ever gets back to you. I know I have been wrongly reported before. I think it's those people with multiple accounts that ask all kinds of disgusting questions. On the other hand, when I report something that is a real violation, nothing is done about it. I think Yahoo needs better monitoring of this site.

Answer 5

Getting close to finals and the questions are multiplying. Of course, if they were resourceful, theycould find a lot of their answers by doing a search on the web. Genealogy board gets a lot of questions. Some lame brain teachers want children to look up their "family crest." There is no such thing as a family crest. Coats of arms were given to an individual who passed it on to his son.

Even if one has the a person's surname, it doesn't mean it ever belonged to any ancestor of that person. Not everyone with the same surname go back to the same root.

The U.S. doesn't have any laws re heraldry and their are a lot of companies peddling coats of arms and you can find them galore on the web. Some will even do a family tree for you and "link" you to a noble family.

Answer 6

Hi Beth.

Great question. When a student asks a single question that he/she truly does not know and asks for help, I don't see why we can't help. "Help" includes the steps on how to arrive at the answer and or give tips on how to arrive at the answer.

When a student asks 10 questions in a row for different math questions for example, is a cheater. The student obviously doesn't want to do the work. The student is lazy and wants others to do the work for him/her.

If we get "fined" by Yahoo! Answers for telling kids to do their own homework, I feel that that fine should be justified by Yahoo! Answers.

For example in scenario one, we shouldn't judge the student, but help. If we say do your own homework and are rude about it, etc. then perhaps the fine is warranted. But in scenario two, if we tell the student to do his/her own work, then us getting a fine will NOT be warranted but it is placed on our shoulders to prove it.

Answer 7

I think there are many genuine questions out there, but I would like to see them in the Homework Help section than here on History.
It is the idiotic questions that get to me. Why do they ask multi-choice questions where they clearly know the answer.

Ho Hum
Good question.

Answer 8

I don't necessarily think it's for cheats. I do think that many of the students asking for help obviously haven't read their required reading, and should *definitely* do that first. Or providing, if they had read as they should, they don't notice that if you pay attention to the title of each section, you'll more than likely find your answer, even without *having* to read the entirety of the assigned bits of text.