Students and Yahoo! Answers
I observed a math class today. How’s that happen at an online school? Well, part of what we do happens on campus. And part of what we do on campus is give students an hour of math instruction.
As I’m sitting there in class observing the teacher bounce from student to student answering questions I noticed one student, sitting the back corner of the classroom, at Yahoo! Answers. I had an idea of what he was doing but I wanted to hear it from him:
This kid thought he was in trouble when I brought him to my office to ask him about it. I can imagine. I’m sure he thought I was going to give him some business about cheating, or using school computers in some way that us old people hadn’t anticipated. When I told him what I thought he was doing was great, he eased up a little, but I don’t think I had his full trust.
That clip shows the power of social networking. I hadn’t thought of it before, but Yahoo! Answers is an instant social network. Hop in, ask your question, and get what you need. Maybe answer some questions while you’re there too. It’s the best part of social networking without all the hype.
Once again, it’s important to note that this student was all over this without any adult direction. It’s an amazing time to be working with young people.
Technorati Tags: Yahoo! Answers, School 2.0, Web 2.0
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Larry responds:
Posted: September 26th, 2007 at 2:41 pm →
How cool. Kids learning because they find a need and rather than rely on the teacher going out on their own. May be the only real learning that went on in that class that day. Knowledge may well have been transferred in traditional manner, but the real learning is that once can depend on their own creativity to solve a problem. Professional educators learning from students a novel idea. Enjoyed the conversation.