6 ms·

Facebook is now mission-critical - for high schoolers doing homework, anyway

20 points by waderoush 16y ago

phlux 16y ago
This is where the nail comes... if FB can become an integral part of the learning process (e.g. providing homework/study collaboration tools) they will really be disruptive within 5 years. Partner with Kno (or BUY them) and the game is on.
jbail 16y ago
Sharing homework. Great idea. Except that's called copying or cheating. At least it was in all of the academic institutions I went to. I do like the idea of being able to place a banner ad for a paper writing service right next to the soon to be developed MS Word killer text editor in Facebook. I'm assuming Facebook will give me access to read the contents of the editor so I can suggest pre-written papers in my banner ad that match the paper the student is currently attempting to write.
- tomjen3 16y ago
  Really? Asking somebody to tell you how a formula works, or helping you remember the name of that guy who was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence is cheating?
  - jiganti 16y ago
    No, and buying a gun for protection isn't murder. But each can be easily used for unscrupulous purposes, which is cause for concern.
    - aik 16y ago
      In any place other than school it would be called collaboration. In school it's punished. Funny system we have. There needs to be some serious eye-opening in this world when it comes to education.
  - jbail 16y ago
    Sharing homework and asking somebody a question are completely different things. That said, if you can't figure out the name of the guy who was first to sign the Declaration of Independence by searching for it yourself or reviewing your notes, then yes, you aren't learning anything. I would not want to work with someone who asks questions he could easily figure out for himself.
- sp4rki 16y ago
  Wow, I don't even know where to start. Where in the article was it mentioned that students copied homework? While you're at it, explain to me to how students currently share their entire homework (generally written in Microsoft Word) through Facebook Chat. Why would you think sharing homework is a bad thing? People generally do so to compare methodologies and answers with their peer's data. It's generally part of the learning experience. Everyone in school/college/university shares assignments (albeit not all assignments are of the shareable type) to make sure they're on the right track, make sure they didn't miss anything, or to get a different perspective into a subject. If you didn't do so when you where in school/college you missed out on the opportunity to learn a little bit extra by means of poking into fellow student's minds.
  - jbail 16y ago
    Last line of the article: "Who wants to bet on whether Facebook will replace Microsoft Word with a simple, integrated editor with built in sharing & chat?" That's the sharing I was talking about. I reference the theoretical text editor in my comment saying it'd be awesome to target ads based on what the student was writing.
    - nsfmc 16y ago
      you mean like etherpad?
- Darmani 16y ago
  All but one of the classes I've taken so far at college have explicitly allowed collaboration. A couple are designed to be impossible to pass without collaboration.
  - jbail 16y ago
    I took CS at University of Wisconsin. Yes, you could collaborate and chat with your classmates, but copying/sharing code was absolutely not allowed. Maybe schools are more lax now, but I would frown upon copy and paste education. Developing myself as an independent thinker was one of the most important things I took away from college.
wallflower 16y ago
I remember logging into IRC once and going to the #C channel and asking some tough questions from my take home exam. Felt dirty. I'm so glad I got out of school before the Internet really took off. Old enough to have had a 'Introduction to the Card Catalog' as an orientation session at college.
ams6110 16y ago
Students collaborating on homework is as old as school itself. And it in fact is the way the "real world" work. Nobody gets accused of "cheating" at work if you ask a co-worker for help or input on a problem. In fact, "pair programming" is often cited as a best practice.
- pzxc 16y ago
  There is asking for help, and still trying to learn it yourself, and then there is simply getting the answers from someone else. When it comes to "collaborative education", most kids are all too eager to accept the latter, because it finishes the assignment the quickest and allows them to return to what they'd rather be doing, playing xbox or whatever. And then that trend continues into the workplace. It's not "cheating" if you get somebody else to do your job for you, it's "efficient delegation". Promote that guy, he's got management written all over him. And unfortunately there are all too many suckers out there who won't stand up for themselves and say, "that's your job, not mine." Instead they do it and wonder why they don't get promoted when they're working their tail off.
wdewind 16y ago
sample size 5 students. gtfo.
icegreentea 16y ago
I think MSN (or whatever IM program) has been filling this niche for a while...

20 points by waderoush 16y ago

phlux 16y ago

This is where the nail comes... if FB can become an integral part of the learning process (e.g. providing homework/study collaboration tools) they will really be disruptive within 5 years. Partner with Kno (or BUY them) and the game is on.

jbail 16y ago

Sharing homework. Great idea. Except that's called copying or cheating. At least it was in all of the academic institutions I went to. I do like the idea of being able to place a banner ad for a paper writing service right next to the soon to be developed MS Word killer text editor in Facebook. I'm assuming Facebook will give me access to read the contents of the editor so I can suggest pre-written papers in my banner ad that match the paper the student is currently attempting to write.

tomjen3 16y ago
Really? Asking somebody to tell you how a formula works, or helping you remember the name of that guy who was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence is cheating?
- jiganti 16y ago
  No, and buying a gun for protection isn't murder. But each can be easily used for unscrupulous purposes, which is cause for concern.
  - aik 16y ago
    In any place other than school it would be called collaboration. In school it's punished. Funny system we have. There needs to be some serious eye-opening in this world when it comes to education.
- jbail 16y ago
  Sharing homework and asking somebody a question are completely different things. That said, if you can't figure out the name of the guy who was first to sign the Declaration of Independence by searching for it yourself or reviewing your notes, then yes, you aren't learning anything. I would not want to work with someone who asks questions he could easily figure out for himself.
sp4rki 16y ago
Wow, I don't even know where to start. Where in the article was it mentioned that students copied homework? While you're at it, explain to me to how students currently share their entire homework (generally written in Microsoft Word) through Facebook Chat. Why would you think sharing homework is a bad thing? People generally do so to compare methodologies and answers with their peer's data. It's generally part of the learning experience. Everyone in school/college/university shares assignments (albeit not all assignments are of the shareable type) to make sure they're on the right track, make sure they didn't miss anything, or to get a different perspective into a subject. If you didn't do so when you where in school/college you missed out on the opportunity to learn a little bit extra by means of poking into fellow student's minds.
- jbail 16y ago
  Last line of the article: "Who wants to bet on whether Facebook will replace Microsoft Word with a simple, integrated editor with built in sharing & chat?" That's the sharing I was talking about. I reference the theoretical text editor in my comment saying it'd be awesome to target ads based on what the student was writing.
  - nsfmc 16y ago
    you mean like etherpad?
Darmani 16y ago
All but one of the classes I've taken so far at college have explicitly allowed collaboration. A couple are designed to be impossible to pass without collaboration.
- jbail 16y ago
  I took CS at University of Wisconsin. Yes, you could collaborate and chat with your classmates, but copying/sharing code was absolutely not allowed. Maybe schools are more lax now, but I would frown upon copy and paste education. Developing myself as an independent thinker was one of the most important things I took away from college.

wallflower 16y ago

I remember logging into IRC once and going to the #C channel and asking some tough questions from my take home exam. Felt dirty. I'm so glad I got out of school before the Internet really took off. Old enough to have had a 'Introduction to the Card Catalog' as an orientation session at college.

ams6110 16y ago

Students collaborating on homework is as old as school itself. And it in fact is the way the "real world" work. Nobody gets accused of "cheating" at work if you ask a co-worker for help or input on a problem. In fact, "pair programming" is often cited as a best practice.

pzxc 16y ago
There is asking for help, and still trying to learn it yourself, and then there is simply getting the answers from someone else. When it comes to "collaborative education", most kids are all too eager to accept the latter, because it finishes the assignment the quickest and allows them to return to what they'd rather be doing, playing xbox or whatever. And then that trend continues into the workplace. It's not "cheating" if you get somebody else to do your job for you, it's "efficient delegation". Promote that guy, he's got management written all over him. And unfortunately there are all too many suckers out there who won't stand up for themselves and say, "that's your job, not mine." Instead they do it and wonder why they don't get promoted when they're working their tail off.

wdewind 16y ago

sample size 5 students. gtfo.

icegreentea 16y ago

I think MSN (or whatever IM program) has been filling this niche for a while...