Website Does Homework For Kids 166
A new French website allows children to pay older students to do their homework for them. Faismesdevoirs.com (domyhomework.com) allows children to buy answers to simple maths problems for 5 euros ($6), while a full end-of-year presentation complete with slides and speaking notes costs 80 euros ($100). Founder Stephane Boukris says, "I realized there was a gap in the market. Add to that a dose of insolence, a zest of arrogance and the internet, and you have faismesdevoirs.com." I thought cheating on homework was what older siblings were for.
Siblings (Score:5, Interesting)
I thought cheating on homework was what older siblings were for.
Not everyone has older siblings, you insensitive clod!
Re:Ahem, nonsensical sense much? (Score:3, Interesting)
I think we need to throw all the standardized tests out the window and start teaching kids how to learn and not how to pass a test.
Re:Ahem, nonsensical sense much? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Ahem, nonsensical sense much? (Score:2, Interesting)
That is the point. They didn't care, because they where kids, their interests where in other stuff.
They don't "understand" the consequences of not learning, but it's not theirs fault.
If you did learn, and many of slashdotters probably did learn, ok .. good for you. But it's not justifed to blame kids who don't, because they find the subject boring. In fact, those who find some subject boring, they will probably not be good at it, even if they learned it. ... video games ? I learned english sitting in front of TV and playing old dos adventure games.
I give a rats ass for history today, I know the basics, and a lot more probably then the kids who did learn, but I'm not interested in that, Maybe I would, if different approach to teaching was used. For example
Childrens mind is extraordinary.. it can learn and aquire new skills, faster then any other living being on earth, including adults .. I think we all can agree on that.. just give them fun way of learning.
Re:Ahem, nonsensical sense much? (Score:1, Interesting)
every student learns by repetition. It's the only way to cram a bunch of facts in your head so you can start talking about how they all connect. Learning is not just rote memorization, but it is a necessary element to the next step: anything you have memorized you can recall instantly, without waiting to find a book and fumble through it or punch search terms in a pocket wiki. Think of it as L2 cache. (if you do it often/well enough, it'll bump up to L1: reflex).
Many students just don't test well, so one reason homework is graded is to reduce the weight of the tests. Mastery of a subject is what's important, not a quarterly sprint. Other students are just poor at time management, so they need to have the task broken up into smaller more manageable tasks, but they need the encouragement of the feedback that graded homework gives them.
Also, depending on the grade level, I think it's a little unfair to set students up for the "your own damn fault for not wishing to work hard" trap. They're students. They're going to screw up. It's your job as a teacher to make sure they don't screw up so badly as to ruin their lives as adults. (yes, I cribbed that from Heinlein, it's still a good point.)
Re:If you teach them that an arbitrary system... (Score:2, Interesting)
This is true. Which is why a lot of universities prefer to do their assessment on the fly. I'm not exactly sure how one might apply this to anything other than a science course (IANA teacher) but a system whereby a supervisor can stroll around and see how the student has been able to apply what he has learned seems to work. If a student has an empty worksheet, then he clearly hasn't understood something, and needs to do more work.
This means of assessment is kind of hard on the student, but it is an incentive to keep up.
Re:Ahem, nonsensical sense much? (Score:3, Interesting)
It's the only way to cram a bunch of facts in your head so you can start talking about how they all connect. Learning is not just rote memorization, but it is a necessary element to the next step: anything you have memorized you can recall instantly
You're not supposed to memorize facts before understanding how they connect. Think of it like the multiplication table. You don't memorize it before you know what it is. You learn what it means, you understand the concept. Then you use it. When you're learning it, you won't have instant recall, but for anything you don't remember, you'll be able to count to get the answer. After you do that enough times, you'll have it memorized, without having to sit there trying to memorize it.
There's no reason there should be a deadline on memorizing the multiplication table and having a night of rote memorization to get it is just stupid...you'll forget it immediately after you're tested on it. However, as long as you know how to find the proper values in the table by counting, eventually you'll have it all memorized because you've had to find it enough times. Since you keep using it, you won't forget it.
Many students just don't test well, so one reason homework is graded is to reduce the weight of the tests.
There's no such thing as "not testing well." There's knowing the material and not knowing the material. Take a 15 year-old who "doesn't test well" and is failing algebra. Now give him a test on the multiplication table. He's not going to fail the multiplication table one.
Mastery of a subject is what's important, not a quarterly sprint.
I agree. To solve that I advocate replacing a test grade with the grade from the equivalent section of the final exam, if the final is higher. If the final is lower, I recommend replacing the test grade with the average of the two. No curves. If somebody doesn't learn the material in time for the test, they can consider that a test run to figure out exactly what they failed to understand. However, their final grade should reflect their mastery of the material at the end of the course, and there is no way to evaluate that short of a test.
Other students are just poor at time management, so they need to have the task broken up into smaller more manageable tasks
No, they don't. They need to learn to manage their time. If you do it for them, they'll never learn to do it themselves. If they get burned for not managing their time right, then they'll learn.
but they need the encouragement of the feedback that graded homework gives them.
They can still get that encouragement from the corrected optional homework. That's why I mentioned that homework should still be given, and whatever is turned in should get corrected. For the feedback. However, they need to learn to seek it.
Also, depending on the grade level, I think it's a little unfair to set students up for the "your own damn fault for not wishing to work hard" trap. They're students. They're going to screw up. It's your job as a teacher to make sure they don't screw up so badly as to ruin their lives as adults.
Best way to do that is to let them screw up. If you protect them from that, they never learn their lesson. A bad grade in a class isn't going to "ruin their lives as adults," we're not talking giving them a criminal record. A bad grade in a class isn't even going to affect their college chances, unless they screw up royally in multiple high-school classes, never learning their lesson, in which case that's precisely the type of students many colleges are trying to filter out during the admission process. By the time they're in high school, they really need to own up to their responsibility, and any grade record before that isn't going to follow them.
As teachers, your job is to teach them that if they don't learn to manage their time, don't learn to seek feedback, don't learn to keep track of their grades, don't learn to recognize when they need help and ask for it, it's going to bite them in the ass. It's called responsibility and consequences.