Have you ever used fluther for a class?

Do you mean to suggest that a student should cite information they found on Fluther in an assignment? No, that would be very inappropriate. If you are uncertain what sources are appropriate to cite for a school assignment, speak to your teacher.

This site is full of opinions by anonymous people who may or may not know what they are talking about on any given subject. If you find some topic that is discussed on Fluther interesting, and decide you want to write about that subject, that’s great! But go to trusted sources to do your actual research.

No. Because:

1. Fluther is not very well-known, although it’s a good site. For Q&A, we already have Yahoo! Answer, Askville and others more well-known sites. With this variety of choice who would ever think of Fluther? And a teacher would most likely choose a well-known site for everyone.

2. Many of Fluther’s questions do not appear on Google search results, at least not on the first pages. When you want an answer to a particular question and google it, the results will be of other Q&A sites (in my experience the most being of Yahoo! Answer). You can only get answers to a question on Fluther by searching here directly. And it’s kind of time-consuming.

3. (At bit personal) I haven’t seen a teacher assigning students to use a Q&A site for their class, probably with the same reason as @glacial said.

It could be studied as an entity in itself, the way people relate and respond to others when identity is anonymous, there are aspects of human interaction that could be studied using Fluther, a small sample but a sample nonetheless.

I have known instructors who asked their students to use Facebook Groups, Blogger, and Twitter, but not Fluther or any other Q&A site. English composition courses stress the importance of citation, relevancy, and authority. While I do enjoy the exchange of knowledge and philosophy on Fluther, I wouldn’t cite any of its users—nor would I anticipate that anyone would cite me.

I would also never assign students to use Fluther. Why would I want them reading my posts?

@glacial, I wasn’t thinking for research. More for assigning students to use fluther to help them with their writing. They could get help with checking if their topic to write on is too narrow or if there is something else within that topic that they didn’t think of that they may want to find out more on. Basically it could help them learn how to ask a good research question. One that isn’t too narrow or too broad. I could also see it being useful if they were assigned to research a debate to see if they have missed something. The more people who look at something the more likely an error can be spotted. But those are the only uses I could think of in the classroom unless it was for an advanced TESOL/TEFL class. ( I am not counting asking for help with your school work as that would not in theory be assigned by a teacher.)
I can see that Q&A sites can be useful for self learning/informal learning as I have seen questions and answers that show that. However, I can’t tell if they are actually used within formal education settings. Finding someone who has actually used it for a school assignment would answer that.
@Mimishu1995, I actually found fluther through a site that listed web 2.0 sites that can be used for education. So I am not sure it is that obscure. But as you said other sites may be more well known.
And again I wasn’t thinking of for research really. I am not sure I would even recommend google 100% of the time for research.
@Adagio, that is a good point that it could be used to carry out a study itself. I didn’t even think about that.
@muppetish, going by the guideline you can have more then one flutter account hooked to your email. You can use one just for your classes then your students wouldn’t read your posts and you could still follow them without them reading your private posts.

I almost forgot. Thank you @glacial, @Mimishu1995, @Adagio and @muppetish. I appreciate your replies.

@Cnewcomer You are welcome. Just try to help :)

@Cnewcomer Thanks for the clarification. Fluther already assumes that participants are writing above a certain standard – and if questions fall short, they are returned for editing, I think without any (or much) advice. So it might not be great at “help with writing” at a TOSEL/TEFL level. You’ll notice that there is less emphasis on writing standards in responses than in questions – we don’t correct one another consistently at all – so, I’m not sure how the student would improve through the experience. But you’re probably right in the sense that any writing is good practice.

We do see questions from time to time asking for jellies’ help in proofreading an essay or some such, but in those cases, there would have to be direct communication to transfer a document – and sometimes these are met with success. A question with a wall of text writing sample thrown into the details will sometimes be ignored, or perhaps even derided.

In other words, this is perhaps not the best forum for collaborative editing. It also seems to me that when the questions tend toward “Is this a good research question?” or “How should I start writing this paper?”, then people are a bit shy of answering unless they know about the topic. As a teacher, I think I would prefer that my students consult me or a TA for the course, rather than an online forum, for advice. But I’m picky that way.

For asking a specific question about grammar or syntax, sure. Questions from ESL jellies about writing in English are fairly frequent; they tend to be well received, and by people who know their stuff.

I taught at a very small high school for a while. Because of the class size, I was able to use Fluther while discussing different internet phenomenon, such as social networking, communities based on like-minds (as opposed to communities based on geography), virtual friendships, etc. They didn’t know who I was here, and I didn’t share. To understand the experience, a few of my students signed up for accounts here and participated in discussions, but none of them stayed (one died… :,( ). A few of those moved on to other online forums that fit their interests better.

@glacial, Thank you again for responding. I can see how it might not be the greatest at helping with writing. I was thinking it would give more opportunities for students to participate in authentic discussions. A teacher could in theory require the students to sign up and let them know their alias. The teacher then follows them, allowing them to see how they contribute to discussions and they can give feedback to the student outside of fluther. But as I stated before that would be for those who are at a more advanced level. And I am not sure how realistic that is or how likely anyone is to do that or even how time consuming that would be,
I had never thought of anyone using it for proofreading. It is good to know that is possible, but that it is also not very effective from the sounds of it.
That is a good point on using it to check research questions and about grammar and syntax.
@linguaphile, thanks. That is very useful. So you were able to incorporate a Q&A site into your course. Do you think it helped your students to learn more? Basically, was it beneficial for learning?

@Cnewcomer When I taught, it was very, very important to me that my students walked out of my classroom knowing that there was more than one way to look at a problem, question or situation, and that there was not just one perspective. I also taught that it was up to them to look at the different angles and become informed thinkers. I would often discuss both sides of an argument or a conflict—i.e. for the Civil War and WWII, we would discuss why each side believed what they did—not to justify it but to understand the range of human possibilities.

Fluther and other Q&A sites are perfect for teaching that people have different perspectives, opinions, interpretations, misconceptions, understandings, approaches, etc…