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I've been meaning to tell you all about Google's "Google Answers" which is in Beta testing. Google Answers (GA) http://answers.google.com is a fee-based answer service that you might want to make your teachers aware of as school starts. GA-researchers are not permitted to answer homework questions. Originally, they weren't to be responded to at all. However, as with all profit-based products, they decided more recently that it is "okay" to provide the tools to answer the questions, do the research, legwork, etc. as long as you still allow the student to do the analysis/synthesis. Unfortunately, not everyone is closely abiding by those guidelines. There is a Researcher discussion forum and those who are members of the forum seem to be concerned about answering homework questions. Those from this group have a tendency to remind users that they cannot answer homework questions and encourage them to rephrase their research queries so that it is within the guidelines. Unfortunately, not all of the GA researchers are as conscientious. (And maybe not all of the questions are as blatantly obvious that they are "homework" assignments.) One thing I saw posted to the forum recently was a researcher wondering how to make teachers aware of Google Answers to prevent people from cheating. I decided that they had a good idea and that I would attempt to get the word out to people who could let teachers know. For that reason, I would encourage you to check out the site, show it to your teachers, and suggest that they might want to check this additional "resource" for potential violations of academic integrity. I'll give you a brief run down of the way GA works. Google "accepted" about 500 independent contractors to be GA researchers. These people go through a review process to determine their ability and usefulness to the research team. After they are accepted as a researcher, for each question a researcher answers he/she earns 75% of the posted question value. Google charges a $.50 listing fee and keeps the remaining 25% of the question price. Askers can pay between $2.00 and $200.00 per question. They set the price they are willing to pay for an answer. There are more details at the FAQ if you're interested. I just thought I'd help to make teachers aware that their students may be using Google Answers to "help" do their work. It has been pretty obvious that college students are using the service heavily. I don't know how many high school students might be using it as well. Kim Kimberly A. Brosan, Librarian Mid-Carolina High School, SC kim@bigbadwolf.org <mailto:kim@bigbadwolf.org> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-= All postings to LM_NET are protected under copyright law. To quit LM_NET (or set-reset NOMAIL or DIGEST, etc.) send email to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL or 3) SET LM_NET DIGEST 4) SET LM_NET MAIL * Please allow for confirmation from Listserv. For LM_NET Help see: http://ericir.syr.edu/lm_net/ Archives: http://askeric.org/Virtual/Listserv_Archives/LM_NET.shtml See also EL-Announce for announcements from library media vendors: http://www.mindspring.com/~el-announce/ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=