

The Innovation of StackOverflow - john_horton
http://onlinelabor.blogspot.com/2012/06/innovation-of-stackoverflow.html

======
japhyr
I am a high school teacher, and I teach a bit of programming. When students
reach a point where they should start researching their own questions, rather
than asking me for help, I introduce them to StackOverflow. It is really
interesting to watch how students react to the SO community.

To participate effectively in the SO community, there are pretty clear
guidelines. Do some initial research, state exactly what you are trying to do,
state what you have already tried, and state a specific question. After that,
there are clear guidelines for how to interact with the people who try to help
you. These guidelines are much more real than a lot of the artificial rules I
see students subjected to in schools.

A student who understands the SO community is a student who will likely be
able to get their own questions answered throughout their lives, in any field
they are interested in. Meaningful participation in SO is one of the clearest
signs I've ever seen that a student has let go of their need to have a teacher
standing in front of them in a classroom in order to learn something.

~~~
bostonvaulter2
Another similar good reference is "How to Ask Questions the Smart Way":
<http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html>

~~~
japhyr
Thanks for that reference, I will use it with students next year.

I already use one esr link for new programming students. I have no patience
for students who say they want to learn programming and then start talking
about hacking school computers and hacking facebook etc. I give them a brief
description of what hacking really is, maybe with an example about hacking on
the facebook api. If they insist on talking about cracking, I send them to
esr's piece "What is a Hacker?" [1]

Then I treat my classroom sort of like a buddhist monastery. If they show up
one day and show that they have a clear understanding of what good, hard
hacking is, they are accepted into the class. If they try to go on about
cracking, they get the metaphorical door slammed in their face. Most students
come around when they see that neither I nor the more experienced programming
students take them seriously at all, as long as they are going off about
cracking.

[1] - <http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#what_is>

