Yahoo! Teachers: A Slow But Steady Work In Progress

I’ve been known to rag on Yahoo! here at Profy far more often than praise or glorify the company. But hey, as the saying goes, you gotta call ‘em as you see ‘em, right?

And the media on the whole has rightly pilloried the Web giant for a number of its controversial actions and statements; some more egregious than others, of course. I mean, come on. Divulging sensitive information to Chinese authorities about dissident voices? Despite the threat of incarceration leveled at the company’s own employees for any attempted refusal to comply with said requests, it’s hardly excusable for Yahoo! to have opted for a cameo role in the nabbing of Shi Tao, a former journalist and current prisoner, rather than face the prospect of a heated clash with government currently ruling the PRC.

That said, the company’s done some okay things in recent months. In mid-September, for example, Yahoo! debuted a Web-based social-network-esque utility dubbed Yahoo! Teachers. Which, in short, enables US-based educators in the elementary (K-12) realm the option to create and share lesson plans and class projects by pooling together “Web clips”, or bits of information (photos, text, charts, etc.), from various sites. A noble effort, yes? I think so, particularly as America could do with some educational invigoration at the moment. Yahoo! Teachers may just prove a handy utility, then. It could be a very valuable answer to an old problem: finding out what works best for students.

So, now that Teachers has had a number of months to ruffle its feathers and spread the word, one might wonder just how well it has done. How well it’s caught on.

Fortunately, I was so lucky as to receive an email from the company this weekend, granting me access to the beta I requested at its initial launch. So I figured, what better way to gauge the interest than to delve into the network myself?

Once inside, I had my answer. It’s moving along, slow and steady.

Yes, it’s true. The website hasn’t managed to bring together a vast number of teachers in short time. While it’s clear that there is a considerable amount of activity among first-comers, it’s not quite teeming with chatter. Projects are being created, and documents are being shared, but things aren’t yet “buzzing,” as it were.

Which doesn’t by any means give the effort a grim prognosis. It seems to be headed in the right direction. Many items constructed by educators in the US of A are qualitatively substantive, and feedback from fellow instructors across the nation is dealt accordingly. Teachers – at least ones that have put in a bit of effort and seriously participated in the beta - are clearly interested in getting a good deal of use out of this new medium.

And, mind you, Yahoo! Teachers isn’t a bland and boring infrastructure fronted by a nice introductory display. It’s actually a rather elegant - and entirely intuitive -utility.

All basic aspects of its construction are clearly delineated and prominently displayed. From the Gobbler (used to gather Web clips) to document and project creation, things are dead simple to operate, and all you Web app fans out there in the Profy readership don’t need me telling you that perfecting the usefulness of a piece of software is half the battle. So, in that respect, bully for Yahoo!, eh?

All in all, I really have no choice other than to celebrate the invention. While it’s not slated to achieve the heights of Facebook or MySpace or Bebo, or any other immensely popular social networking hotspot for that matter, the realistic effectiveness of Teachers, if given a thorough change, is undeniable, and for that I wish it a very bright future. I trust many of you will think the same of it upon inspection.