The next time you have a random zinger of a question about kids’ behavior, health, food, or challenges, take advantage of myriad online experts in digital media.
There’s a wealth of knowledge free for the asking in a wide array of disciplines: Children’s mental health. Teen conundrums. Baby sleep issues. Gifted children. Media habits. From children’s oncology to gardening with kids, you name it, there’s an expert dishing up data from their field.
The formats of these forums are varied too: Bulletin boards. Live chat. Moderated Q&A. Author blogs. Podcasts. Take your pick for instant gratification and some surprisingly impressive individualized responses.
You can tap into experts with Ivy League doctorates and credentials out the wazoo or opt for the street cred of parents and patients who share knowledge firsthand and can tell it like no other.
It’s all there, with tips to share from crib to college…easy access to pediatricians, dieticians, psychologists, scholars and behavioral specialists, ready and able to chat over a cyber picket fence.
Where else can you blast through barriers of time, space and anonymity to talk to leaders in all kinds of disciplines, anywhere on the planet, and receive answers in nanoseconds?
Seems like an underutilized resource to me for those non-critical but nagging questions pinging around in your brain.
Standard advice disclaimers obviously apply to this form of Q & A, but so far I’ve found it to be a very useful media tool. (I’ve participated on both the giving & receiving end)
Mind you, I wouldn’t use it for heavy duty topics requiring in-depth assessment, though there IS an emerging trend toward online virtual therapy among computer literate youth.
I’m talking about strictly ‘Dear Abby’ level inquiries in the childhood realm.
If you think of an “Ask the Expert” forum as sort of a text-based radio call-in show, you’re bound to be quite pleased with the results.
Pundits listen intently as you ask pointed questions about your child’s specifics issues or kids’ concerns in general.
Experts dip into their own knowledge pool to craft thoughtful replies, often with useful links to online resources, studies and relevant data.
Here’s an example of a Q&A kids’ nutrition thread Shaping Youth started with Connie Evers, M.S., R.D. on the Kaboose site. (we’ve e-mailed a bit prior, I receive her newsletter, and she’d given me a heads-up she was the guest expert on their message boards)
Connie runs a site called Nutrition for Kids, and also has a Disney book partnership deal that just came out which I haven’t read yet or reviewed. It’s important to know that tidbit in order to put her expert comments into context with her media and marketing ventures. Why?
What if I’d asked about Disney’s new policy to place nutrition guidelines on their food products?
She may or may not have an opinion on this; point is, it’s a solid example of the ‘backstory’ you need when you’re ‘asking the experts’ your questions.
Media literacy 101: Be aware of the forum’s media environment, commercialism, and vested interests along with the tonality, focus, and any bias the ‘expert’ may or may not have.
What do I mean by ‘media environment?’
Kaboose is a portal site. It’s a gateway to parenting info of all kinds, so it’s chock full of obnoxious advertising pop-ups which are a persistent and annoying deterrent for me.
I tend to scan site-specific university and hospital forums so I don’t have to wade through the clutter to pre-qualify the pros. (If you just want to see Connie’s well thought out replies to assess the medium, here’s a link to our Q&A in text sans ads, for the three kids’ nutrition queries.)
Kaboose DOES offer the standard “skip this ad” text in the top right corner to jump to data pronto, but the American Girl flash movie promo drove me bonkers as you have to click it off with each new thread you open, again and again and again!
Overall, a pretty intrusive ‘media environment’ for a forum.
Kaboose also features those reviled Wal-mart elves that I wrote about which seem to be inescapable, running on every major children’s portal, EVERYwhere…ACK!
On the upside, they list “Ask the Expert” categories for pediatrician, behavior, nutrition, travel and crafts for one-stop data dumps…so it’s convenient for busy parents who prefer all their information to be centralized.
Logistically, readers can pre-post their questions (bulletin board style) then the day the expert signs on, the answers appear and you have the opportunity to ‘live chat’ with the guest expert as they open the boards to new topics for an hour in a free-for-all moderated by an online host.
You can add comments to any of the threads and posts at any time, but Kaboose uses a finite forum window of time to ‘take calls’ in sort of an e-bay excitement flurry reminding “5 minutes left,” “closing soon” mode.
On most forums, there’s a ‘hi how ya doin’ conversational style, which is a particularly nice treat when dealing with medical health queries.
Digital docs offer a dose of inviting reassurance or minor tips without the falderal of sterile office environs, protocol, or physicians booked up months in advance.
It’s a convenient way to ease your mind on kids’ developmental “what ifs,” or pull a few new ideas into the mix, but obviously NOT a way to use medical advice in ANY kind of treatment capacity, so save the tough stuff for the real world.
And ALWAYS Google the expert for a snapshot of bias, background, and affiliation.
“Ask the Expert” forums are popping up in major media everywhere, from newspapers and teen mags to hospitals and academic arenas…most supported by sponsorships, ads, or membership.
Sometimes you ‘apply’ to be an expert mentor/volunteer, other times it naturally segues from your work in your field.
I served as one of the “guest experts” for Daughters.com this past summer. It’s one of the few rare advertising-free resources using contributors that often carry their expertise online into their free forum open to all.
Daughters is a subscription-based newsletter with access to some of the best and the brightest child advocates in the country via their alliance with the highly respected Dads and Daughters and SeeJane nonprofits.
Their forum format is a very basic, lightly used bulletin board, but if you snag a pro on a topic you’ve been itching to ask, you’ve got quite a vital asset there. (I’ll be interviewing D&D’s incredible founder and all-star Dad Joe Kelly NEXT month for Shaping Youth. Stay tuned!)
Check out “Ask the Expert” forums in the broadcast realm.
Weekly radio shows like Childhood Matters and Mom Talk Radio are often translated into podcast format, archived for download, or linked with blogs for easy commentary. (Just found I’m archived on Childhood Matters’ 7/2 radio show along with Common Sense Media’s Rebecca Randall, and Joe Kelly is on the same month, on the 7/23 show)
I’ll write a separate feature on podcasting picks.
Shaping Youth will join the ranks of this emerging boom media when we launch in 2007 with our own self-produced podcasts.
Meanwhile, fire away and use the brains of free professionals at your fingertips.
As always, you get what you pay for, but in the case of this media, you get a whole lot more.
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