Digg is a very interesting site that I am not sure I completely understand yet! Digg is like social bookmarking, but for news! After doing some more research, some critics consider Digg a social bookmarking Web 2.0 tool while other do not. If you are interested in social bookmarking in general, here is a great list of some of the more popular applications with some pros and cons.
Digg peaked my interest because I have seen it on the bottom of news articles on popular news sites such as CNN, BBC, and Fox News. I always wondered to myself, what is Digg, and what can I Digg? Do I need a shovel?
Apparently Digg began purely as an experiment but has grown as a way to share news, worthy of peoples' viewing or not! There are now numerous categories for "Digg"ing news including technology, science, business, videos and entertainment, and more. You can "Digg" a story by submitting a news link or voting on a news link. I find that the name in and of itself provides some interesting social commentary of its own; it's as if you are "digging up" a news story, or a term coined from the 70's, "can you dig it?" meaning "do you understand?/do you get it?". Both are quite rateable to news!
Digg also has the ability to connect with Facebook as of the spring of 2009. Users of both can connect their accounts so that news can be shared through both Digg and Facebook simultaneously. Apparently there is a great deal of controversy with the site because of it's former CEO and some of the issues that users have had with the program, especially the most recent update this fall. To read more on Digg and some other social bookmarking sites, this article was very helpful in explaining some of the differences (although a few years old, it is still interesting!).
Digg would be a great way for teachers and students to tag past and recent news in order to use the information for reports, presentations, and current events projects. It would be a great way for teachers to see students' comments regarding specific news articles as well. Once someone has signed up for Digg, you can save, bury, and comment on news stories.
Check back soon for more ways to use Digg and Del.icio.us in the classroom!
Tech Talk will discuss new and expanding technology for use in the world of education. Feel free to comment on your own uses or experiences with the technology described!
Crap! I just commented but closed the window before I could type in that little CAPTCHA word!
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if there is a way to collect all the articles that you or your students have "dugg" in a database somewhere for others to access?
I will look into that! I'm still learning more about it. I think there is, but I will look. What I like about it, though is that you don't need an account to access articles...I imagine that there would be a database if you have an account though! I'll get back to you or put it in my next post!
ReplyDeleteI discovered that you can do that! You don't even have to read the sites that you are quickly browsing...you can collect them all and then, look through them later.
ReplyDelete