Web 2.0 and Emerging Learning Technologies/Digg

What is DIGG?

Digg started out as an experiment in November 2004 by Kevin Rose, Owen Byrne, Ron Gorodetzky, and Jay Adelson.

It is a website in which people are allowed to share and find out information provided by the users (anybody can join in). They offer links, videos and stories that are voted and commented on. But only the most popular ones will be shown on the front page. If not voted, they'll be hidden ("buried") until the user decides to show the comments.

And because Digg is all about sharing and discovery, there’s a conversation that happens around the content. The site promotes that conversation and provides tools for its community to discuss the topics that they’re passionate about.

Voting up and down is the site's main funcion, respectively called digging and burying, and when members digg a particular link, it is kept in their profile page for future access.

Digg's popularity has encouraged the creation of other social networking sites with a story submission and voting system.

Teaching and Learning Possibilities

Digg provides tools that allow teaching online, mixing text, visuals (videos, pictures, podcasts) and sounds. The information is classified into different topics, which is useful as regards organization. Not only are the students able to comment on the information that was posted and ask for doubts, but also to share a piece of news -or whatever they find on the Internet- with the rest of the class. It means that the teacher, for example, can explain certain topic and then ask their students to keep on investigating and posting what they find out. The result is that, after everybody posts, the topic already mentioned is enrinched; students are provided with different points of views about the same thing, and in different formats (videos, images, text).

Digg also allows the users to build a network. That means that if the teacher, for example, add his or her students to the friends list, both students and teacher are able to see what they dug, enabling them to find information or news together at the same time.

Links


 * http://digg.com/general_sciences/Video_of_the_First_24_Hours_of_an_Embryo_s_Cells

In this example, a user uploads a video that he or she wants to share, and the others are able to comment on it.


 * http://digg.com/general_sciences/Debate_Rages_over_Oldest_Dinosaur_Find_in_Germany

Here, a user uploads a piece of news and the others give their opinions or ask questions (which are answered).


 * http://digg.com/world_news/Digg_this_Today_is_Nelson_Mandela_s_90th_Birthday

In this case, a user posts a photo album of a very well-known president in commemoration of his 90th birthday. Visitors are able to see a description of each picture and enter the newspaper page it has been taken from. They can also read about his birthday, his biography and watch videos related to him.

Teachers can ask their students to investigate about a certain topic and upload what they find. Then the whole class sees its content and is able to write short opinions, look for more information and add it, or write links related to enrich the topic being discussed.