These sites were new to me. After exploring web 2.0 for several weeks now, I was not surprised to see services like them. A very democratic way of receiving and commenting on news. I spent a couple of hours visiting Mixx, Digg, Newsvine, and Reddit. I kept thinking that I just don't have time! For the same reason I don't tune it to the 24-hour news shows on TV. I don't need to know everything going on in every corner of the world. These would definitely be productivity detractors for me personally. But would they have a use in my work as a Library Media Specialist? Not at the elementary level, even middle school is questionable. There is a huge range of quality of writing, reliability of sources, and many of the comments left by readers tended to be more in the category of opinion (even ranting) rather than furthering the news value of the story. The best uses I see would be as an example of the democratic right to express your opinion, examining comments for bias, and discussion of how to craft your own comment to show a well thought out argument that might actually sway others to your point of view. At the high school and post secondary level these sites would be a way of staying current on popular stories and trends.
On to 13!
1 comment:
Interesting thoughts on the social media tools--I like the aggregation aspects, but rarely read the comments.
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