A brief RSS sampling

Later this week, I will do some experimenting with what I can and cannot do with RSS feeds. I'm very interested in RSS applications in education.

In the meantime, I thought I'd show an RSS sampling based on the feeds I am currently subscribed to. I have subscriptions to all the ENGL 5970 blogs; news feeds for "student activism, public writing, service learning, PeaceJam, and poetry slam; and I subscribe to some specific sites as well (for instance the New York Times Education section).

My Google reader gives me these top headlines:

1. SLAM IDOL (1)
   slamidol20070203 - The Slam Idol Podcast - February 3rd 2007 - Wishes by Jannie Jack The Slam Idol Podcast (http://slamidolpodcast.com/) - February 3rd 2007: Show Number 173 - Featuring "Wishes" by Jannie Jack ...
2. - Google News (3)
   Local poet competes in world series of slam - Worcester Telegram Local poet competes in world series of slam Worcester Telegram, MA - Feb 1, 2007 Today, Jackson, 24, competes in her first ...
   Erin Jackson - Worcester Telegram Worcester TelegramErin Jackson Worcester Telegram, MA - Feb 1, 2007 Erin Jackson of Shrewsbury made a splash as a member of ... Poetry jumps from page to stage - Vancouver Westender Poetry jumps from page to stage Vancouver Westender, Canada - Jan 25, 2007 Swan is Vancouver’s representative at the ...
3. The State of Student Activism (2)
   Better Get Used to Yahoo ID I met with Bradley Horowitz of Yahoo last week, and the message that came through loud and clear was how important Yahoo ID is ...
   The problem with MSM podcasting: Idiotic questions One thing that's great about being a print reporter: You can ask idiotic questions and--with the notable exception of the ...

In total, I have 55 new items since I last checked on Friday, so I obviously have a lot to read.

The following is a list of subscriptions that have given me new items in the last couple days (number of new feeds in parentheses):

1. Google News -"Poetry Slam" (3)
2. Slam Idol (1)
3. GotPoetry (1)
4. Google News - "Service Learning" (15)
5. Google News - "Student Activism" (18)
6. Business Week (2)
7. New York Times -Education Section (11)

I see that I made a mistake in my subscriptions. When I was first playing with RSS feeds, I found an article in Business Week called "The State of Student Activism." I subscribed to it, thinking I had found an entire feed on the topic, but what I was really subscribing to was a section of Business Week that happened to have an article on student activism. Now I get feeds from that section, but they are always labeled "The State of Student Activism" even if they're about (as is the case today) using Yahoo ID.

I obviously need to tweak my RSS subscriptions. I need to delete some and I need to get more specific in what I'm asking for. I want my feeds to apply directly to my dissertation work. I don't mind wading through a few articles that don't directly apply, but I definitely won't have time to go through hundreds of articles daily - not if I want to have a life.

Later this week: implication in education