052 – The Best and Worst of 2008

This week on WELSTech Martin and Sallie countdown their best and worst picks of 2008.

The discussion:

The tidbits:

  • Coming up on WELSTech (44:45)
    • Episode 053 – We celebrate the one year anniversary of the WELSTech podcast with a look back at our first show and a look ahead at our expectations for 2009

The featured artist:

  • We close with music of WELS artist, Michael Schroeder (michaelschroeder.com) – The Reason For the Season from his CD with the same title, The Reason For the Season (45:50)

Get involved:

051 – A Conversation with the President

This week on WELSTech synod President Mark Schroeder joins Martin and Sallie to discuss the synod and its use of technology to further the gospel message.

The interview:

  • President Mark SchroederA conversation with the President (2:25) – In a special Christmas Eve interview, WELS President Mark Schroeder talks with Martin and Sallie about what he’s learned in the year and a half since he became president, how technology is assisting with the work of the synod, and how he sees it being used in the future.

The tidbits:

  • Coming up on WELSTech (25:30)
    • Episode 052 – Tune in for our 2008 countdown of best and worst picks of the year

The featured artist:

  • We close with music of WELS pianist, Dawn Gehlhar – Silent Night from her CD titled Christmas Dreams (26:40)

Get involved:

Episode 050 – Dec 17 2008

This week on WELSTech Martin and Sallie look at the ease of group formation in a Web 2.0 world as they continue their discussion of Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody.  They also clean out the WELSTech mail bag.

The discussion:

The tidbits:

  • Community feedback – Cleaning out the WELSTech mail bag!(31:00)
    • Call for a web developer posted on the WELSTech facebook group by Carol Restovic
    • Following up on the Content Management System discussion in Episode 047, John Simonson from Good Shepherd in West Bend, WI shared links to tools to enhance blogging with WordPress and TypePad
    • Following up on Episode 045, George Efsen asked how to find the interview segment about Search Engine Optimization.  Time markers for all WELSTech episodes are included in the show notes.
    • David Savatski recommended box.net for online storage and group collaboration
    • John Shoosmith of Redeemer in Yakima, WA shared several comments
    • Alyssa Dunning shared a link to digsby.com – useful for aggregating your web presence including instant messaging, e-mail and social networks
    • Closing the loop on a question we received in Episode 033 from Pastor John Maasch of Peace in Bradenton, FL – WELS Worship has published the current lectionary series in “ical” format for importing into your calendaring software – in the “Lectionary Planning” folder
    • Our occasional guest host, Gail Potratz, from Emanuel in New London, WI shared a link to David Warlick’s School Acceptable Use Policy wiki
    • Richard Travis from Divine Peace in Garland, TX is using FlashPoint to convert PowerPoint files to Flash format for their church web site
  • Coming up on WELSTech (56:01)
    • Episode 051 – A special treat for Christmas Eve – We’ll talk with WELS President Mark Schroeder
  • WELS.net feature (57:15)

The featured artist:

  • We close with music of WELS artist, Michael Schroeder (michaelschroeder.com) – What Child Is This from his CD titled The Reason For the Season (57:48)

Get involved:

Episode 049 – Dec 10 2008

This week on WELSTech Martin and Sallie take a look at chapter one of Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody.  Ray Brown joins the conversation to share how he uses video e-mail for outreach and congregational communication.

The discussion:

  • Harnessing the power of groups – Martin and Sallie kick off a discussion of the book Here Comes Everybody – The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky with a look at the concepts presented in the first chapter. The author uses a true story of a “one-person media outlet” to illustrate how easily groups can form on the Internet and the power these groups can yield.  Based on these concepts, the discussion shifts to how the church will be affected by these types of groups and also how it can make use of the ease of group formation to effectively carry out ministry.

The interview:

  • Ray BrownVideo e-mail (22:33) –  Ray Brown, Congregational Assistant from Summerlin Lutheran in Las Vegas, NV, joins Martin and Sallie to share information on their use of video e-mail as a communication tool to members and prospects.

The tidbits:

  • Picks of the week (43:27)
    • Create a flash scrapbook for your church or school web site – ScrapBlog.com
    • Windows Live SkyDrive – 25 Gb of “in the cloud” online storage
  • WELS.net feature (50:05)
  • Community feedback (51:42)
  • Coming up on WELSTech (52:47)
    • Episode 050 – We’ll discuss Chapter 2 of Here Comes Everybody and open our mail bag to share loads of community feedback

The featured artist:

  • We close with music of WELS pianist, Dawn Gehlhar – Carol of the Bells from her CD titled Christmas Dreams (54:35)

Get involved:

Episode 048 – Dec 3 2008

This week on WELSTech we are joined by Gail Potratz, our semi-regular classroom technology correspondent, and we take a look at the skills our students need to succeed in the Web 2.0 world.

The discussion:

The tidbits:

The featured artist:

  • We close with music of Wisconsin Lutheran College’s Revelation music ministry (www.revelationwlc.com) – I’m Free from their Led by Light CD (40:42)

Get involved: