529 – 500 in 2017

WELSTech closes out 2017 with a look back at some of the best of this year of 500s! From ministry resources to synod convention to paper and online planning, with two very special celebration 500 celebrations, it’s been a great year for ministry and technology.

The discussion:

The best – Relive the highlights of 2017 as Martin and Sallie look back at the things we’ve learned this year!

Favorite 500 events

Favorite ministry resources

Favorite interviews

Picks of the year

Featured video:

We close out the year with Google – Year In Search 2017.

 Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 530 – Join us for a celebration of WELSTech’s 10th anniversary. Release date: Wednesday, January 3.

Get involved:

528 – Donn Dobberstein

Christmas week on WELSTech brings talk of new ministry efforts, planning resources and a shareable Christmas Toolkit. There’s also Christmas greetings from WELS President Mark Schroeder and a beautiful Christmas hymn from the MLC College Choir. All that goodness is wrapped in warm wishes for a blessed Christmas celebration to the WELSTech community!

The discussion:

Christmas interview – Pastor Donn Dobberstein talks with Martin and Sallie about his new role as Director of WELS Discipleship.

Community feedback:

Featured video:

This Christmas week we gift you with not one but two special videos, new on the WELSTech Vimeo Like’s ListWELS Christmas Message 2017 from President Mark Schroeder

and Martin Luther College – College Choir singing All Praise To Thee, Eternal God.

 Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 529 – Wrap up 2017 with a look back at WELSTech’s best of 2017. Release date: Wednesday, December 27.

Get involved:

527 – An Example: Planning with Trello

Friends of WELSTech should be no stranger to Trello by now. It is one of our favorite project management tools. Today Martin and Sallie walk through a likely scenario of how this powerful web application could change the way you plan and execute projects. Even if you don’t use Trello, there is plenty of great conversation about arranging meetings, versatile mice, tablets, and an impressive response from Google to a very important question!

The discussion:

Working the plan – Martin and Sallie pick up with part 2 of the discussion of sample ministry event planning Trello board by demonstrating the many features which can help you track your ministry tasks on Trello. They cover due dates, checklists, images, labels, attachments, filters and more!

News in tech:

Docs.com is going away on December 15

WELS now:

Picks of the week:

Ministry resources:

Doodle

Community feedback:

  • From Christ Our Savior in Rockford, MI, we discovered “Ok Google … How do I get to heaven?”
  • Kevin Smith from Christ in Zumbrota, MN asks about setting up transferrable Trello accounts for church council members.

Featured video:

Enjoy a Christmas addition to the WELSTech Music playlist on YouTube, Koine’s Mary Did You Know.

 Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 528 – WELSTech brings you a special episode for Christmas week featuring an interview with newly installed WELS Director of Discipleship, Rev. Donn Dobberstein. Release date: Wednesday, December 20.

Get involved:

Doodle

Picture … herding cats. Not a job I’d sign up for, and, if it were assigned to me, not a job I’d expect to complete with 100% success.

That’s the feeling that often came to mind when I needed to find a meeting time for a group of church volunteers and staff. Coordinating everyone’s availability was nearly impossible and always resulted in an avalanche of e-mail. But those days are behind me thanks to the simple (and free) social scheduling tool, Doodle!

Doodle is a web and mobile app which allows users to suggest multiple meeting times and invite the meeting participants to indicate which times will work for them. After everyone has submitted their preferences, the meeting organizer has a full view of availability and can choose the date and time for the meeting which works best for all of the participants.

The process in pictures

To get started with Doodle, you must create or sign in to your free Doodle account. After signing in, you’ll land on your Doodle dashboard where you can schedule a meeting or create a single question survey.

To schedule a meeting, start by giving it a name and location.

On the next screen, you will have an option to view the poll settings. Here you can set up various options such as limiting the number of people who can select each option.

A calendar display allows you to select multiple dates on which the meeting can be held. On the right, a link is provided to add specific time options for the meeting, if it isn’t an all-day event.

Multiple times per day selected can be added.

Finally, you are prompted to input identifying information. Doodle automatically fills in this information from your Doodle account information, but you may edit it, if desired.

When you’ve finished setup, a link is displayed which you can share via e-mail or other tools with the meeting participants. Alternatively, you may e-mail the participants from within Doodle.

The participant doesn’t have to create a Doodle account to respond to your poll. They simply type in their name and check the meeting options which work with their schedule.

After clicking Done, participants have the option to subscribe to poll updates or go back to the poll where they could change their submission, if desired.

When someone responds to your poll, Doodle sends you an e-mail to alert you to the new response.

At any time, you may return to your Doodle poll to see the responses. Whenever you are ready, typically after everyone has responded, you can click the orange “Choose final option” button at the top of the poll.

Select the desired meeting time by clicking the star in the yellow row and then clicking Done.

The poll will be closed, and a results link will display which you may share with meeting participants. Or simply e-mail out the finalized date and time for the meeting!

The great thing about Doodle is the poll set up and finalization takes less time than it took you to read this blog post. Three cheers for simple (and free) social scheduling with Doodle!

Related resources

See All Ministry Resources

526 – Um…Let’s Plan!

It’s time to plan again on WELSTech! Does your organization have a good handle on all it’s events for the year? What tool would be best? In December, Martin and Sallie talk through, and give examples, of excellent tools and approaches that will have you feeling better prepared than ever to take on the events of 2018!

The discussion:

Proactive planning – As the new year approaches, it seems like a good time to take a broad look at the full year of activities ahead in your church or school. Martin and Sallie share a sample ministry event planning Trello board which you may copy and modify to meet your planning needs.

News in tech:

WELS now:

Christmas concert at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary

Picks of the week:

Ministry resources:

The State of Chromebooks in the Office

Community feedback:

Featured video:

Relive the Martin Luther College Christmas Concert.

 Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 527 – The big-picture planning discussion continues as Martin and Sallie demo the planning process using their master event Trello board. Release date: Wednesday, December 13.

Get involved:

The State of Chromebooks in the Office

It is no secret that Chromebooks rule the one-to-one computing space in classrooms across WELS. I don’t have exact numbers but anecdotal observations suggest that those schools who are committed to putting computers on classroom desks have gone the route of Chromebooks or have plans to do so. And it isn’t too hard to see why. They are fairly inexpensive, easy to configure with central management tools, and fast to load and operate. Yes, you still see “traditional” Windows computers and also iPads, but by volume the numbers aren’t even close.

But what about the church or school office. At least in my visits, I rarely see faculty and staff with Chromebooks as their primary computing device. The reasons for that are also obvious, or at least they used to be. Chromebooks have very little storage, they don’t allow the installation of “traditional” office type applications like Microsoft Word and Outlook, and they don’t function well if “offline” mode, so an internet connection is a must.

Those “we can’t use a Chromebook in the office because…” reasons have pretty much evaporated! Microsoft has made their Office apps web accessible. So if you get a Word doc or Excel spreadsheet from someone you can now open it, even on a Chromebook. On top of that, modern Chromebooks now allow the installation of Android apps, so you essentially get “apps” that provide Office, or many other installable programs, which improve their usability and offline capabilities.

OK. What about the storage thing? No longer an issue either. Chromebooks come with more and more storage, or SD/USB drives to do it as well. However, with the popularity of cloud storage, local storage is less and less an issue. I have a traditional computer with 500 gigabytes of storage. I hardly use any of it since the benefits of keeping things online outweigh having things “offline.”

What about connectivity requirements of Chromebooks? What if you are on a plane or someplace where the internet isn’t. While those internet dark spots are fewer and farther between, Chromebooks and their apps now do a much better job of allowing offline access to applications and files you deem important.

One other objection to Chromebooks in the office is that most of the available hardware just isn’t as well built and easy to use as “real” computers.  I’m writing this on a Chromebook, a $299 Chromebook from Acer, the R11. I’m impressed. While an 11 inch screen wouldn’t be the first choice for this fifty-something eyes, it is actually pleasant to look at, a touch screen, flips over to use in tablet mode, and it’s resolution is more than sufficient for any tasks I’ve tried on it. In addition, it comes with a built in HDMI port for easy connection to an external monitor.

While this isn’t an article about the R11, I do have to say it is a very nice piece of computing hardware. It has two USB ports (one 2.0 and one 3.0), an SD card slot, and audio jack. But perhaps the best parts of the R11 are the input tools, the keyboard and trackpad. Awesome…especially for a device that is $299. The keyboard keys have nice “travel”, is full size, and have a nice texture to them. If I have one complaint, it’s that they aren’t backlit. The trackpad is a nice size, smooth and very responsive. There are a number of configurations available including Intel versions. I’m using the slower Celeron version, but find it perfectly usable.

I’m sold. I think in most office situations, Chromebooks are viable, and in some cases preferable. They are more secure, great battery life and of course, cheaper. There are of course certain use cases that might be more challenges. I can think of serious video editing, perhaps even page layout, although there are online options for both, plus the option for Android apps. Your mileage may vary, but I think it’s worth a try. The upsides are worth the look.

 

Related resources

See All Ministry Resources

525 – Student Privacy

Rachel Feld guest hosts this week’s WELSTech as we take a deep dive into student privacy and FERPA. There are concerts and Apple/Microsoft news and rolling robots along with a good dose of common sense in this week’s episode as well. Plus we learn about “Mobiles in Ministry” from the One Latin America mission field.

The discussion:

Protecting Students – As our month-long focus on digital security wraps up, Martin Luther College Professor and WELSTech semi-regular classroom technology correspondent Rachel Feld shares information on the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and its impact on schools.

WELS now:

News in tech:

Picks of the week:

Ministry resources:

Common Sense Education

Community feedback:

Featured video:

Learn about Student Privacy 101: FERPA for Parents and Students on the WELSTech Presentation/Teaching Videos playlist.

 Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 526 – Tune in as Martin and Sallie talk about planning for the new year using awesome tech tools. Release date: Wednesday, December 6.

Get involved:

Common Sense Education

WELSTech-ers may recall a past Ministry Resource post on Common Sense Media, a site which features reviews and recommendations on all types of media which is directed at children including movies, books, TV, games, apps, and websites. It’s a great resource to share with parents, and can be very useful at this time of year especially as they shop for appropriate media-centric gifts for their children.

Education reviews

Common Sense Education is another site which is produced by the same organization and geared specifically toward educators. Once again, they provide ratings and reviews of children’s media, but this time the focus is on edtech websites and apps that are organized by grade level and subject matter. Search criteria can even be narrowed by price, so the frugal educator can easily identify free resources. For each tool listed, the Common Sense ranking as well as teacher submitted ranking is displayed. Each tool includes a description and overview of what it teaches as well as suggested lessons and activities plus standards supported.

Digital Citizenship Curriculum

Digital citizenship curriculum

Another offering from Common Sense Education is their K-12 digital citizenship curriculum. The curriculum covers the following topics:

  • Internet Safety
  • Privacy & Security
  • Relationships & Communication
  • Cyberbullying & Digital Drama
  • Digital Footprint & Reputation
  • Self-Image & Identity
  • Information Literacy
  • Creative Credit & Copyright

As demonstrated in this sample lesson, each lesson includes a downloadable lesson guide as well as student activities and a family tip sheet. There are also downloadable videos and video discussion guides. And if that isn’t enough, there are student games and interactives, student badges, classroom posters, toolkits, and more!

Professional development

Common Sense Education also offers a variety of professional development to assist teachers.

See All Ministry Resources

524 – Phishing Minnesota Style

This week on WELSTech we are joined by Martin Luther College Network Services members Jim Rathje and Ken Jones to understand how they help faculty, staff and students stay safe from the growing threat of phishing attacks. There is also a lot of “browser” talk. Which do you use and why?

The interview and discussion:

Security superheroes – Martin Luther College Network Services Director Jim Rathje and PC guru Ken Jones share their best security advice with Martin and Sallie – “Don’t click that link!!!” Listen for how they’ve reduced phishing risk among faculty and staff with a very unique training method.

WELS now:

Sophos Phish Threat offer from ShopWELS

  • $4.80 per user – 5 user minimum
  • Contact WELSTech for more details

News in tech:

Twitter 280 Characters!

Picks of the week:

Ministry resources:

How to Pick a Browser

Featured video:

James Veitch’s More adventures in replying to SPAM TED talk is an entertaining look at SPAMers, with a free toaster thrown in for good measure.

This three-minute Google for Education video, Stay Safe from Phishing and Scams, is a great first step to avoiding phishing traps. You’ll find both videos on the WELSTech Presentation/Teaching Videos playlist.

 Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 525 – Security month wraps up with a discussion featuring Prof. Rachel Feld on student security and privacy. Release date: Wednesday, November 29.

Get involved:

How To Pick A Browser

When it comes to internet browsers it’s not like the old days where you just used whatever came installed on your machine. Even if you have a basic Windows machine today Microsoft gives you more than one! Will you use Internet Explorer or Edge? But neither of those is even the most popular. You have Google’s Chrome, which has over 50% market share. There is Safari on the Mac. And Firefox just released a new version as well. Does it matter? Won’t any browser do? To answer that, ask yourself how much of your computing life do you spend in your browser? I’m guessing it might be more than perhaps all the other applications on your computer combined, right? So there might be some thought you’d want to put into this choice. Hopefully I can provide a little guidance, as they aren’t all created equal, and depending on your needs, there may be a clear cut choice.

Five Considerations

I think there are basically five considerations when choosing a browser: 1) Security, 2) Convenience, 3) Performance, 4) Bookmarking, and 5) Extensibility.

Security

All browsers boast about security, but they all provide different ways to protect you. Some do them automatically, others require setting changes, and still others need add-ons. A great article entitled Which Web Browser is Best for Security written by Claire Broadley has in-depth comparison charts of all the major players, and a beautiful infographic that gives us a nice view of the entire browser marketplace. Be sure to give it a read. In my opinion it’s a fairly even horse race, however Google Chrome edges out the competition because they have the fewest days on average between updates. That means they are more frequently applying patches to guard against new security flaws and threats. On the other hand, since they are the most popular browser, they are more frequently targeted as well. If you are on a Mac, I’d recommend Safari since it seems to be less a target than any other.

Convenience

All browsers are chock full of features that make them convenient to use, however my favorite feature is syncing. Syncing allows the same brand browser sync things like bookmarks, passwords, browsing history, and cookies between computers, tablets and smart phones. This is very handy if you compute from more than one device. Again, most browsers do this, but usually in different ways and to varying degrees of success. My favorites for this are Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. I’d give Chrome the edge here again however since their smart phone browser is better in general than the one from Firefox. As I mentioned there are many other convenience features to consider, so you should determine what is most important to you and then rate them based on that. Some features to think about are 1) saving pages for offline or later viewing, 2) tab management, 3) Incognito or Private Browsing, and 4) customization of the address and search bars.

Performance

Performance is basically an “arms race” when it comes to browsers. They all try to claim they are the fastest. In reality they are pretty equal. When I gauge performance I usually prefer to see how many system resources the browser uses. There are tools to measure this. For windows, just hit the Windows Key and type in Task Manager and look at the Processes tab. Find your browser and note memory and CPU usage. Then compare that to other browsers. Chrome has traditionally fared poorly in this regard. The latest version of Firefox claims a very small performance footprint. In my experience I’d recommend either Firefox or Edge. They both behave themselves pretty well and aren’t going to cause your computer fan to kick in or slow other applications to a crawl. Your mileage will vary of course, but something to consider and keep an eye on.

I shouldn’t leave the topic without one other very important consideration — does the browser you are using work well with the sites and applications you use? Some sites work better or specific browser, and if the sites you visit don’t play well with your browser, time to try another browser.

Bookmarking

As much of what you do in today’s computing environment is web-based you likely have a ton of bookmarks to get you back to frequently used sites. That makes the bookmarking experience very important. It should be easy to tag and manage those bookmarks or favorites, and a trivial process to rename, move or even share them. If you find yourself confused by or struggling with your browsers bookmarking function, take some time to learn it, or determine that it doesn’t think the way you do, and try another browsers approach. The good news is that all modern browsers allow you to export and import bookmarks, so it’s fairly easy to bring them along as you kick the tires on other browsers. Some browsers even automate that for you and when setting them up will ask you if you’d like to import from some competing browser. Cool. I don’t know if there is a clear cut winner here. I like the way Firefox, Chrome and Safari handle this task. I will say that if this is at the top of your list stay away from Edge. Since it’s so new there are some very basic bookmarking features that it still lacks.

Extensibility

That may not be a word you are familiar with, but it basically means that your browser support add-ons or extensions that can give you new capabilities that the base browser didn’t come with. Firefox has had these capabilities forever, but Chrome has taken them to a new level. This is mostly because Chrome has to BE the application on things like Chromebooks, so it needs to be ultra flexible and act like a “swiss army knife” to meet many needs.

There are add-ons and extensions for almost everything. Some very specific to applications and websites, and others that work across all sites. Some of the most popular are password managers like LastPass and 1Password, or ad blockers like AdBlock. One of the first things I do when setting up a new browser is to load a few of those “must have” extensions. My list includes: LastPass, OneNote Clipper, Shareaholic, Authy, Draft, and Pinboard (all links go to Chrome Store). These are available on Chrome and Firefox for the most part. It gets a little sketchy on Edge, Internet Explorer and Safari. Clear cut winner here is Chrome.

Conclusion

So which browser to choose. All provide some advantage and disadvantages. My advice would be to try them all. Live with each for a month and then make a decision. It will impact your productivity and online stewardship. Which one do I use you may ask? That depends. Primarily Chrome for many of the reasons mentioned above, but I have to say I have been tempted by the recent promises of improved performance and usability by Firefox. But again, it really doesn’t matter what I use. It’s a personal preference, and maybe even sometimes it’s the little things not even mentioned above, perhaps you just like the logo, or the “back button.”

I hope this at least has given you pause to consider the options you have and some of the considerations. Browsers can truly save you time, make you a little more productive, and improve the general enjoyment of your computer and the internet.

See All Ministry Resources