076 – Where’d My Bowling League Go?
This week the WELSTech podcast discussion focuses on real-time, face-to-face fellowship challenges and ways technology can assist.
Podcast: Download (24.2MB)
The discussion:
Declining social capital – Martin and Sallie discuss chapter 8 of Clay Shirky’s book Here Comes Everybody titled “Solving Social Dilemmas”. The decline of “social capital” has effected congregations and schools as they experience the difficulty of getting people together for fellowship, but the good news is there are ways technology can assist in connecting people.
- Meetup.com – Find a niche group to meet face-to-face
New Technology Showcase:
(18:30) Google Wave – A developing communication tool
- wave.google.com – Watch the announcement video, take a sneak peek and sign up for news
- A Complete Guide from Mashable
- Questions and Answers from Lifehacker
Picks of the week:
- (25:46) Essential Free Windows Downloads from Lifehacker
- Epson Workforce 600 All-In-One Printer
Announcing BWTG:
(31:50) Something new – Bonus WELSTech Goodness (BWTG)
- Mid-week mini “how-to” episodes set to launch on Monday, June 22nd
- Look for Episode 077 – BWTG: Google Calendars
Community feedback:
- (35:00) Gail Potratz from Emanuel in New London, WI asked about twitter hashtags, left a voice mail about using iGoogle for her Personal Learning Network and shared a link to her Twtpoll
- Jason Schmidt from Gethsemane in Omaha, NE tweeted several tech goodies
- Free educational videos from neoK12
- Book Adventure free reading motivation program from Sylvan
- Dropbox referral
- Flowgram to close
- Sallie shared a link to an article on Scareware from USA Today
- Check out the WELSTech listserve archives for recent discussions on
- Video sources
- MIDI resources
- Installing XP on newer computers
- John Shoosmith from Redeemer in Yakima, WA created a “copyright friendly” scripture recording
Coming up on WELSTech:
(48:08) Episode 078 – Next Wednesday’s topic will be “Twitter in Education” with guest host Gail Potratz and interviewee/teacher/twitterer, Jason Schmidt
The featured artist:
(49:21) This week we close with music of WELS musician Stephen Bautista (www.stephenbautistamusic.com) – Brand New Day from his CD with the same title
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Sallie,
Wow! I can’t think of a better voice for that story. I looked it up and also found that Kenneth Branagh did The Magician’s Nephew. My wife is a big fan of his. That’s an amazing deal you got! I know what’s going to be on our Christmas list this year…
Following up on Gail Potratz’s question about Twitter search, there’s a brand new CommonCraft video explanation called “Twitter Search In Plain English” –
http://www.commoncraft.com/twitter-search
Jeremy – very cool!! The one thing which I was mad I forgot to say on the show was that the audio recording of The Last Battle which we listened to was narrated by Patrick Stewart. His voice is so perfect for that story – icing on the cake!
I listened to the podcast right after lunch today. The funny thing is that during lunch I was talking with a friend about Narnia. More specifically, I was telling him that I feel The Last Battle is without a doubt the best book in the series. I thought it was hillarious to come back from lunch and hear Sallie tell Martin about how great The Last Battle is. My friend has also only read three of the books. I’ve read all of them at least twice. The Last Battle is simply amazing, and it’s one of the my five favorite stories of all time. Reading any of the Narnia books without reading The Last Battle is like preparing for a party but going home before the fun really starts.