134 – Doing Our Research

This week on the WELSTech podcast the topics of ministry-oriented internet research and logo design share the stage.

Podcast: Download (41.9MB)

Lighting of the MS River bridges in Natchez, MS

The discussion:

Pay attention to the research – Martin and Sallie discuss various methods for keeping up with emerging trends, especially in regard to their effect on church and school outreach.

Pastor Tim Wagner from Abiding Peace in Elgin, IL shared a Chicago Tribune article about ChurchRater.com
PewInternet.org
Barna Group
- A recent Barna report – Most Americans Consider Easter a Religious Holiday, But Fewer Correctly Identify Its Meaning
- Barna RSS Feed
Set Google Alerts on desired search terms
Learn more about Google Reader on our past Bonus WELSTech Goodness (BWTG) Episode #79

The interview:

(14:27) Designer Spotlight – Graphic designer Steven Stelter, lay member of Grace in Seattle, WA, shares tips with Martin and Sallie on great church web design and what to expect when working with a graphic designer.

Ministry resources:

(35:27) 30 churches on Facebook (and four observations) from Communicate Jesus

Picks of the week:

(37:22) Moodle Tool Guide for Teachers from ed-tech blog Cat’s Pyjamas
Ubuntu 10.4 Lucid Links for netbooks

Of interest:

(44:05) Watch archives of MLC & WLS graduation and call services on WELS Streams > Video
FinalWeb Training in Milwaukee, WI and New Ulm, MN
- FinalWeb for Teachers – July 19 – bit.ly/fw4teachers
- FinalWeb for Dummies – July 20-22- bit.ly/fw4dummies

Community feedback:

(45:40) Teacher Ryan Rosenthal from Faith in Fond du Lac, WI shared news from the WI Educational Communications Board that all WI schools have subscriptions to Soundzabound.com
Alyssa Dunning recommended online music streaming site, Grooveshark
Perry Lund from Grace in Oskaloosa, IA commented on Accordance and SMEStorage from episode #132 and shared a link to the new iPads in Education Ning
Maren McPeak likes Toodledo for cross-platform task management
David Schumann from Peace in Janesville, WI is looking for children’s online Bible resources for summer enrichment. Check out KidsConnection.tv.
Martin recommended Pictaculous for easy color scheme creation from a logo image.

Coming up on WELSTech:

(57:18) Episode 135 – We’ll wrap up our discussion of Shane Hipps book, The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture, focusing on chapter 8. (Release date 06/09/10)