Tag Archive for: Distance Learning

638 – Thoughts On Virtual Learning…Free Of Charge

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A new era of WELSTech has arrived as we welcome not one, but two classroom technology correspondents to the guest host chairs on the same episode! We’re talking hybrid education along with picks of the week, community feedback, and all the other WELSTech goodness we can pack into our time together.

The discussion

New school year, new challenges – This season on WELSTech we thought we’d double the fun for edtech discussion episodes by inviting both Rachel Feld, Director of Academic Computing at Martin Luther College, and Jason Schmidt, Instructional Technology Coach for Oconto Falls School District, to join Martin and Sallie on the same episodes.

Today we talk about the challenges and opportunities which are evident in classrooms this school year because of the pandemic. Jason and Rachel share tools for formative assessment which is important for gauging learning comprehension in normal situations and is magnified in hybrid/virtual learning situations.

Picks of the week

Ministry resource

Sunday School At Home with Christ Light from Northwestern Publishing House (NPH)

Community feedback

WELS now

Sign up for Marriage Moments, weekly videos with discussion ideas highlighting a Biblical marriage thought. Additional details are available here.

Next time

We’re back in two weeks with the 1st law of Atomic Habits plus an interview.

Get involved

486 – Online Ed

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This week on WELSTech Rachel Feld joins the conversation to discuss the latest developments in online and adaptive learning. Educators will want to listen on Rachel’s iPad/iPhone pick called “Duck, Duck, Moose.” Sallie is unplugging … for a day, and Martin shares a great site to get reviews of gadgets for those who are looking to plug more things in.

The discussion:

Individualized learning for littles – Using the New Media Consortium K-12 Horizon Report 2016 as a springboard, the edtech conversation du jour is online learning, but not just for high-schoolers. Teacher Rachel Feld from Bethany in Kenosha, WI shares her 1st and 2nd grade classroom experience with online tools that adapt for individualized student needs.

News in tech:

Amazon AWS S3 outage is breaking things for a lot of websites and apps

Picks of the week:

Ministry resources:

Featured video:

Celebrate Lutheran Schools Week with students from St. Paul’s Lutheran School in New Ulm, MN, We’re Happy! on the WELSTech Schools YouTube playlist.

Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 487 – Tune in for a primer on positive parenting in the digital age. Release date: Wednesday, March 8.

Get involved:

480 – Backing Up

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This week on WELSTech, Martin and Sallie share both inspiration and suggestions for keeping your important photos, documents, music, presentations, sermons, and lesson plans safe for years to come. Tim Plath chats with Sallie about Area Lutheran High Schools Online, and the focus on Ministry Resources continues with a look at two wonderful archives: 1) Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary essays and 2) WELSTech photos from last year’s challenge.

The discussion:

Better safe than sorry – The WELSTech discussion turns once again to the important topic of backups. Martin and Sallie share their backup strategy and favorite hardware and software and cloud solutions for backing up important files.

The interview:

Distance education – Tim Plath, principal of Minnesota Valley Lutheran High School, recently sat down with Sallie to give us an update on the Area Lutheran High Schools Online (ALHSO) program. Tim serves as chairman of the ALHSO Board, and he shared news of the popularity and growth of the program as well as a vision of possible future enhancements.

News in tech:

  • 2016 Nielsen Social Media Report – PDF

WELS now:

Picks of the week:

Ministry resources:

Featured video:

The newest addition on the WELSTech Presentation/Teaching YouTube playlist is Michael Jr: Know Your Why.

Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 481 – Get ready for a flood of great tech-in-ministry ideas on the next episode of WELSTech. It’s community feedback week! Release date: Wednesday, January 25.

Get involved:

440 – Online Learning with Moodle

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It’s a special day on WELSTech as Martin celebrates a milestone event with the WELSTech audience! The discussion topic centers on the popular open-source online learning platform Moodle and whether it might meet the needs for churches and schools interested in delivering course content online. Facebook has a new streaming video service, MLC has a lengthy list of interesting summer classes and WELSTech Hall-of-Famer Pastor Rob Guenther shares a method for automated catechism quiz grading.

The discussion:

Moodle_Cloud145x100Moodle and more – As online learning becomes widely adopted, it may be time for churches and schools to look for ways to deliver course content digitally. Moodle is a free, open-source learning management platform which is widely used in WELS circles (Area Lutheran High Schools Online | MLC | WLC | WLS). There’s even a hosted option for small installations (50 users or less) which may be just right for church and school settings.

WELS distance learning opportunities

News in tech:

Facebook Live

WELS now:

Summer class offerings at Martin Luther College

Picks of the week:

Ministry resources:

Pastor Rob Guenther uses Flubaroo to automate grading catechism quizzes

Featured video:

From the Moodle channel on YouTube, we share What is Moodle?, featured on the WELSTech Product Demo playlist.

Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 441 – Martin and Sallie share the latest chapter of the WELSTech book project, With All Your Heart, this time focusing on troubleshooting project roadblocks. Release date: Wednesday, April 20

Get involved:

368 – The New Way To Learn

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On WELSTech this week the discussion topic is online learning and we welcome a special guest, Dr. John Meyer, from Martin Luther College to tell us about their spring course offerings which range from one hour webinars for clock hours to 3 credit hour courses. Martin gives us the skinny on a brand new gadget and Sallie shares community feedback from the WELSTech audience.

The interview:

johnMeyer145x125Learning Online – Dr. John Meyer, Director of Graduate Studies and Continuing Education at Martin Luther College, joins Martin and Sallie to discuss the variety of offerings available in the area of online learning.

Ministry resources:

News in tech:

Tips & picks of the week:

WELS insider:

Need to know:

  • Registration is open for FinalWeb online training, coming up January 21-23, 2015. bit.ly/fw4d2015
  • Visit the WELSTech Conference 2015 site to sign up for conference announcements via e-mail

Community feedback:

Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 369 – Join us on a special date and time – Monday, November 24 @ 11 am – for a look at ShopWELS.net offerings and an interview with ShopWELS vendor, Chris Hunt from Troxell. (Broadcast date – 11/24/14)

Featured videos:

This week we’ve added an entry on the WELSTech Presentation/Teaching Videos YouTube channel – Salman Khan talk at TED 2011

 

Get involved:

274 – Digital Learning Day

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Today the WELSTech Podcast celebrates Distance Learning Day with ideas for raising awareness of your school’s technology offerings as well as an interview with Profs. Jim Grunwald and Rich Gurgel about the synod school’s online offerings.

The discussion:

Worth celebrating – February 6 is Digital Learning Day, and Martin and Sallie share ideas for celebrating the many ways education is changing as more and more schools integrate technology.

The interview:

(12:04) Profs. in Digital Ed – Dr. Jim Grunwald from Martin Luther College and Pastor Richard Gurgel from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary join Martin and Sallie to discuss the current distance education initiatives being offered by synod schools.

News in tech:

Picks of the week:

Community feedback:

Coming up on WELSTech:

(48:28) Episode 275 – Martin and Sallie return to their current book discussion, looking at chapter 6 of Presentation Zen. (Release date – 02/12/13)

The featured artist:

(49:20) We close the podcast with the instrumental music of In His Service (www.adagioconcepts.com) – Go To Dark Gethsemane

Get involved:

250 – Summer Software Showcase: Google Hangouts

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What a way to celebrate the 250th WELSTech episode … by launching a brand new video option! Listeners can now watch the live video stream of WELSTech in real time or tune in later to view the recorded video or listen to the traditional audio recording of the show. Besides the video excitement, we also continue our Summer Software Showcase series, focusing on Google Hangouts.

The discussion:

Hanging out on video – Martin and Sallie put their recommendation into practice this week, using the Summer Software Showcase feature, Google Hangouts, to launch the first-ever WELSTech videocast.  Listen and watch as they discuss the pros and cons of  this multi-person video chat/streaming tool.

Ministry Uses

  1. Meetings
  2. Bible study or any small class
  3. Connect classrooms
  4. Tech support
  5. Stream events from church of school

Picks of the week:

7 Best:

(30:50) Send us your favorite Password Management Tips and Tools for inclusion in our September 7 Best list

Community feedback:

  • (31:38) remind101 – Text students and parents
  • 40 Site For Educational Games
  • Computers are needed at a WELS congregation in Edna, TX.  Learn more about this donation opportunity on the WELSTech Listserve.
  • Raspberry Pi updates – Sallie’s arrived and Martin found 5 Cool Projects for it
  • Groopt – A possible listserve alternative
  • Busy Pastors Can Say No To Social Media

Coming up on WELSTech:

(39:47) Episode 251 – Next week we wrap up our Summer Software Showcase series with an edtech discussion of KidBlog. (Release date – 08/28/12)

The featured artist:

(42:35)  We close with the music of L. A. Miller – Flyin’ Free 

Get involved:

232 – WELSTech Hangout

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Experience something different this week on the WELSTech Podcast, our first ever live show using Google Hangouts.

The discussion:

Kicking the tires – As promised, this week’s podcast was kicked off in a Google Hangout, and we have video of the experience to share.  Martin and Sallie were joined by listeners Perry Lund, Gail Potratz and Jason Schmidt as we tried out the platform, experiencing video chat, screen sharing, apps and more (hmmm … pirate Jason??). The audio of the session is integrated into this week’s podcast, but if you want to see the Hangout fun and not just listen, check out the archived video posted below.

 

Picks of the week:

The interview:

(31:01) Web sites done right – Mark and Lesley Bergemann, husband and wife webmasters at Good Shepherd’s in West Allis, WI, talk with Martin and Sallie about the communication strategy behind their church web site and updates they regularly make to support that strategy and track its effectiveness.

Of interest:

(52:06) Faith Building 2012 Conference – April 27th in Kimberly, WI

  • A half-day workshop for church leaders and building committees planning or considering a building project
  • Featuring Roger Ihde from ShopWELS vendor Northern Sound & Video speaking on “Acoustical, AV and Worship Instrument Consideration”
  • Details and registration information (PDF)

7 Best:

(54:18) On the May 2nd episode of WELSTech we’ll countdown our next 7 Best list, and listeners can be part of the list creation.  Simply let us know your favorite

Photo Organizing and Editing Tools

You can pin an image and link on the WELSTech Pinterest board, tweet us using #WELSTech, write on our Facebook or Google+ wall, leave a voicemail (405-FOR-WELS), send an e-mail, leave a comment on the WELSTech site, mail it in on a carrier pigeon or whatever method you want to use.  Just let us know what you think is best!

Community feedback:

Coming up on WELSTech:

(1:01:47) Episode 233 – After seeing Gail in our hangout this week, Martin and Sallie are happy to welcome her back again next week as our semi-regular classroom technology correspondent to discuss digital story telling. (Release date – 04/25/12)

The featured artist:

(1:02:18) We close the podcast with the music of instrumentalist Joey Schumann (JoeySchumann.com | Joey on Facebook) – Americana Medley from his CD with the same title

Get involved:

186 – "Anonymous" Feedback

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This week on the WELSTech Podcast we tour the new and improved ShopWELS site and talk with Tim Plath about distance ed for high schoolers.

The discussion:

ShopWELS relaunch – The ShopWELS group-purchasing program for WELS organizations and members is getting a face-lift today.  Join Martin and Sallie as we tour the re-designed web site and discuss the exciting deals which are available through the program.  Everything from copiers to office supplies and church organs the cell phone carriers is discounted!

The interview:

Tim Plath(16:21) ALHSO – Here’s another acronym to add to your list.  ALHSO stands for Area Lutheran High Schools Online.  Tim Plath, principal of Minnesota Valley Lutheran High School in New Ulm, MN and Chairman of the ALHSO Administrative Committee talks with Martin and Sallie about the new distance ed program which will begin this fall.

  • Contact Tim for more details or to enroll a student in ALHSO

Ministry resources:

Picks of the week:

Community feedback:

Coming up on WELSTech:

(53:19) Episode 187 – We kick off our summer WELS Hacker series, featuring a discussion of tips and “how-to” blog posts from Martin and Sallie. (Release date – 06/08/11)

The featured artist:

(55:25) We close the podcast with the music of Michael Schroeder (www.michaelschroeder.com and on Facebook)- A Witness from his CD with the same title

Get involved:

145 – WELSTech Road Trip: Citrus Heights, CA

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The WELSTech Podcast Road Trip travels to California to hear the tech-in-ministry success story of St. Mark’s in Citrus Heights.

Road trip:

roadtrip02c(3:20) Technology serving St. Mark’s – Joining Martin and Sallie today are Maren McPeak, Webmaster, and Matt Bauer, Principal, from St. Mark’s in Citrus Heights, CA.  Listen as they share technology ideas from their church and school including use of their web site, iTunes, Facebook and Moodle.

  • Check out all the content on the St. Mark’s site to get ideas for your church or school site
  • View the sample Moodle course used to train students to update the St. Mark’s church and school Google calendar
  • Download the Google calendar Moodle course backup and restore on your own Moodle site
  • View instructions for logging into a sample Schoology.com course created by Maren

Maren McPeak and Matt Bauer

Citrus Heights CA
The WELSTech Road Trip Tracker

Picks of the week:

Community feedback:

Coming up on WELSTech:

(36:34) Episode 146 – The summer 2010 WELSTech Road Trip series wraps up with a virtual visit to three states as we compare and contrast Bible study software.  (Release date 08/25/10)

The featured artist:

(37:44) This week we feature the music of  Koine (www.koinemusic.com | Facebook) – Fight the Good Fight from their CD titled ”Church Bells”

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