Tag Archive for: education

120 – YouTube in the Classroom

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This week on the WELSTech podcast we talk with the Scholar Ladies of HOPE School and discuss issues around YouTube in the classroom.

The discussion:

Classroom Video Quandary – Joining WELSTech for our monthly installment of classroom technology goodness is Gail Potratz from Emanuel in New London, WI.  This month the ed-tech talk centers on the many uses of YouTube in the classroom, and we share some useful resources and examples to get you started.

The interview:

HOPEs(14:13) Get an A on it – Wendy Greenfield, VP of Development and Communications at HOPE Schools in Milwaukee (WELS), joins Martin and Sallie to discuss the HOPE Idol winning video production and viral YouTube hit, Scholar Ladies.  With nearly one-half million views, we hear the behind-the-scenes story of the use of technology at HOPE to engage the students and share their mission with the world.

Picks of the week:

Community feedback:

Coming up on WELSTech:

(49:34) Episode 121 – Tune in for Lenten and Easter online resources and an interview with Pastor Guy Marquardt on his Interactive Passion History. (Release date 03/03/10)

The featured artist:

(50:18) We close the podcast with the music of Revelation from Wisconsin Lutheran College (www.revelationwlc.com) – Via Dolorosa from their CD “Once For All”

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119 – Sallie and Tony Meet

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This week is book discussion week on the WELSTech podcast.  We also catch up with Tony Vincent and clear the air on the worst picks controversy.

The discussion:

The Effects of Changing Media – Telegraph, radio and photos are the three media changes which Shane Hipps focuses on in Chapter 4 of his book The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture: How Media Shapes Faith, the Gospel and Church.  Martin and Sallie discuss the postmodern shift away from the “meta-narrative” and towards image-based communication.

The interview:

Tony Vincent(17:05) The Best Worst Pick Ever! – Tony Vincent, Education Consultant and the person behind LearningInHand.com, joins Martin and Sallie to share his experience and success stories with handheld computing devices in the classroom.  Listen as Tony shares excellent resources and his predictions for the future of PODs (Personally Owned Devices) in the classroom.  What was Sallie thinking when she chose Tony’s site as a worst pick??

Ministry resources:

(42:55) SermonDrop.com

News in tech:

(44:45) Google Buzz launches – Watch the overview video

Picks of the week:

Of interest:

(55:00) Registration continues for upcoming FinalWeb for Dummies web site training classes. Martin and Sallie are presenting three days of face to face training focusing on developing, designing and maintaining your website with excellence.

  • Milwaukee, WI and New Ulm, MN – March 9-11, 2010 – Registration deadline is February 28, 2010
  • Saginaw, MI – April 6-8, 2010
  • Attend any combination of days – one, two or three day registrations welcome
  • $49 per day or $129 for all three days
  • Details and registration at bit.ly/fw4dummies

Community feedback:

  • (56:13) The logo discussion started on last week’s podcast continued on the WELSTech listserve
  • Via the #WELSTechhashtag on Twitter we found out about …
  • Maren McPeak from St. Mark in Citrus Heights, CA offered to shared resources for the Promethean Interactive Whiteboard and we’ve created a new wiki page just for them.
  • Redeemer in Yakima, WA was featured on a recent newscast titled “Churches Find Faith in Facebook”.
    • John Shoosmith from Redeemer shared a link to an affordable device for video capture, the Easycap USB Adapter.
  • Pete Schlosser updated us on his upcoming photography adventures, including a trips to Ireland and Scotland with his UW-Stout photojournalism students as well as Haiti where he will spend a week as a WELS Kingdom Worker volunteer.
  • And finally, a great big WELSTech shout out to Pastor Thomas Wilsmann and his tech team from St. John’s in Waterloo, WI.  Thanks for listening!

Coming up on WELSTech:

(1:00:05) Episode 120 – YouTube in the classroom is the discussion theme as Gail Potratz joins us and we hear about HOPE School’s “Scholar Ladies” viral video sucess. (Release date 02/24/10)

The featured artist:

(1:06:34) We close the podcast with the music of a new WELS group, Cross to Glory, led by Pastor Chris Christenson (www.crosstoglory.com) – You Know I Know from their debut CD “Life’s Song”

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  • Add a comment below
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116 – Photography In The Classroom

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This week on WELSTech the “focus” is photography, and we are happy to welcome back Gail Potratz, our semi-regular class room technology correspondent.

Christmas 2010 Scavenger Hunt:

Clue #4

Clue 4

Remember, you can use your smartphone or an online decoder to decipher the message. Additional contest details available here. Have fun!

The interview:

Pete and Cari Schlossers(3:50) Say “Cheese” – Pete and Cari Schlosser, father and daughter members of St. Paul’s in Menomonie, WI, talk with us about photography in the classroom and share ideas from their upcoming book on the subject.

Ministry resources:

(35:10) Greek, Latin and Hebrew Bible audio recordings – shared by Pastor Guy Marquardt from Christ in Lodi, CA

News in tech:

(36:50) Add any page to Google Reader

  • Listen to WELSTech BWTG Episode 079 to learn more about Google Reader

Picks of the week:

Of interest:

(51:05) Registration continues for upcoming FinalWeb for Dummies web site training classes. Martin and Sallie are presenting three days of face to face training focusing on developing, designing and maintaining your website with excellence.

  • Milwaukee, WI and New Ulm, MN – March 9-11, 2010
  • Saginaw, MI – April 6-8, 2010
  • Attend any combination of days – one, two or three day registrations welcome
  • $49 per day or $129 for all three days
  • Details and registration at bit.ly/fw4dummies

Community feedback:

  • (52:22) Gail shared a link to resources from the GeekyBird blog to enhance usage of Discovery Education Streaming (formerly United Streaming)
  • John Shoosmith, a grits eater :-) from Washington, asked about embedding chat with live video streaming and Martin recommended Mibbit.com
  • Pastor Nate Seelow let us check out his religion class resources wiki for Great Plains Lutheran High School
  • Martin shared links to blog posts about virtual church and illegal wireless microphones
  • Ryan Rosenthal from Faith on Fond du Lac shared his wikispaces.com student account creation success and Jason Schmidt from Gethsemane in Omaha, NE responded with links to more wiki tips and tricks from Getting Tricky With Wikis and Cool Tools For Schools
  • Jason also shared links to 10 Reasons to use Diigo and Video Conferencing Guides
  • Sallie shared links to a Google Analytics Cheat Sheet and Freezeray.com, a site full of middle school and high school science flash animations for use on an interactive white board
  • Lastly we had a Discussion Board question from Bill Radinitz at Redeemer in Maple Grove, MN.  Sallie shared a link to MinuteBoard.com and asked the WELSTech Community to chime in with their recommendations.

Coming up on WELSTech:

(1:12:13) Episode 117 – We visit with Pastor Don Patterson and Bill Eslinger about their radio and podcast ministry, A Reason for Hope. (Release date 02/03/10)

The featured artist:

(1:12:39) We close the podcast with the music of Michael Schroeder, www.michaelschroeder.com – The Answer from his CD titled “The Way”

Get involved:

  • Add a comment below
  • Send us an e-mail [email protected]
  • Leave us a voice mail 405-FOR-WELS (405-367-9357)
  • Add to the WELSTech wiki welstechwiki.wels.net
  • Contribute to the #WELSTech Twitter conversation
  • Follow us on Twitter – mspriggs and welstechtrainer
  • Use the del.icio.us tag welstech
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    • WELSTech listserve
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108 – Tech-Enabled Religion Class

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This week on the WELSTech podcast we share ministry resource examples of technology in religious education.

The discussion:

Wordle Luke 2 Ministry Resources galore – Rather than one short segment on Ministry Resources, today’s WELSTech episode discussion is dedicated to practical examples of technology for religion classes.  Martin and Sallie share links to video and image projects, Bible games, online quizzes and more.  Special thanks go out to Gail Potratz from Emanuel in New London, WI, who couldn’t participate in the recording but shared many links and much research for this episode!

News in tech:

(27:53) Google Chrome Operating System

Picks of the week:

Of interest:

(42:15) Tune in to WELS Streams on December 6th @ 3 p.m. for the live audio stream of the Martin Luther College Christmas Concert

Community feedback:

  • (43:07) Steve Mathwig reported problems with WELSTech updates on the iPod Touch and Martin explains the cause
  • David Schumann from Peace in Janesville, WI suggested Audacity users try the “Normalize” function to even out sound levels in audio recordings
  • This week Jason Schmidt of Gethsemane in Omaha, NE tweeted #WELSTech to share links to 5 Elements of a Successful Facebook Fan Page and IKnowThat.com

Coming up on WELSTech:

(51:25) Episode 109 – Tune in to WELSTech next week for a discussion of technology for tech-challenged areas and people plus an interview with Missionary Paul Nitz from Malawi, Africa.   (Release date 12/09/09)

The featured artist:

(52:50) This week we close with the Advent music of Revelation, a music ministry of Wisconsin Lutheran College (www.revelationwlc.com) – A Voice Cries Out from their CD titled ”Led by the Light”

Get involved:

  • Add a comment below
  • Send us an e-mail [email protected]
  • Leave us a voice mail 405-FOR-WELS (405-367-9357)
  • Add to the WELSTech wiki welstechwiki.wels.net
  • Contribute to the #WELSTech Twitter conversation
  • Follow us on Twitter – mspriggs and welstechtrainer
  • Use the del.icio.us tag welstech
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  • Join the WELSTech community:
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104 – Glowing About The Bible

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This week on the WELSTech Podcast Martin and Sallie discuss online and personal Bible study with a digital flavor.

The discussion:

onlinebiblestudysDigital Bible Study – Martin shares a recap of his recent presentation at the WI State Teacher’s Conference. We learn about the many types of digital Bible study and about many free and affordable tools for online study.

News in tech:

  • (33:07) Google Wave update
    • E-mail us for an invite, and join the public WELSTech wave by searching “Calling all WELSTech-ers!”
    • The Complete Guide to Google Wave
  • OpenDNS Enterprise – Pricing for K-12 is $500 per year

Picks of the week:

Community feedback:

Coming up on WELSTech:

(56:10) We celebrate National Distance Learning Week by highlighting all of the online learning opportunities offered by WELS. (Release date 11/11/09)

The featured artist:

(57:05) This week we close with the music of WELS artist Mike Westendorf (www.mikewestendorf.com – Follow mikewestendorf on Twitter) – Come from his CD titled ”Color Through The Gray”

Get involved:

  • Add a comment below
  • Send us an e-mail [email protected]
  • Leave us a voice mail 405-FOR-WELS (405-367-9357)
  • Add to the WELSTech wiki welstechwiki.wels.net
  • Contribute to the #WELSTech Twitter conversation
  • Follow us on Twitter – mspriggs and welstechtrainer
  • Use the del.icio.us tag welstech
  • Join the WELSTech community:
    • WELSTech listserve
    • WELSTech on facebook

103 – Games With A Purpose

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This week the WELSTech Podcast focus is educational gaming and Gail Potratz joins the conversation.

The discussion:

Gaming in EducationSafe sites that teach – Gail Potratz, Technology Coordinator for Emanuel in New London, WI and WELSTech’s semi-regular classroom technology correspondent, joins Martin and Sallie for a discussion on gaming in education.  There’s no denying student interest is peaked by video games, and there are many excellent gaming options which also teach.  As schools develop lists of these recommended edu-gaming sites, they are also creating a safe environment for students to surf the web from home.

Safe site suggestions by age group

Pre-K to 2nd grade (non readers):

3rd to 5th grade:

6th to 8th grade:

Ministry resources:

  • (28:15) BabelWith.Me – Real time translation engine for chat
  • Check out the new Lutheran Study Bible from Concordia

Picks of the week:

Of interest:

(37:17) We’ve created a new compilation page for our Ministry Resources

Community feedback:

Coming up on WELSTech:

(41:39) Martin is presenting a workshop on Digital Bible Study at the Wisconsin Teacher’s Conference, so we’ll tap into his session notes and hear from the attendees. (Release date 11/04/09)

The featured artist:

(43:03) This week we close with the music of WELS artist Stephen Bautista (www.stephenbautistamusic.com – Follow stephenbautista on Twitter) – Abandon from his CD of the same title ”Abandon”

Get involved:

  • Add a comment below
  • Send us an e-mail [email protected]
  • Leave us a voice mail 405-FOR-WELS (405-367-9357)
  • Add to the WELSTech wiki welstechwiki.wels.net
  • Contribute to the #WELSTech Twitter conversation
  • Follow us on Twitter – mspriggs and welstechtrainer
  • Use the del.icio.us tag welstech
  • Join the WELSTech community:
    • WELSTech listserve
    • WELSTech on facebook

094 – Old People Talking New Tech

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This week on the WELSTech Podcast Gail Potratz joins the discussion on one-to-one computing.

The discussion:

One-to-one in educationOne-to-One Computing – A “trending topic” in education circles today is the concept of equipping students as early as elementary school with their own portable computing device, thus giving them the ability to do normal computing tasks with all-the-time, anywhere access. Gail Potratz, Technology Coordinator at Emanuel in New London, WI joins Martin and Sallie to discuss the challenges and benefits of one-to-one computing as well as the tumbling prices on hardware and software.  Even if your school isn’t ready to implement this strategy today, it’s great to consider it in future planning.

News in Tech:

(21:33) Microsoft releases a beta cloud-based version of the SQL relational database on the Azure platform

Picks of the week:

Community feedback:

  • (35:45) Pastor Aaron Frey from Emanuel in Tawas City, MI tweeted his approval of DropBox for syncing Logos files
  • Teacher Jason Schmidt from Gethsemane in Omaha, NE shared info on a free account at abcteach.com for undergraduate education majors
  • Adam Miller for our own Technology team suggested we dedicate a future WELSTech episode to technology and the college student, focusing on campus ministry efforts and home congregation connections with the college crowd

Coming up on WELSTech:

(41:42) Tune in for a surprise episode featuring a panel discussion or a look at chapter 10, Failure for Free, from Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody. (Release date 09/02/09)

The featured artist:

(42:31) This week we close with the music of WELS artist, Steven Bautista (www.stephenbautistamusic.com) – Trying to Catch the Wind from his CD titled ”Abandon”

Get involved:

093 – Back to School with Technology

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This week on the WELSTech podcast we explore student and teacher prep for the new tech-driven school year.

The discussion:

Back to School with TechnologyPreparing to learn in a Web 2.0 world – This isn’t your grandmother’s back to school season, and with the advent of technology, parents, students and teachers need to prepare for the new school year in all new ways.  Listen as Martin and Sallie share ideas to help you get ready for technology in the new school year.

The interview:

(12:43) Joining Martin and Sallie this week is Joe Du Fore who teaches at Fox Valley Lutheran High School and also serves as Educational Technology Director.  Joe shares his thoughts on the use of technology at the high school level and tech tips for students and parents as they prepare to go back to school.

News In Technology:

(32:30) Goggle Chrome has bookmark syncing

Picks of the week:

Community feedback:

  • (41:12) Allan Bunt from Good Shepherd in Wisconsin Rapids, WI shared a link to Jodix for creating MP3 audio from video files
  • #WELSTech tweets this week include…
    • Jason Schmidt from Gethsemane in Omaha, NE shared links to Geocaching for Educators and MailChimp webinars
    • Ryan Rosenthal from Faith in Fond du Lac thought the Learn 360 webinars were very useful
  • Phillip Wels from St. Paul’s in New Ulm, MN asked about considerations for offering facebook training in his congregation

Coming up on WELSTech:

(49:16) Episode 094 – Gail Potratz joins us for a discussion of one-to-one computing in the classroom. (Release date 08/26/09)

The featured artist:

(50:20) This week we close with the music of WELS instrumentalist In His Time (www.adagioconcepts.com) – O God, Your Hand The Heavens Made from their CD titled ”In His Time”

Get involved:

090 – Run MDMC

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This week on the WELSTech podcast we learn about the topics covered at the recent Milwaukee Digital Media Conference.

The discussion:

MDMC09 – Our semi-regular classroom technology correspondent, Gail Potratz from Emanuel in New London, WI, rejoins Martin and Sallie to share her experience from the recent Milwaukee Digial Media Conference (MDMC).  The educators who participated in the conference became students and used some of today’s newest technology to create multi-media projects to share with the world.

The interview:

Tammy Stephens(22:45) Gail spends a few minutes chatting with Tammy Stephens, Educational Technology Consultant and founder of The Stephens Group, about her work with the Milwaukee Digital Media Conference and as well as other initiatives in which she is involved.

New Technology Showcase:

Picks of the week:

Coming up on WELSTech:

(52:10) Listen for two new podcast next week

  • Episode 091 – On the next Bonus WELSTech Goodness (BWTG) episode we will share steps for creating online forms. (Release date 08/10/09)
  • Episode 092 – It’s all about our listeners as we take a time out and share all the great ideas and comments that have been rolling in. (Release date 08/12/09)

The featured artist:

(54:32) This week we close with the music of WELS artist Wendysue Fluegge (www.wendysue.com) – Time from her CD titled ”Everyday Christian”

Get involved:

078 – Twitter and the Twassroom

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This week the WELSTech podcast focus is Twitter in education as Martin and Sallie talk with two WELS teachers who are blazing the Twitter trail, Gail Potratz and Jason Schmidt.

The discussion:

Twitter in Education – Gail Potratz, Technology Coordinator for Emanuel in New London, WI and our “Semi-regular Classroom Technology Correspondent”, sits in on the podcast as we discuss Twitter for teachers.

The interview:

Jason Schmidt(20:43) A WELS Teacher Tweets – Jason Schmidt, 3rd and 4th grade teacher from Gethsemane in Omaha, NE and jasonschmidt123 on Twitter, joins Martin and Sallie to talk about his experience as a Twitter user and about the many classroom and professional development resources it has made him aware of.

New Technology Showcase:

(37:57) iPhone OS 3.0

Picks of the week:

  • (43:37) ShareThis – Sharing made easy (or was Gail’s pick GroupTweet?)
  • TweetDeck app for iPhone & iPod Touch – in iTunes
  • Twellow – Twitter directory

Of interest:

(53:57) BWTG is live!  On this week’s Bonus WELSTech Goodness episode you can learn about Google Calendar, and next Monday we’ll share “how-to” tips for Google Reader.

Community feedback:

  • (57:42) Jeremy Johnson commented on the recent Narnia discussion and blogged his take on Lifehacker’s Essential Windows Apps
  • Still baffled by Twitter search?  Sallie shared a link to the newest CommonCraft video, Twitter Search in Plain English
  • The WELSTech listserve conversation continues on stock video resources and privatizing areas of a FinalWeb site.  Check the online archive for details.
  • Ryan Rosenthal from Faith in Fond du Lac, WI shared loads of great comments on a variety of recent WELSTech topics.
  • Jason Schmidt from Gethsemane in Omaha, NE tweeted #WELSTech to share Tube Chop – use it to carve out a desired section of a YouTube video
  • Allan Bundt tossed out the idea of a WELSTech video podcast – hmmm … you really don’t want to go there ;-)
  • Brad Wheeling, who heads up Concordia Technology Solutions, is looking for beta testers for Shepherd’s Staff 2010 – Contact Brad on Twitter at CTSBrad

Coming up on WELSTech:

(1:05:45) Episode 080 – We preview the Web 2.0 tools that will be a part of the new WELS.net

The featured artist:

(1:07:07) The music of WELS artist Mike Westendorf (www.mikewestendorf.com) closes this week’s podcast – I Will Sing from his CD titled “Climb The Mountain”

Get involved:

  • Add a comment below
  • Send us an e-mail [email protected]
  • Leave us a voice mail 414-375-2334
  • Add to the WELSTech wiki welstechwiki.wels.net
  • Contribute to the #WELSTech Twitter conversation
  • Follow us on Twitter – mspriggs and welstechtrainer
  • Use the del.icio.us tag welstech
  • Join the WELSTech community:
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