This week on WELSTech we hear about a new online teaching platform that provides a professional, intuitive design across all types of devices and about plans to use it for online Bible Information Class. Registration is open for the Christ in Media XR Festival, and WELS recently published their annual report. Plus, Martin and Sallie keep score of new tech finds to assist in your personal productivity, stewardship, and more.

Online Bible Information Class – Seminary Senior Micah Koelpin and Pastor Jared Oldenburg from Eternal Rock in Castle Rock, CO share their goals, research, and experience creating an online Bible Information Class.

One By One: Revitalizing a Congregation – A Lutheran Leadership Conference keynote presentation by Rev. David Rosenau

Open Educational Resources (OER) Commons

To learn more about publishing online course materials with Thinkific, check out their free Fast Track Training course and their Creating a Course support resources.

Tune in for discussion of family devotions with the aid of technology plus online Bible Information Class.

WELSTech is packed with ministry goodness this week including tech tools for classroom behavior management, early childhood ministry educator’s devotions, a variety of Microsoft news, Easter 2020 resources, and a preview of the new Christian Worship hymnal. Join the conversation!

A variety of tech for classroom management – We welcome Professor Rachel Feld to the edtech co-host seat and preview the Classroom Management picks from the Cult of Pedagogy’s Teacher’s Guide to Tech in 2020.

Early Childhood Ministry Educator’s Devotions – WELS National Coordinator for Early Childhood Ministry Cindi Holman chats with Martin and Sallie about a devotion series geared to those who work with preschool aged children and their families.

E20 (Easter) resources available

ChristianWorship.com

Get moving with Go Noodle’s GET FIRED UP!

Tune in for discussion of family devotions with the aid of technology plus online Bible Information Class.

Welcome to 2020 on WELSTech! Martin and Sallie usher in a new decade of tech-in-ministry podcasting with a look to the future. We dive into all that’s new with Forward In Christ magazine, including the shiny new website. And there’s plenty of traditional WELSTech goodness included as well – news in tech, a conference announcement, creative new hardware, and plenty of community chatter.

Something old, something new – We turn the tables on Together video host Nicole Balza, and she becomes the interviewee as she shares details about the Forward in Christ (FIC) magazine redesign and the new ForwardInChrist.net companion website.

It’s the end of the support life cycle for Windows 7

Register now for the first WELS Women Writers Conference – April 24-25

Search five years of Forward in Christ PDF archives

A great introduction to the Art with Flo channel is this video of 5 FUN drawing exercises. Bonus: There’s llamas!!

Professor Rachel Feld from Martin Luther College shares the latest education technology trends.

We close out the decade with the traditional WELSTech year-end review of favorite moments from past episodes. May God bless the WELSTech community in 2020 and beyond!

Best of 2019 – Martin and Sallie look back at the past year of podcasts and reminisce about a change in show frequency (less is more!), the event that was 2 years in the making, and cats, of course!

Events

Milestones

Favorite episode titles

Enjoy The Divers singing Let Us Go.

The WELSTech Christmas Special is a favorite episode each year, and 2019 doesn’t disappoint. Join Martin and Sallie as we learn more about the Ministry of Christian Giving.

Online giving – Pastor Kurt Lueneburg and Adam Goede from WELS Christian Giving are on camera with Martin and Sallie for this special Christmas interview.

On our New Year’s Eve special, we look back at the best of 2019 on WELSTech.

December has arrived on WELSTech, and its got us talking about Bible study ideas for the upcoming new year. This episode also includes news from Hour of Code, Christmas concert schedules, a family stewardship devotion series, and an opportunity to help Michigan Lutheran Seminary enhance their YouTube options.

In the Word – Principal Brad Gurgel from St Peter Lutheran School in St Peter, MN provides an update on their school and church Bible reading initiative which he first shared at this summer’s EdTechLead19 (presentation link). Alycia Cameron also updates us on the Berean Bible Challenge she is leading, and Martin and Sallie have additional ideas for Bible study as we approach a new year.

Hour of Code – December 9-15

Christians Under Construction family stewardship devotion series

Check out Smart Dezign: Church Media Made Simple on YouTube, including this video on Making a $4 Dollar Store DIY Teleprompter

Pastor Kurt Lueneburg and Adam Goede from the Christian Giving office share ideas for online giving.

On WELSTech this week we learn a lot of things … how to facilitate school-home communication, where to find security guidelines for churches and schools, how to remotely operate Google Slides, that Apple has a new MacBook Pro on the market, and that the trio of co-hosts are all Bitmoji users. Who knew!

Connecting Guardians and Schools – In the recently released Future of the Classroom report, Google shares 8 trends which they believe will have an impact on how schools prepare students for a yet-to-be-defined future. Teacher-parent communication, one of the 8 trends outlined in the report, is an area where technology can assist, and Jason Schmidt, Instructional Technology Coach for Oconto Falls School District, joins the conversation to share his experience with a tech tool designed for this purpose.

New MacBook Pro 16″

General Information Security Guidelines for WELS Organizations

Remote for Slides

Google’s rollout of RCS chat for all Android users

Enjoy Koine Worship Media’s Now Thank We All Our God.

On WELSTech this week we focus on mobile app creation using Glide. It’s ease of use, versatility, and price tag (free!!) make it a great candidate for building apps for ministry. We’ll hear from two men who are using Glide in the high school setting. Spark your own app development effort with the resources and ideas from this week’s episode.

Go mobile – Martin and Sallie discuss the features of Glide App, a free tool for developing mobile apps driven by data in Google Sheets. Teachers Carl Hochmuth from Luther Preparatory School in Watertown, WI and Jonathan Witte from Luther High School in Onalaska, WI share their experience using Glide apps in their ministry settings.

Glide Apps Examples

Gospel Outreach With Media – Fall 2019 Online Conference

Check out the latest updates to Glide Apps with this Data Editing playlist of video tutorials.

We talk edtech with Jason Schmidt!

The cat takeover continues on WELSTech with this week’s revelation that cat photography is the number one reason to purchase the new iPhone. In other news … we talk about 4 shifts in technology integration, a gamified geography (and more) web app, the latest Google goodness, creating infographics, and more!

Shifting edtech gears – Prof. Rachel Feld from Martin Luther College shares details about the 4 Shifts Protocol, the methodology behind the book Harnessing Technology for Deeper Learning.

Fantasy education – Eric Nelson, WELS member and teacher-founder of FANschool.org, shares the story behind harnessing the fun of fantasy football for use in education. Students draft countries and score when their countries are mentioned in the news. Teachers can set up a league for free for up to 35 players. Learn more.

Google spotlight

5 Tips for Creating Infographics with Students using Adobe Spark Post and the Noun Project

At South Side Elementary School in Kendalville, IN, students learn computational thinking starting in kindergarten and develop advanced reasoning skills throughout their elementary school years. Supporting Powerful STEM Learning with Technology: Computational Thinking

The Gospel Outreach with Media online conference is in full swing and includes a presentation from Sallie about an easy way to build mobile apps using Glide Apps. Tune in for more about the conference and about Glide!

WELSTech is back with a timely discussion topic of social media for churches as you head into the busy holiday season. Martin shares what interests him from the recent Amazon event, and Sallie has lots of options for listening to the Bible. Christian apologetics is in the limelight (and the video archives) following the recent Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Symposium on the topic. And the WELSTech community feedback is great, as usual!

Get Social – Martin and Sallie share tips for enhancing your church or school’s social media presence. Also Trish Nitschke, Social Media Manager for Time of Grace, joins the conversation to share her social media expertise.

Echo everything

5 Audio Bible Listening Options – Overview video

Learn more about the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Symposium on Apologetics from this Together Video update.