This week WELSTech welcomes 2013 with a countdown of Martin & Sallie’s 7 Best Picks of the Year 2012. How many of these hardware, software, web and mobile apps do you use?

Best of the Best – To kick off the new year, Martin and Sallie share their annual picks of the year for 2012 in “7 Best” style.

Sallie’s Picks

Martin’s Picks

(43:48) Episode 270 – Join Martin and Sallie for the start of year 6 of WELSTech and chapter 5 of our WELSTech book discussion of Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds. (Release date – 01/08/13)

Christmas comes to WELSTech as we share a special interview with World Missions Administrator Dan Koelpin about the important work of reaching souls around the world.

(2:45) Merry Christmas to the World – Dan Koelpin, World Missions Administrator,  shares stories of his travels to WELS World Mission fields (47 countries and counting) and of the unique forms of worship he’s witnessed including joy-filled, dancing during offering collections. He’s seen mission field communication progress from 2-week “snail” mail correspondence to 14 second e-mail. And he is excited about the spread of the gospel via the cyber highway of the 21st century.

(23:10) Episode 269 – Ring in the new year with Martin and Sallie’s 7 Best Picks of 2012. (Release date – 01/01/13)

(24:35) We close the podcast with the music and video of  Mike Westendorf (www.mikewestendorf.com and mikewestendorf on Twitter) – Emmanuel Has Come

This very full WELSTech includes a countdown of ministry-tech milestones, an interview with Pastor Michael Schultz about his new call to head the production of the 2024 hymnal revision, news, picks and feedback. Don’t miss a minute of the WELSTech goodness!

Great moments in ministry tech history – Martin and Sallie look back in history at tech milestones that have had an impact on ministry including …

(29:55) New Hymnal Project Director – Pastor Michael Schultz recently accepted the call to head the new hymnal committee and joined Martin and Sallie to share details of the many facets of the project which will lead up to the 2024 publication.

(56:40) Episode 268 – Continuing the WELSTech Christmas tradition, Martin and Sallie are joined by Pastor Dan Koelpin, Administrator of the WELS Board for World Missions, for an interview-only podcast focusing on outreach in all four corners of the globe. (Release date – 12/25/12)

(57:50) We close the podcast with the music of  Revelation, a music ministry of Wisconsin Lutheran College (www.revelationwlc.com) – A Voice Cries Out

Listeners will enjoy this week’s WELSTech Podcast as we share ideas for great presentation storytelling, geek out with Martin’s Pick of the Week and uncover great treasure during our Community Feedback segment.

SUCCESs – Crafting the Story in the title of Chapter 4 of our current WELSTech book selection, Presentation Zen, by Garr Reynolds. Martin and Sallie explore the SUCCESs acronym for presentations and talk about the story boarding step of constructing great presentations.

(19:47) 6 Sets of Christmas Story Images from FreeBibleImages.org

(54:33) Episode 267 -Martin and Sallie share their take on great moments in ministry-tech history and talk with Pastor Michael Schultz, the Director of the New Hymnal. (Release date – 12/18/12)

(55:49) We close today’s WELSTech with the music of Joey Schumann and the Lutheran Ceili Orchestra (JoeySchumann.com | Joey on Facebook) – O Come, O Come, Emanuel

On this final WELSTech 7 Best countdown of 2012 we share Mobile Device (a.k.a. tablets & smartphones) Computing Tips covering productivity, security, and much more. Also on the podcast, there’s news from Google, a couple of live streamed Christmas concert opportunities and even a Pinterest-worthy infographic.

Make the most of your mobile device – Martin and Sallie countdown the best tips, accessories and apps for tablets and smartphones.

But we aren’t done with 7 Best list yet. Join us on January 1st for our 7 Best Picks of 2012!

(29:50) Gmail, meet Google Drive … and behold 10GB file transfers

(38:30) View the live stream of

(58:05) Episode 266 – We continue the current WELSTech book discussion of Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds, this time looking at Chapter 4, Crafting the Story. (Release date – 12/11/12)

(59:25) We close the podcast with the music of a new Japanese addition to our WELS artist lineup, Kaori Egawa – Angels’ Christmas Carol

This week’s classroom technology WELSTech Podcast is all about iPads. Gail Potratz shares her insights, we interview Jon Beilke and Nate Hochmuth from Salem in Greenfield, MN about their very recent implementation of iPads, and we even have iPad “Picks of the Week.”

The other side – On past education focused podcasts, we’ve spent a lot of time talking about Chromebooks in the classroom. Today Martin, Sallie and our semi-regular classroom technology correspondent Gail Potratz from Emanuel in New London, WI explore the ins and outs of 1:1 iPads in the classroom. Gail also shares some of the experiences of Kathy Brandt who uses iPads in her 3rd and 4th grade classroom at Pilgrim in Menomonee Falls, WI.

(18:26) iPads in WELS Education – Teacher Nate Hochmuth and Principal Jon Beilke from Salem in Greenfield, MN share their very new experience of 1:1 iPads in the 7th and 8th grade classroom.

(50:15) Check out the improved WELS Mobile beta site at m.wels.net.

(53:25) View the live stream of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary’s “Sing a Song of Christmas” concert on December 9th at 3:00 or 7:00 p.m..

(1:06:00) Episode 265 – Next week we wrap up our 7 Best series with a countdown of the 7 Best Mobile Computing Tips. Send us your favorites for the list by Sunday.  (Release date – 12/04/12)

(1:07:15) We  close the podcast with the music of Michael Schroeder (www.michaelschroeder.com and on Facebook) – The Reason For The Season

This week on the WELSTech Podcast we equip listeners to handle all those “slow computer” projects they may tackle over the Thanksgiving break. Guest host Dan Rebers from the WELS Information Services office lends his expertise in this area.

Thanksgiving tune-up – With the holiday break often comes the task of much needed computer maintenance. Martin and Sallie are joined by Dan Rebers from the synod Information Services office to discuss the Dos and Don’ts of upkeep of computer hardware and software.

(22:50) Memrise – Memory drill Web 2.0-style – Recommended by LifeHacker

(36:20) Coming up in December … 7 Best Mobile Computing Tips. Share your favorite hardware, apps and tips for a productive mobile experience.

(53:47) Episode 264 – Gail Potratz, tech coordinator at Emanuel in New London, WI, fills the WELSTech guest hosting chair next week as we talk iPads in education. We’ll also include an interview with Jon Beilke and Nate Hochmuth from Salem in Greenfield, WI about their recent implementation of 1:1 iPads in their 7-8 grade classroom. (Release date – 11/27/12)

(54:40) We close the podcast with the instrumental music of In His Service (www.adagioconcepts.com) – Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow

The WELSTech Podcast is full of surprises this week as we discuss the next chapter of our current book selection, Presentation Zen, Martin unboxes and boots up a brand new computer, and Sallie has the latest news from Pinterest!

Planning Analog – The third chapter of our current WELSTech book selection, Presentation Zen, by Garr Reynolds makes for an interesting discussion as Martin and Sallie talk about the benefits of “unplugging” for brainstorming your presentation. Also in this chapter are helpful guidelines for creating presentation handouts.

(15:38) Logos 5 Release

(49:50)  Live streaming of the WELS 2012 West Regional Choralfest

(50:39) Coming up in December … 7 Best Mobile Computing Tips. Share your favorite hardware, apps and tips for a productive mobile experience.

(1:02:57) Episode 263 – Join Martin and Sallie along with WELS Director of Information Services, Dan Rebers, for our Thanksgiving Week podcast as we share tips for PC (and Mac) maintenance. (Release date – 11/20/12)

(1:04:15) We close with the music of L. A. Miller – Your Peace

This week on WELSTech we countdown the 7 Best Video and Webconferencing Tools, useful for sharing the Good News from a distance. There’s also discussion of news in the tech world, a live streaming event and many great ideas from the WELSTech community.

We’re counting down again – This month’s 7 Best list focuses on video and webconferencing tools. These tools are great for anything which needs to get done at a distance – Bible class, meetings, tech support, etc. Martin and Sallie share a list of freebies that can take care of your needs.

Coming up in December … 7 Best Mobile Computing Tips. Share your favorite hardware, apps and tips for a productive mobile experience.

(33:25)  Live streaming of the WELS 2012 East Regional Choralfest

(47:19) Episode 262 – We continue the current WELSTech book discussion of Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds, this time looking at Chapter 3, Planning Analog. (Release date – 11/13/12)

(48:27) We close the podcast with the music of Corban Creek – Epitaph

Join us for a very special WELSTech Podcast as we span the globe with Martin joining from Hong Kong and guest host Jason Schmidt along with Sallie in the U.S. Our edtech chat this week covers the Moodle Learning Management System (LMS) as well as an interview with John Dorn about the Edmodo LMS.

Note: With our WELSTech Audio/Video Engineer (a.k.a., Martin Spriggs) out of the office exploring the opposite side of the world and presenting at a translator’s conference, today’s video podcast is posted in two parts – the primary show and the interview. We look forward to supplying the normal single video format upon Martin’s return.  Thanks for understanding!

Moodle mania – Jason Schmidt, Technology Coordinator at Bennington ISD in the Omaha, NE area and guest edtech correspondent for WELSTech, talks with Martin and Sallie about the popular open-source, free Learning Management System, Moodle.  Watch as Sallie demonstrates a Softaculous automated install of Moodle in under 3 minutes!

(15:20) Edmodo in action – Science and Technology Teacher John Dorn from Illinois Lutheran Schools in Crete, IL talked with Martin and Sallie recently about  his schools adoption of the Edmodo Learning Management System.  John shares tips and tricks he’s learned through training and experimentation with the system, such as setting up a consistent user naming scheme.

(59:19) Episode 261 – Martin and Sallie countdown the 7 Best Video and Webconferencing Tools for connecting with others. Note the special recording date and time (11/07/12 at 2:00 p.m. CST) means the podcast release will be delayed a bit.

(1:00:55) We close the podcast with the music of The Branches Band (www.branchesband.com|Facebook) – Nothing But the Blood