076 – Where’d My Bowling League Go?

This week the WELSTech podcast discussion focuses on real-time, face-to-face fellowship challenges and ways technology can assist.

The discussion:

Declining social capital – Martin and Sallie discuss chapter 8 of Clay Shirky’s book Here Comes Everybody titled “Solving Social Dilemmas”.  The decline of “social capital” has effected congregations and schools as they experience the difficulty of getting people together for fellowship, but the good news is there are ways technology can assist in connecting people.

• Meetup.com – Find a niche group to meet face-to-face

New Technology Showcase:

(18:30) Google Wave – A developing communication tool

• wave.google.com – Watch the announcement video, take a sneak peek and sign up for news
• A Complete Guide from Mashable
• Questions and Answers from Lifehacker

Picks of the week:

• (25:46) Essential Free Windows Downloads from Lifehacker
• Epson Workforce 600 All-In-One Printer

Announcing BWTG:

(31:50) Something new – Bonus WELSTech Goodness (BWTG)

• Mid-week mini “how-to” episodes set to launch on Monday, June 22nd
• Look for Episode 077 – BWTG: Google Calendars

Community feedback:

• (35:00) Gail Potratz from Emanuel in New London, WI asked about twitter hashtags, left a voice mail about using iGoogle for her Personal Learning Network and shared a link to her Twtpoll
• Jason Schmidt from Gethsemane in Omaha, NE tweeted several tech goodies
  • Free educational videos from neoK12
  • Book Adventure free reading motivation program from Sylvan
  • Dropbox referral
  • Flowgram to close
• Sallie shared a link to an article on Scareware from USA Today
• Check out the WELSTech listserve archives for recent discussions on
  • Video sources
  • MIDI resources
  • Installing XP on newer computers
• John Shoosmith from Redeemer in Yakima, WA created a “copyright friendly” scripture recording

Coming up on WELSTech:

(48:08) Episode 078 – Next Wednesday’s topic will be “Twitter in Education” with guest host Gail Potratz and interviewee/teacher/twitterer, Jason Schmidt

The featured artist:

(49:21) This week we close with music of WELS musician Stephen Bautista (www.stephenbautistamusic.com) – Brand New Day from his CD with the same title

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