Group items tagged

I can agree with one of the don't use, we had our church with one of those before we moved to FinalWeb. We have been with FinalWeb for a few years and they have been slow to release responsive designs out. Their streaming service is affordable and solid. They do now have app options which I have seen but not explored.

@GoogleForWork tweeted this article about using fingerprint readers and phones to eliminate passwords on the web. This seems very plausible that we could see this become mainstream quickly, if Google were to acknowledge it by adoption. Especially would gain traction if Apple were to also return to the consortium mentioned.

Shared by Pastor Rob Guenther - I've often wondered why DVD's don't have a TV edit track. You'd think it would easy enough to add a track where the foul language is edited out just like they do on TV. I'd let my boys watch some PG-13 movies if they had such a track. Well, there may finally be a solution I've been looking for... VidAngel.com offers $1 movie rentals. Well, sort of. You pay the retail price of the movie (let's say $20) to get a digital copy and they promise to buy it back (in this case, for $19) within 24 hours. (Or for a $2 "rental" fee if you get HD instead of SD.) I think it works like Red Box in that if you don't return it in 24 hours, they buy it back for $1 (or $2 in HD) less the next day until you run out of "credit" and then you eventually own it for $20. Cool program. But... what I like even better is the filter options they give. You can choose to remove sex scenes or bleep out certain language. Then it shows you what you'll see and hear and the new length of your movie. I think this could work well for youth groups as well as for individual or family uses. I think I'm really going to like VidAngel. I can still be culturally current but without putting garbage into my head. I may ditch Netflix DVD for VidAngel soon.

Courtesy of Lifehacker, thought Sallie and her boys might be interested in this one.  Could probably find some "educational" games to play on here as well... maybe not :).

Guess what Ben's Forensics demo speech is on?? RPi, of course. Gotta spread the love. :-D

If anyone is interested in more details on how to use Wirecast they are hosting a free webcast on 2/10/2015.

"Why is my HP printer not connecting to my computer?" Is this the question on your mind right now? If so, you have arrived at the perfect destination to solve your problem! Even though there might be tons of reasons that lead to this issue, you need to zero in on the exact one. This will surely help in resolving the issue in the best possible way.

HT to Adam Reinhard, one of my students in an online class I'm teaching for MLC, for finding this one! I'm definitely going to make use of this...

ABOUT: A brief Bible "clip" to read, learn and take to heart... today. Current series: "100 Bible verses in 1 year." 1 daily e-mail @ 2 verses per week x 1 year equals 100 verses. The only Bible you truly have is the one you carry between your ears. (For memorization tips, click here.) Based on the book: "100 Bible Verses" by Robert J Morgan. "Daily Bible Clip" is written by Pastor Michael Ewart 

Thorough first look at the GFW (Winthrop, MN) public high school 1:1 iPad initiative

Interesting take on "go" in the great commission. Sallie - I tried and completely failed to figure out how to Pin this on the WelsTech board!

Smiling!! I'll get it there!

I have enjoyed this guy's blog for a few years. I got the Kindle version for on sale for $5.99 after the new year but haven't read it yet. The book is based on a productivity series he wrote last year that was very good. I'm looking forward to getting to it.

With cloud storage continuing to make progress as broadband continues to make inroads to more people and speeds increase, I hope features and transparency in using them grows. I have and use to various degrees iCloud, SkyDrive, DropBox, and Google Drive (used Insync for a while). My favorite is still DropBox and the space limitations are not an issue for most people. Speeds of Cloud storage will never be the same as LAN or WLAN speeds for large file storage, so frequent access to large files in the cloud is not a realistic possibility yet (ever?). While an argument could be made for backup, well I think CrashPlan, Mozy or Carbonite (as well as others) have that market covered. While I like the Arstechnica brief pros and cons (http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2012/04/cloud-storage-a-pricing-and-feature-guide-for-consumers.ars), I would love to see more in depth pros and cons from long term usage. iCloud for instance while great for iOS backup for our families 2 iPhones and 1 iPad, there is no transparent way to mount the iCloud volume for direct or cached data storage. On the other hand, the Shared folder on the Dropbox volume is nice for my wife and I to share working files across our two or three computers for work. Awesome. SkyDrive has a hook in MS Office which I have tested and works nicely, but it is limited in device support. GoogleDrive is really new, so I am still working through using it. I suspect this will continue to evolve over time.

A NY Times review of OnLive's cloud based virtualized Windows 7 PC with MS Office for which you pay a puny $5 a month and use from your iPad. Coming "soon" to smart phones, and, of most interest to churches and schools, to your local Mac or Windows PC. Faster than any physical desktop and using an ultra high speed internet connection, the OnLive PC will almost entirely eliminate the worst time and software costs of operating a Windows PC. Read David Pogue's NT Times review to learn about the benefits and draw backs of OnLive's implementation.

Looks very interesting Randy. Thanks for sharing. this looks very promising. Have you tried it? I just downloaded the iPad app and created an account so I'm going to give it a try.

Here's what I like about Pinterest: It's different than the other major social media players like Facebook and Twitter.  For an organization, it's less about pushing your own stuff and more about sharing your culture.  What makes your church unique in who it is? Or as Pinterest Co-founder Evan Sharp says, "For most consumer brands, the idea behind your brand makes sense on Pinterest." And it's also why this social media outlet could be useful for your church.  It's your chance to not just share yourself but share things you agree with or things that will be useful to your members or your community.

Wallwisher is a virtual wall to which one can add things. We will be using this link to post our thoughts and predictions on what will happen in the story "The One and Only Ivan," which we are reading for the Global Read Aloud. (It's blank right now (Friday) but we will be using it on Monday in class.) The site is in beta, but it's really easy to use.

Use this tool to allow people to book times on your Google Calendar.

Great tool - maybe a way to schedule conferences? I'll try it this fall and let you know how it goes!

Take a look at PicKATime for conference scheduling. Ours is up right now so you could look at it on our site - emanuelnl.org/school Works great and parents love it; not free through. $50 a conference. We think it is worth it. The secretary sets it all up and teachers have access and see their own scheduled conference times. I find youcanbook me works well for teachers setting up individual conference tmes with me for purposes of their tech growth planning throughout the year.

Useful for those who make use of ipads in the classroom as well.

One hour webinar with Jennifer Magiera, Chad Kafka, and Carolyn Skibba on how they are using "device agnostic" tools to transform their classrooms.

An interesting site which discusses illustrating the Bible along with providing links to sites which may provide some good Biblical graphics which might, depending on the copyright permissions of course, be useful for pastors, teachers, churches and church schools. (Check out the 2008 interview with one of my favorite modern Bible illustrators, Annie Vallotton.)

April 3 to 9 Olive Tree is giving away a Free e-copy of the ESV Bible which is one of the translations being considered for adoption by the WELS. Olive Tree's Bible Reader is my choice for lowest cost, richest features of available cross platform digital Bible Study tools. Nice paralleling of multiple translations along side original and nonenglish language editions (Greek, Hebrew, Latin, etc.). Large library of Bibles and commentaries to chose from. Better prices and far less blotted than Logos.