Happy National Lutheran Schools Week! Do you want to hear why our students love attending our school? Click here and follow the link to the first grad...

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Saturday I had the privilege of attending Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation -- a single day conference which drew over 200 participants, primarily public school teachers, to discuss technology and education. It was a fascinating and beneficial day. You may view some of the conversations here.

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I've been intrigued by the educational possibilities of Wordle, an online site which converts text into beautiful word clouds. The service works by pasting text or a link into the creation tools, and a word cloud will result. Here is a cloud from President Obama's inaugural address.

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Don't forget to check out and participate in the Online Conference for 21st Century Lutheran Education, being held for the first time this week, Thursday through Saturday. You may participate live in the scheduled sessions, or view archived content at a later time.

There are many sessions of interest to teachers in Lutheran schools. Here are some of the highlighted sections:

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I spent some time over breakfast earlier this week with a dynamic business owner/leader from our congregation. My goal was to get a sense of whether our school and program is on target with our 21st Century Skills emphasis in providing our students the opportunity to build practical skills which will serve them will in their lives outside of formal education.

The good news is that the session served as an affirmation of much of what we are doing at Shepherd of the Hills Christian School in preparing our students for THEIR future, and not OUR past. However, the challenge we face in seeking to incorporate the building of practical skills within the core curriculum promises to be a long-term, almost never-ending, project. Working to best position our students in new ways is going to require ongoing vigilance and hard work. It will also require the commitment of the entire educational staff, not just one person.

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One thing which I have been reading about recently is how search queries are really an open door to the mind of the searcher in showing what is import...

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I didn't realize that Luther and I had so much in common. (smiles!)

Over time with the help of others I've built a series of questions that may be used for reviewing the infrastructure, technology curriculum, staff dev...

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I read a number of educational technology and educator blogs regularly, including Remote Access.  A recent post got me thinking about the "busine...

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Kevin from Faith Lutheran, Las Vegas put together an exceptional blog post concerning issues with cheating in schools and long-term implications, espe...

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Here are some reflections on the past week -- some coherent, and some perhaps not! I was reminded again that illness may be one experience which God ...

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Here is an article from The Economist that is making me dizzy as I ponder all the changes in our world. The cell phone is poised to become the primary method for connecting, and staying connected, to the Internet. What are the implications for education, ministry, and society?

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Yesterday I made the 16 hour drive from NECC in San Antonio back home. There was plenty of time during the day to reflect upon our country and the blessings of our Lord through the country in which we live. While these reflections don't necessarily have anything to do with technology and education, I do feel compelled to share them nonetheless:

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Regular readers of LutheranTech know that the focus of this blog tends to be on technology, education, and ministry. But there are times when larger ministry issues are on my mind, spurring thoughts that I believe might have value for the larger group of Lutheran educators. Clearly there is a great deal of angst in our country over rising gas prices and the entire economic picture. Lutheran schools, especially those who are almost entirely tuition based in their funding, are feeling the pinch as they seek to maintain enrollment targets and meet budget strictures. However, it is during unsettling times such as these that opportunities for ministry and service often emerge, and Lutheran schools, churches, and related ministries are uniquely prepared to respond to those who are unsettled by life in 2008 and looking for a firm foundation in uncertain times.

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OK....the title is a cheap play on words from the title of a popular Christian book, but it really is appropriate for this post.

Friday was our last day of school for the 2007-2008 term. As a result, my thoughts are turning to more creative and futuristic themes -- themes which get shoved aside when the school year gets busy. One of these thoughts is working through a more intentional analysis of our current church/school website and working on improving this essential ministry tool.

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The Post-American World is a volume that is getting a lot of buzz in the media and blogosphere these days. This book, written by Newsweek correspondent Fareed Zakaria, studies the fundamental changes taking place in the realms of economics and geopolitics taking place in the world today. The quotes which I've read make it seem like this book is almost a natural follow-up volume to The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman. I cannot wait to get a full copy of the book in my hands. In the meantime, here are a few quotes from the book, as compiled by the Two Million Minutes blog:

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I am sitting at the Denver airport awaiting my flight to Minneapolis for the LEA Convocation. I am thankful for the free wifi here in the gate area for it allows me to pass the time productively.

I will be a part of the Technology Share-a-Thon at the pre-conference technology session on Thursday morning. I will be introducing our multi-class wiki and discussing how wikis might be used in education. There is such potential for using this tool for collaboration in bringing Lutheran schools and our students together. In case you are interested and not able to attend the Convocation, or if you are not able to attend this session, presentation slides and notes may be found here.

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A lot of what I write about in this blog relates specifically to education. There are many ways in which I've used streaming video, such as through United Streaming or even YouTube or TeacherTube, for education. But on Saturday I experienced the blessing of streaming video in another way.

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Yesterday we had a day off from school to attend our district's annual Nurturing the Faith seminar. The session is designed to build our faith and relationship with Jesus amidst the busy times of the

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I've noticed that Tim S. has begun a new blog -- Toward One Witness . Judging from the initial posts, I believe we will all benefit from Tim's pointed reminders about technology ultimately being a

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