This is the January 2025 JALTCALL Podcasts Studio Talk with Brian Gallagher and Geoff Carr. This month we explore wellness and good practice when using our computer for long periods of time. Brian explains how to set-up your positioning and posture to avoid pain, and also we discuss some exercises to reduce health problems that come from overuse.
Part 2 explores professional development and the skills necessary going forward into the near future for teaching and learning. Recommendations for free and low-cost courses to improve your knowledge and skills, as well as some ideas for lifelong learning and places to find good resources.

January 2025 Part 1 Wellness and Part 2 Upskilling

JALTCALL Jan2025 StudioTalk Part 1

This month Geoff Carr and Brian Gallagher talk about "Applied Classroom AI". We explore include some ideas for teachers who are new to the AI scene and want some easy tips to implement AI into their classroom activities and we also suggest some tools that will hopefully make that easy to do for everyone. Geoff explains Judy Wang and John Gayed's Automated Writing Evaluation project and his own "Help Me Improve My Diary Writing Chatty" narrowly-focused chatbot. In section 2 we highlight some current goings on in Education around the world and some ideas on professional development that are happening in the United States, specifically the Play Approach, the DIY PD Approach, and Magic School .

April 2025 Studio Talk JALTCALL

Geoff Carr interviews Chris Fry from the EUROCALL AI SIG, where they discuss his research with speech-to-text technology (STT) and Turboscribe. A veteran teacher in Europe for many years, Chris turned his attention from ER to CALL and spends his time researching technology usage for both students and teachers. Formerly of the British Council Barcelona, EOI Barcelona Drassanes, Bell English School, and La Casa Inglesa, Chris is a graduate of mathematics and moral sciences. An alumnus of Cambridge, he briefly held his own podcast and currently posts ideas on LinkedIn and on his blog. Chris’ Profile linkedin.com/in/chris-fry-5945b7240

Chris Fry of EUROCALL interview w Geoff Carr

In this episode, Geoff Carr, Brian Gallagher, and Luc Gougeon preview CALL SIG presentations that will be happening at the 2025 PANSIG Conference at Kanda University of International Studies in Kaihinmakuhari, Chiba, from May 16th to 18th. We learn what exactly the PanSIG conference is and what is the theme for this year's conference is "Agency and Autonomy in Language Learning."
Presentations include talks on AI in Language Education, Learner Autonomy, Digital Tools, Critical Thinking, Academic Skills, and Intercultural Contexts. If you are featured in this episode, we hope that people will be attracted to your presentation and that it is a great experience for you. Please send us your comments and ideas on how we can improve what we do and support you in everything that you do. Enjoy the show.

May 2025 Studio Talk JALTCALL Podcast w Geoff Brian Luc

Brian Gallagher interviews Paul Raine of ZenGengo and EigoAI. In this episode they discuss his research and experience over the last 2 decades, including text-to-speech, automatic speech recognition, GenAI, and machine translation. As a veteran JALTCALL member since 2011, Paul has contributed in many ways to the EFL community in Japan and beyond. He has developed several web-based language teaching platforms, including Apps4EFL, ABAX LMS, ZenGengo, and now EigoAI, among others. Looking back on the last decade of CALL-related reports and applications, they discuss the technologies that go end-of-life very quickly and those that last the test of time. The problems of link rot and technology aging prompt companies to develop more robust systems and pave the way to better evolution of technology that optimizes the user experience. EigoAI will be the main sponsor at this year's JALTCALL Conference, where you will be able to meet and talk with Paul in person. We hope you take this great chance. This interview was recorded online in April 2025, prior to the PANSIG conference, with a few extra questions from Geoff Carr. Check out Paul Raine's work at https://zengengo.com, https://eigo.ai/ and paulsensei.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Paul Raine Interview w Brian G May 2025

In this episode Brian Gallagher interviews Gordon Wilson, Associate Professor at HanNan University in Osaka. Gordon is an amazing advocate for Artificial Intelligence research, and he presented a workshop at JALTCALL 2025 conference on exactly this entitled "Building Our Replacements: An AI-Driven, Personalized, Anytime, Anywhere Language Teaching Expert System" 
He talks about inspiration, inclusion, creation, analysis, interaction, knowledge boards, scarcities, and personalization, as well as development and digital companions.
His outlook on AI is incredibly positive and in stark contrast to more cautionary and conservative speakers we may have heard in recent times. His positivity is something that we all need a good dose of to counter the worry that many people have about AI, and he explains well the opportunities that we can have if we can be open to more ideas. In this recording he demonstrates how to harness the benefits of AI as a companion to our lives as an assistive technology with a live walkthrough of interactions with an artificial intelligence that he has been developing through oral conversation. A first for our podcast.
Enjoy the show.

Gordon Wilson and 2 AI Conversations, interview w Brian G Sept 2025

Japan association for Language Teaching (JALT) Computer Assisted Language Learning Special Interest Group. (JALTCALL)

Gordon Wilson and 2 AI Conversations, interview w Brian G Sept 2025

JALT CALL Podcasts