1. Teacher-generated podcasts: Why? How? Is it worth it? Alec McAulay Yokohama National University Contact: tokyomcaulay@yahoo.co.jp for a full list of references tokyomcaulay@yahoo.co.jp

2. Why?  How can I get my students to study English outside of the classroom?  Podcasts for native speakers: difficult  Podcasts for ESL/EFL: uninspiring JALT-CALL 2007: Plenaries, June 2007 1.Levy: “…how technologies are used to solve problems and how important it is to separate the hype from the reality.” 2.Harada: “…using technology to facilitate student learning for themselves, by themselves and/or among themselves.”

3. JALTCALL 2007 (Tokyo) Harada: “Students are interested in me, and in each other.” Campbell: Flickr for low-level learners provides “[a] focus on content that is personally meaningful.” Walker & Kawana: Blogs as a simple but effective organisational tool All: The potential for interaction!

4. Teacher-generated podcast: rules  keep the concept simple  keep it relevant  make it accessible for all proficiency levels  encourage interaction  work with known software  don’t spend money  don’t spend too much time on it  evaluate language- learning outcomes

5. ynu5photos a. Interview people about 5 photos b. Keep it under 10 minutes c. Stream into 5 levels d. Authentic language e. End users can comment/ interact f. Students can be interviewees

6. How?  1. find interviewees  2. carry out interview  3. scan photos  4. edit/ convert with iMovie  5. upload to YouTube  6. create worksheet  7. upload to Savefile.com  8. upload photos to Flickr  9. post all the info on the blog  TOTAL: 2-4 hours

7. Is it worth it?  Class 1 (39s): Compulsory  Class 2 (27s) & 3 (16s): Voluntary  One class session in the CALL lab (Oct 2007) introducing ynu5photos  Some issues from the CALL lab class…

8. Computer literacy  ‘Sign up’ vs ‘Sign in’ (Flickr)  ‘Subscribe’ (Savefile)  ‘Activate’ (Savefile)  ‘Re-type’  Yahoo.com vs Yahoo.co.jp  ‘download file now’ (Savefile)  Students email with mobile phones, not computers  Student aversion to English-only sites

9. Self-access  Number of students from Classes 2 & 3 using the podcast (N=43) 1 Willing (1988): I like to study English by myself (alone) - 3% (N=517) Wacholtz (2003): I like working alone in the classroom - 78% (N=134)

10. Intergrated use (Class 1) Four students who have completed the required workload: Definitely continue using - 1 Will continue if teacher checks - 3 4 Listening 5-6 times to each podcast 4 Content is familiar and interesting 4 Listening ability has improved 8Want the answers and/or script 8Can’t rewind on YouTube Littlewood (1996): a. Asian learners expect teachers to assess learning b. motivated to do language tasks with clear practical value

11. Is it worth it (teacher)?  Brown (2007): Extensive listening in EFL (N=48)  Reading only: 40 %  Reading-while-listening: 58%  Listening only: 2%  Lack of IT support on campus  The benefits of CMC versus face-to-face communication  Time

12. Closing comments: trends and directions  Structured, semi-structured or unstructured (“the answers”)?  Potential for interaction: domestic, international?  Better worksheets?  Error correction?  ynu5photos: In its infancy, or time to let the sun go down on this one?