The Vision for InterpAcademy
A full-service learning platform for professional interpreters
I created this learning environment for a few reasons. I guess the biggest is that I am looking for a way to start passing on what I’ve learned about interpretation over the last forty-odd years (yes, count ’em). I won’t be at this work forever, and I feel passionate about what good interpretation looks like. I want to pass that on.
Over the last year, with all of this Covid madness, we’ve seen online learning really start to take off. I have seen some really cool stuff out there, and I’ve seen a lot of missed opportunities. Overall, I’d say that in the field of interpretation I’ve seen a lot of our principles and practices go right out the window with our pivot to online interpretation. Suddenly, it’s ok to talk at people for two hours solid; suddenly all the progress we’ve made toward dialogue, engagement, interactivity, audience agency and everything else has taken a giant step backward. With InterpAcademy, I want to show that it’s possible to really engage, using multiple forms of interpretive media, in the online environment.
Next Steps
I am hoping to set up a Council of Elders or Advisors for InterpAcademy who can help guide the future direction of the learning environment. I would like to have wise individuals—not necessarily elder in years—with knowledge in interpretation, online education, diversity and inclusion, social science, experiential tourism, and perhaps other fields. They would review the courses and offer their guidance on making the programs better. If you are one of those people, or would like to nominate someone, hit me up please.
Scaling Up
One of the things that excites me most about the project is that InterpAcademy is scalable. There’s potential for others to offer courses here; there’s potential for partnerships with organizations who can offer their own certification programs on this platform.
Going Multilingual
It has long bothered me that Canada has no bilingual interpretive organization; we have no conferences or social media or anything at all, really, to bridge the Two Solitudes. Some time in the next year, I am hoping to have this entire site in French and English, and eventually in Spanish.
Thoughts and suggestions?
If you have ideas or suggestions around where InterpAcademy could go in the future, please let me know in the social group Welcome to InterpAcademy. You can get access to that group by enrolling for the free Welcome to InterpAcademy mini-course.