ASLI Webinars are proving very popular. On 15 May Adam Schembri from the University of Birmingham presented some of the findings of the BSL Corpus project. The relationships between generation, community roots and sign choices gave us all much to consider and the insights gleaned will undoubtedly be reflected in our practice. The webinar was full, and a few members who contacted training@asli.org.uk in the late afternoon found that there were no places available. The members who participated will receive CPD Certificates for 1 hour and a copy of Adam’s powerpoint presentation.
Next webinar dates
The next webinar is scheduled for 5 June at 10.00am when Kirri Dangerfield will present the research on self-reflective practice from her Masters work at Macquarie University, which was published in the Journal of Interpretation. You can access the article at http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/joi/vol25/iss1/3/ and be prepared with questions and comments for Kirri. Several members have already emailed training@asli.org.uk to book their places so do drop an email requesting a place without delay if you’re interested in attending.
At the end of June (28 June at 8.30pm) Rachel Mapson will be presenting her research into the impact of continuity of interpreter service provision on the success of interpreting events. Rachel presented her work at the ASLI Conference in Newcastle last October and it was very well attended. Don’t miss out! There is already a list forming of members who wish to participate.
How do I join a webinar?
For those who are not familiar with the process for joining the webinars, we’ve tried to make it simple. Send an email to training@asli.org.uk expressing your interest and, if required, requesting the event be interpreted. You will receive a reply letting you know that your name has been added to the list of participants and the date to expect an invitation email with the link to join. ASLI is committed to making these events to all our members, but it is key that we have 2 full weeks’ notice to source and book interpreters.
Free of charge webinar events are part of your benefit package as members, therefore on receipt of your email the list of members is checked to ensure that your membership is active. The invitation email goes out approximately one week before the event. If you have requested a place and you don’t receive the invitation email by 5 working days before the event please contact training@asli.org.uk without delay to ensure that your place is confirmed. Places are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis and are very popular, so to avoid disappointment do get your requests in early.
Expanding on the training in the regions
Regional reps and training reps take heed! The webinar presentations are only an hour including Q&A and discussion. Webinar presenters resident in the UK have indicated that they would be willing to do training with regional groups. If you contact training@asli.org.uk we can put you in touch with the webinar presenters so that you might take advantage of your training budgets and book them for your regional meetings.
Building your CPD portfolio
Your Board is working with the developers of your new website to create CPD on demand and we plan to record the webinars in order to include them. Representing you at the Practitioners’ Forum, we plan to suggest that, with appropriate evidence, participants who ask questions and/or contribute to the discussion portion of the webinars can receive an extra CPD ‘hour’ for engaging with the process. Participants might also wish to reflect on presentations they’ve attended and prepare a short article for newSLI as another way of building a CPD portfolio to meet registration renewal requirements for NRCPD. Of course, such reflective articles would also be useful for student and associate members to support their learning.