[interview "we are the competent people"] Inge 'Ignatia' de Waard

The next interview is with Inge, or Ignatia as we know her from her blog and twitter. I've been following her blog for a long time and admire how she always makes such clear and complete posts (whereas I mostly 'dump and go'). She is a popular speaker at learning conferences and her work for the Antwerp centre for tropical medicine gets her to bring learning in places where most of us never do. She's heavily involved in mobile learning initiatives (such as moodle for mobile), augmented reality, etc. Always positive, always dreaming of the potential of learning in specific and human nature in general... Here is her interview.

Inge – aka Ignatia – de Waard, I am passionate about mLearning and educational innovations overall. I work at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Belgium. I collaborate with partners all over the world and I blog about what I do.


Bert: At what competence domain(s) would you consider yourself 'competent'?

Inge: Blogging, public speaking, screening technology for learning purposes and writing.

Bert: Describe moment(s) where you grew the most in a particular competence
domain.

Inge: For me, there are two moments of growth in any of my competency domains:
First: failures, tough failures. These are the moments when I learn the most in the shortest time. A strong failure gets me back on track, and gets me to look at the complete picture again, analyze all the factors and understand where improvements must be made.
Secondly: writing. Writing gets me completely immersed in content or research, and deepens my understanding. Writing helps me to organize my thoughts, to learn, and to plan actions.

Bert: How did you become good at what you do? How do you stay good?

Inge: Every couple of years I shift jobs, but really shift. In order to do this successfully I explore only those fields that I get passionate about. First I explore the field, secondly I write or blog about it, deepening my understanding and sharing my ideas with others, and thirdly I jump in and do it. The most important step is to jump in, Henry Rollins says it well . 

Bert: Do you care to share any tips for those who want to follow in your footsteps? What went well? What would have been even better if only...?

Inge: Share your thoughts and actions with others. And never take no for an answer, honestly never hold back if you feel you have a passion for something, go for it! People always tell you ‘you cannot do that’, ignore those voices, listen to your inner voice and go for it. When I first wanted to explore mobile learning, people thought I was mad and I could not get the money for it. So I went for it anyway, paying the first steps out of my own pocket. Actions get you where you want to be.

Bert: How do you recognize competent people?

Inge: By what they do, words are a medium, actions are uncut truth.

Bert: Do you see yourself doing something completely different five or ten years
from now?

Inge: Yes, my goal is to write a book: from cleaning woman to professor: just do it!

Bert: How would you categorize your professional network? Is it large, or do you
keep it small? Is it composed primarily of people you meet regularly face to
face, or is it very virtual, or any degree in between?

Inge: My professional network is medium in size I think (twitter, facebook, blog, skype…), and it is a mix between people I meet (smaller group) and people I have only met online (biggest group). The main thing is, I trust them and I know they are the experts, they are the brains. They push me into knowing more.

Bert: Describe your ideal environment to thrive in.

Inge: A challenging environment that mixes rationalism with humanism. A place where I can build learning projects with new technologies and… make the world a better place, meaning a place where education is accessible to all. A space where I have time to think and dream up new initiatives.

Bert: How do you feel about the 'self-reliant' professional? Do you find the evolution to 'self'; self-steering, self-succeeding or self-failing, ... a liberating evolution or one that rings alarm bells?

Inge: Tough question: I like the fact that a professional can have ‘self’-time and direction, a knowledge worker is a responsible worker. But on the other hand I feel that professionals are no longer alone, and as such the self should be in a network, connected to others. And I would like to see an ethical framework for us all as well, just to limit dictatorship.

Bert: How do you think your competence should be evaluated?

Inge: By the facts and the outputs.

Bert: Anything else for the world to know:

Inge: Be proud of what you do and who you are, and use technology to get even better.