Rob Jones
“How did I get here?” A question I ask myself from time-to-time! After graduating in with a degree in Business Studies and not much of a clue what to do next, I found myself working in a job which was rewarding neither financially or spiritually. One day, I decided that enough was enough and it was time to do what I really wanted to do which was teaching. Eating French pancakes (crêpes) with my students on a trip to Paris.
After completing a post graduate certificate in secondary education in Edinburgh and a short spell working in mainstream schools, I started working at the Royal Blind School as a teacher of Business Studies and Economics. That was in 1993 and I have been there ever since!
These past 13 years have proven to be exciting years in the education of children and young people with a visual impairment. The move from DOS to Windows, diversification of computer applications beyond word processing to include spreadsheets, databases and even PowerPoint and, of course, the Internet.
It was clear from an early stage that the Internet had captured the imagination of the students and was something which needed support. Running an early morning Internet club for a group of students lead me to the discovery of Sonokids. One student asked if she could send a poem in for inclusion on the site. We did and the rest is, as they say, history.
The teaching of Internet skills to pupils with little or no vision has occupied a significant proportion of my time as a teacher. A proud moment came in 2005 when small group of students won an international competition website competition using Max from Sonokids. The website aims to inform and challenge young people with a visual impairment to take advantage of the opportunities which exist for them so that they can play a full and active part in society.
Today I am proud to be a member of the Sonokids team, working to achieve shared goals of an inclusive web-based community for children and young people.
In addition to my work with Sonokids, I am also a coordinating member of a European network of educators committed to developing and sharing best practice in the education of children and young people with multiple disabilities and a visual impairment. Through MDVI Euronet, I have been involved with a number of EU funded projects which have brought together schools and organisations for the visual impaired from many different EU nations to achieve common goals.