Sophia, the Greek word for wisdom, is a new social learning and teaching platform created by Don Smithmeier. We had the pleasure of attending a forum about Sophia at Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) studios in downtown St. Paul. An hour-long lively discussion was hosted by MPR's Keri Miller on the pros and cons of technology in education. The audience was a mix of teachers, school administrators, superintendents, students, elementary-age kids, grad students in process of obtaining their Masters in Education and other interested citizens. One thing everyone agreed upon is that technology is here to stay and schools need to find ways to integrate it into their lesson plans to enhance their abilities to reach students.
Here are some of the comments made that evening:
“Sophia meets kids where they are at…they sometimes have a short attention span and the learning packets are just long enough to hold their attention.” (Teacher from Minneapolis)
“What if I could become part of a learning circle…to contribute and be part of a web of support for each child…that would be phenomenal.” (Audience member)
“It fits with the conversations we are having as education leaders that we need to have mobile learning, 24/7, it should be paperless and we need to flip our classrooms where we don’t need 10,000 teachers across the country teaching each concept in their own way every day. We would gain more time in the classroom because we are talking about having homework done at school and schoolwork done at home. (Superintendent of West St. Paul Schools)
One of the most significant endorsements of Sophia came from two young 4th graders who spoke up about the virtues of Sophia and how cool it is using the online flashcards and packets. Sophia's public release is scheduled for beginning March but you can check out the beta now.
Check out the full audio here:
