Sophia Founder to Discuss the Emerging World of Social Teaching at SALT Interactive Technologies Conference

MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Don Smithmier, founder and CEO of Sophia, will discuss the Emerging World of Social Teaching at 3:30 p.m. on August 18 at the Interactive Technologies Conference, hosted by the Society for Applied Learning Technology (SALT). The event, which will take place August 17-19, is designed to provide a comprehensive overview of the latest research, design and development of technologies in education, job performance improvement systems and knowledge management systems.

Sophia is a first-of-its-kind online social teaching and learning platform that offers academic content to anyone, anywhere, free of charge. The site, which has been described as a mashup of Facebook, Wikipedia and YouTube focused solely on education, currently offers 1,500 learning packets that provide instruction on a variety of subjects including math, English, science and more – all in an ad-free environment. The site launched publicly in March and has generated users from 147 countries and more than 1,400 education institutions.

"We know students are using technology…the question is how do we meet them where they are and provide organized, credible and interesting content that excites them about learning?" said Smithmier. "We want to connect people who want to learn with people willing to teach by offering a place where information can be shared."

The three-day conference will offer presentations on a variety of topics including blended learning, eLearning, social media, knowledge management and mobile computing.

About Sophia

Sophia is a social teaching and learning application that makes free, credible academic content available to anyone at anytime. It is a mission-driven organization that aims to break traditional cost and access barriers to post-secondary degree attainment. For more information, go to www.sophia.org.

SOURCE Sophia