“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” -Charles Darwin

I attended Donnell Kay’s hot lunch last Friday to hear Jeff Piontek speak on blended learning and the success he has seen through his work leading Hawaii Technology Academy (HTA). At HTA, students only have to show up for two days a week, and complete the rest of their coursework at home online, with the help of a parent or by digitally seeking help from a teacher.

Through my experience teaching high school, e-mail and text messaging did open up gateways to instruction and communication in ways that prompted students who were traditionally hesitant to ask questions in front of their peers (or stay after class) to speak up. Or should I say, type up.

Piontek has been instrumental in developing partnerships with multiple organizations and individuals in order to enhance the blended learning education at Hawaii Technology Academy. As a retirement mecca, Hawaii offers a unique range of individuals who can be called upon as valuable resources.

Piontek noted working with the creator of Tetris to write a software program allowing students to create games to meet science and other instructional standards. I recall programming games like digital MASH in my sophomore pre-Calc class or graphing cartoons using conic equations; needless to say, these were not assigned by my teacher. Harnessing the interest and savvy that teenagers have for digital media, using it to drive instruction at high levels of Bloom’s taxonomy, and offering marketable technological skills seems like more than a win-win, it seems vital to preparing students for success in this digital age.

Indeed, Piontek cited Moore’s law and quoted Einstein’s “Imagination is more important than knowledge” in support of the transition. He emphasized the need for education to adapt to the economy. Because schools were originally designed to prepare students to go primarily into Agriculture or Working sector jobs, but now a majority of jobs are in the Creative and Service sectors, clearly it’s time for a change.

At our weekly Get Smart Schools fellowship session last Thursday, Piontek also joined us for some informal discussion. As far as a quick change for teachers, he swears by having students create blogs as opposed to turning in hard copies of papers or reports, thus allowing students’ peers to join the teacher in commenting on the draft to make suggestions for revision.

“Students will write one way for their teacher, they’ll write another way for their peers, and a whole other way for a global audience,” said Piontek.

At the same time, Piontek agrees with most other blended learning experts, that such digital integration is best done starting at or after third grade, so that students can develop strong basic literacy and numeracy foundations.

HTA’s student performance results well exceed their district counterparts and continue to increase. The model also allows the school to offer an impressive list of elective courses: Ukulele, Glee, Hawaiian Studies, 4 languages, and several others. This approach also seems more conducive to preparing students for the autonomy and independence necessary to succeed in college.

“We must prepare learners for their future, not for our past.” -David Thornburg

I think this calls for a school visit to the Pacific Islands.