Piontek

=Jeff Piontek=

“The primary aim of education is not to enable students not to do well in school, but to help them do well in the life they will lead outside of school.” -Jeff Piontek

Jeff Piontek is an author, keynote speaker and educator. He has worked with many at-risk school districts nationally as a consultant on affecting educational change and reform. Pionteck sits on the National Governor's Association STEM committee as well as the State of Hawaii Economic Development Workforce Committee, which he was appointed by the Governor Linda Lingle. Recently, Piontek developed and is the head of the Hawaii Technology Academy. HTA is a Hawaiian Public Charter School and has performed at the top of the public schools in Hawaii its first year and doubled to 500 students in its second year.

Career

 * Began as a science teacher in South Bronx, New York City
 * Promoted to Director of Instructional and Informational Technology, New York City
 * Published "Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts, Oh My!: Electronic Media in the Classroom"
 * Hawaii State Workforce Developement Council - (member)
 * Director of Science Education for the Hawaii Department of Education
 * Recipient of "Governor's Innovation Award" for creating STEM programs
 * National Governor's Association STEM Committee - (member)

[|Piontek's homepage]

Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts, Oh My! : Electronic Media in the Classroom
Piontek's first book is an analysis of how to effectively use these new forms of digital communication for classroom purposes.

[|Electronic book preview]

Hawaii Technology Academy
The Hawaiian Technology Academy is a public charter school that combines the use of classroom and virtual learning through two separate learning facilities. This "hybrid" or blended model allows students face-to-face instruction, combined with learning time spent individually or in small groups away from the centers. HTA allows each child the use of their own personal laptop with Internet access, provided through the schools. The HTA takes advantage of their small student body and high-tech facility to integrate a unique curriculum which includes biology and physics lessons, exercised in their state-of-the-art virtual reality programs.

[|HTA's official website] [|Parent and Student HTA site]

[|HTA PROMO YouTube- "Education in the Future...NOW"]

STEM
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Thoughts
Jeff Piontek demonstrates an important facet to 21 century media usage and education, and that is the knowledge and understanding of the science and technology that goes into the creation and programming of the "things" we have grown to depend on in the digital era. Without the proper education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, how can we hope to equip future generations with the tools necessary to continue to improve upon existing technology and create new devices. Unfortunately, in order to become competitive in an exponentially growing, educated world market, the employment of people with both left and right brain functions, will be necessary to survive. I also find that the HTA is a unique concept that should be watched closely by other school systems. While maintaining an organized class structure and giving children a "Montessori" school experience exploring on their own using a computer with internet access, this "hybrid" education model utilizes the strengths of both learning styles. The technology allows the learning environment to be "free", yet extremely protected. When funding allows for larger public school to begin upgrading to this type of facility and developing curriculum to coincide with the technology, I see this as the future of K-12 education.

Rocky Smith

There is nothing better to convince someone than results. Piontek seems to have produced proof with his STEM based background and the Technology Academy he started in Hawaii. If you think about job descriptions at most job sites, they often include activities and working together, integrating various fields of expertise. Students should learn this way, as well. -Chris Gargasz

I really liked the Stem Education Widget that is posted on this page, and I thought that it's message was very powerful. Sometimes it takes a rude awakening like Hershey building their next plant in Mexico to realize that we need to open our eyes and see what's going on around us. If the U.S. has any hope of maintaining our position in the world economy, than we need to start really competing with other countries and nations. How do we do that? By teaching the future generation the tools they will need to be able to work in this ever growing technological world. I think Piontek has a lot to offer, and his message to us is that it's time to wake up and smell the coffee! -Christie

The HTA sounds amazing!! Even though it is a charter school, it would still take a lot of money and effort to get things going. I also believe that at this time, small groups is the most efficient way to teach students with such "freedom." -Andy Luciano