E-Charter School to graduate six
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Staff Writer
When Hawai'i E-Charter School first opened last August, offering education through cyberspace, some of the students didn't have basic computer skills. Or a computer.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
That was just one of the problems as the state's first virtual school struggled to get under way.
Ninth-grader Bryson Marchant, left, his brother, Brett, and Mariah Hugho receive their schooling on the Internet through the Hawai'i E-Charter School. They study at home and, occasionally, in an office on 22nd Avenue.
They've come a long way.
The school will graduate its first students today. A graduating class of six will receive regular, old-fashioned paper diplomas — not virtual ones — when they walk across the stage at the Sheraton Waikiki. They are the first Hawai'i high school students to have completed their course work solely via computer — even though it was only for their last year.
"These kids became savvy very quickly," said Elizabeth Blake, interim director for the school.
"They're very inquisitive. Technology holds their attention because it's a challenge to them."
The students who didn't have computers were handed borrowed laptops and received computer lessons before heading home to their virtual classrooms.
But the learning wasn't limited to the students. The school had some learning to do, and it will make adjustments for the fall semester, Blake said.
There will be more face-to-face contact between students and teacher, students will have instant feedback when working, those having problems with the unstructured environment will have more class time and every student will be assessed for reading ability and trained, using technology, to improve.
Before being allowed to work from home, students will have to go to a center where they will be monitored as they work online. Teachers, using different delivery methods such as video or posting of lessons, will teach the courses. "Support technicians," or tutors, will be at the center to help students. Only after the school has determined that students can handle the courses independently will students be allowed to work from home.
Some families have agreed to open their homes in the evening where three to five students can meet with a tutor to go over lessons.
E-Charter student Brett Marchant, 16, said some of the changes have already been implemented, and he's glad because the school didn't get off to a good start.
"We didn't find out how our school worked until late October," said Marchant, who had spent his freshman year with an online school based in Pennsylvania. "But now we're going to make the school really good. We're going to transition from a Web-based format to more interactive things with actual face-to-face teachers and student."
Hawai'i is considered a leader in virtual learning, and the Department of Education has offered individual courses online through its E-School program for several years. Hawai'i is one of only 12 states that established a virtual high school — the E-Charter School — according to Education Week.
E-Charter School has no campus. No classrooms. No paper. Teachers and students meet only in cyberspace. Lessons and assignments are posted on Web sites. Homework is turned in electronically.
If students need help, they contact the teacher by telephone or e-mail.
The school had 67 students this year.
For students in remote areas, e-learning increases their choice of classes. For some it's a way to take classes at home at odd hours to earn extra credits and graduate on time. For still others, it's a way to reach students who may respond better to nontraditional teaching methods.
What E-Charter offers is strategies for a variety of student types, including fast learners, technically and scientifically oriented students and students who prefer online lessons to classroom experience. Some of them are enrolled in college courses while completing high school requirements, at no extra cost to parents, Blake said.
With an allocation from the state of $3,500 per student, about $2,000 less than public schools per child, E-Charter is at a disadvantage, said Blake.
"It's been difficult (because of the money limits), but we're here to stay because the parents realize they need to put their kids in a different learning environment," Blake said.
Besides the straight online classes, the school has an Ocean Learning Academy, focusing on science and ocean voyaging, and the Magnet E-Tech Academy, which will become Learning Innovative Future Technology, a pre-engineering program that allows the school to evaluate a child's talents in animation, graphic arts and engineering.
Marchant said he enjoys the flexibility of an online school, but spends about the same amount of time doing his studies that he would at a public school.
Socially, E-Charter is not much fun, even though his brother is also enrolled, Marchant said. Students got together only for field trips. But Marchant said he is able to satisfy social needs as a member of a swim team and at church activities.
The unique style of education attracted him to the school, and once he learned to manage the freedom and develop self-discipline, he said he was successful. But that style of education isn't for everyone, Marchant said.
"I can't see everyone I went to school with making this school work," he said. "There's been several students who said, 'I can't handle this anymore, it's too complicated.' "
Some of the things Marchant said he likes about the school is he can get an update of his grades every day and he can redo an assignment if he turns the work in before the due date and gets a poor grade.
Oh, yeah, tests are rare, he said. And nobody knows if you use your book.
Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.
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