Educators from 20 school districts across the Lancaster-Lebanon IU 13 region gathered at East Allegheny to explore a cutting-edge learning environment where students are able to expand their learning and travel space and time in an immersive space. Visitors stepped into various learning spaces and challenged students using the accompanying active floor.

East Allegheny leaders emphasized that the region, once a steel-producing powerhouse in the Monongahela Valley, is now reimagining itself as a hub of innovation and educational transformation.

“With wanting to continue to create engaging academic spaces, we used the balance of the ESSER funding to build out the immersive reality space here and at the elementary school,” explained district superintendent Joseph DiLucente.

Guests moved through the immersive space and the active floor, interacting alongside East Allegheny students who served as guides and co-learners.  “Where we are now is iterating and tinkering,” said junior and high school principal Dr R. J. Long. “This isn’t a ready-made curriculum but a lab for innovation.” Approximately 10% of the junior and senior high school faculty have become early adopters and are dedicating time for lesson design and integration with the new block schedule.

Innovation Meets Engagement

The immersive tools are also part of a broader strategy to combat chronic absenteeism. “We believe that getting kids into buildings that have spaces like this one is one of the reasons why we have seen such an improvement in attendance,” explained Dr Long.

Meanwhile, the district is collaborating with regional partners, including Chatham University, Zycom, Immersive Reality USA, and neighboring districts, to build a network for content creation, peer sharing, and professional development. This collaborative effort will result in more standards-aligned content for teachers to explore and use to engage students in their respective subject areas.

“We look forward to continuing to grow student interaction with this technology through these valuable partnerships,” said Mr. DiLucente. “We are grateful for this opportunity, and we look forward to being at the forefront of emerging technology. Our students deserve to be a part of these exciting prospects!”

During the visit, representatives from Zycom Inc., the local technology firm that built out the immersive space, were on hand to answer technical and logistical questions, and to show visiting educators how the infrastructure works. Also present was Immersive Reality USA, a company based in Fargo, ND, whose owner, Gareth Walkom, joined the event to discuss national trends in immersive learning technology and how K–12 schools are adapting the tools.

A New Kind of Classroom Experience

Built with funding from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund—a federal program that provided grants to states to support K–12 schools during the COVID-19 pandemic—the space is designed to offer multisensory, tactile, and interactive learning experiences. Students can step into virtual worlds without headsets, touch walls that respond to movement, and complete activities on a floor-level interface that encourages physical engagement.

As the day concluded, visiting districts departed not only with a tour but also with insights and inspiration. East Allegheny’s immersive reality space is more than a room filled with screens; it represents a bold vision: in a region once defined by steel, the future of education is being forged.