Longview Offers Virtual Reality In After-School Program

BREWSTER, NY — Longview School in Brewster is launching an after-school program in February that will include virtual reality and game-based learning platforms.

It will be open to all students in 5th to 10th grades, both in Brewster and the surrounding community. It will run in 8-week increments, three days each week, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.

In addition to its new virtual reality program and its current Minecraft curricula, Longview will also offer a class in painting and drawing in its new art and maker space (constructed in the fall of 2020).

With the support of the Vela Education Fund, which is dedicated to reimagining education, Longview will be able to offer scholarships.

"Longview has been pioneering the use of technology in the classroom for much of its 20+ years of operation," said school co-founder and Director Mark Jacobs.

For example, over the last three years, Longview has offered a Minecraft elective. Minecraft is a program with a variety of game modes, including ones focused on the creative development of houses, buildings, and towns as well as the development of interactive adventures in a wide range of worlds. The students create and abide by a fair set of rules, learn math, physics and engineering concepts like how to design buildings and automate tasks, and collaborate on tasks that also connect to the school's social studies and Social Emotional Learning curricula.

The course will be modified for the after-school program.

But Longview’s most unique offering will be its new Virtual Reality Program. With a grant from the Vela Education Fund, Longview purchased 10 Oculus Quest 2 headsets and hired staff to design a program that, although it will be held in Longview’s gym, will mostly exist in a variety of virtual worlds. The program’s curriculum is based upon individual and group intellectual, physical, and socio-emotional development.

• For physical development, programs such as Beat Saber, Pong, Echo VR, and Eleven Ping Pong will be used.
• For intellectual development, programs such as Space: Apollo 11, Mission ISS, The Room VR, Red Matter, The Spy and the Liar, and Do You Copy will be used.

Through the development of challenges, and the establishment and movement through roles in group quests, students will not only develop individually but socio-emotionally as well.

With a virtual reality headset, like the Oculus Quest 2, you are able to enter a virtual world created by computer programmers and world designers. Although the idea is not new, the latest developments are:

• Virtual worlds have reached the point where they have become extremely realistic;
• Virtual reality technology is cheaper than it has ever been. The cost of the technology has come down so far that fully immersive headsets such as the Oculus Quest 2 can be purchased for under $300.

But is VR “good?”

Longview School has a long history of embracing emerging technology. Rather than just allowing it to be used however kids see fit, the school has adapted technology in order to support both the academic and social-emotional needs of students, Jacobs said.

"What will be the future of Virtual Reality? The truth is that nobody knows," he said. "What we do know is that old models of learning based on fact retention do not prepare students to meet the rapidly changing landscape of the modern world. Students need deep engagement in their learning experiences that helps them build crucial critical-thinking and social-emotional skills that they apply in a range of contexts. Virtual Reality technology can be an integral part of 21st century education."

As a prototype after-school program, enrollment will be extremely limited. For more information and to register, go to the After School Program tab on the Longview School website.