Episode #176: "I Have SOMETHING To Say" with special guest, Adam Mangana

<p><span data-ogsc="black" data-ogsb="white">The education system is broken. Once designed to standardize humans to become a workforce pipeline that met the demands of industrialization, it just doesn’t work anymore the way it is.</span></p> <p><span data-ogsc="black" data-ogsb="white">Thankfully, Adam Mangana, Chief Innovation Officer and Co-Founder of OptimaEd has developed a solution currently being implemented in Florida, and he joins me in this episode of I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY to talk about it in detail. He shares how he became a pioneer in creating Education Experiences using 3D immersive spaces, solving challenges presented by using 20<sup data-ogsc="">th</sup> Century teaching methods in a 21<sup data-ogsc="">st</sup> Century world. The biggest challenge is making sure our kids are Future Ready because the future is now.</span></p> <p><span data-ogsc="black" data-ogsb="white">Adam is an educator with almost two decades of experience in education technology and creating teaching standards aligned with virtual reality curriculum, culminating with the launch of Optima Academy Online. It’s a tuition-free online school serving students grades K-9 in the Sunshine State with over 4,000 highly interactive modules that provide learning experiences in 3D environments where students can learn (meaning inside it, virtually) with either the real-time guidance of a real teacher as an avatar or in a self-paced format.</span></p> <p><span data-ogsc="black" data-ogsb="white">Optima has also secured funding to provide the hardware to all students – FOR FREE, delivering equitable access to advanced technology to historically disenfranchised communities. </span>“In addition to self-paced and teacher-led coursework, students are able to learn by experiencing the moment in history from the perspective of the person who lived it by stepping into their avatar,” says Adam. He adds, “It brings into the fold the opportunity to cultivate empathy throughout the learning experience.”</p> <p>After realizing there was not much researc