This is 'The Year of Technology' at Georgia's Department of Education. But Nicholas Handville, Chief Data Officer, and Keith Osborn, Chief Information Officer and Deputy Superintendent of Technology Services, aren't only focused on improving bandwidth, governance, and access to devices. They are also managing a cultural change within their organization to up-skill their employees amidst their data modernization efforts. 

In this episode, Emily and Jason hear from these two leaders about the possibilities and challenges of these efforts; the state of cultural change among other State Education Agencies (SEA's); and how they measure success. 

Dr. Rick Burnette, interim CIO at Florida State University, and Dr. Dave Raney, CEO of Nuventive, share their expertise on building a data mindset. Throughout the conversation, they discuss the important distinction between data-informed and data-driven improvement; developing a value proposition for staff and faculty to integrate data; and using data evangelists to help make the case for a data culture across the university. 

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Representing a cross-functional team from Microsoft Education, Dr. Maria Langworthy, Dr. Geri Gillespy and Gene Garcia, share the rapid beginnings, immediate impact, and longterm goals of Open Education Analytics (OEA). OEA is an open source community with the aim of collaborating with education systems across the world to develop modern data intelligence capabilities. 

In this episode we also hear the stories of how OEA helped launched incredible digital transformations in school systems around the world from Nebraska to Tasmania to Helsinki, Finland. 

More information on Open Education Analytics can be found here.

"[Ed-Fi] believes that good data, timely, in the hands of a good teacher, can change the trajectory of a students life." More often than not, however, school districts used outdated methods of collecting and reporting data. In this episode, Troy Wheeler, President of the Ed-Fi Alliance, shares how states can technically and culturally adopt a data strategy for the 21st century. Through open source software, Ed-Fi lays a foundation to modernize K-12 data infrastructure, which impacts how teachers, districts, and leaders make decisions about what's happening in the classroom. 

John Rathje, Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer at Kent State University, shares his process for driving enterprise data culture at the university, including: building relationships with departments across the university; data governance; strategic communications and collaborations; and managing tensions while evolving of role of IT in universities. 

Ideate: Rethinking Data and Ai is released the first Monday of the month. 

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Welcome to a brand new Microsoft podcast called Ideate: Rethinking Data and Ai in Education. Over the last two years, we've seen tremendous growth in how primary and secondary schools, universities, and edtech companies leverage the power of data and artificial intelligence. Before we let the tech get ahead of us, we want to examine the human centered nature of these decisions. 

Co-hosts Jason Morales and Emily Kotecki will bring you conversations with leaders in the field about how they are fostering innovation in their organizations.

Ideate will be released the first Monday of each month and can be found wherever you listen to your podcasts. The first full episode drops Monday April 4.