Interview with Belén Gancedo, Director of Education at Microsoft Ibérica

Open data is not only a matter of public administrations, more and more companies are also betting on them. This is the case of Microsoft, who has provided access to selected open data in Azure designed for the training of Machine Learning models. He also collaborates in the development of multiple projects in order to promote open data. In Spain, it has collaborated in the development of the platform HealthData 29, intended for the publication of open data to promote medical research.

We have interviewed Belén Gancedo, Director of Education at Microsoft Ibérica and member of the jury in the III edition of the Aporta Challenge,focused on the value of data for the education sector. We met with her to talk about the importance of digital education and innovative data-driven solutions, as well as the importance of open data in the business sector.

Complete interview:

1. What challenges in the education sector, to which it is urgent to respond, has the pandemic in Spain revealed?

Technology has become an essential element in the new way of learning and teaching. During the last months, marked by the pandemic, we have seen how a hybrid education model - face-to-face and remotely - has changed in a very short time. We have seen examples of centers that, in record time, in less than 2 weeks, have had to accelerate the digitization plans they already had in mind.

Technology has gone from being a temporary lifeline, enabling classes to be taught in the worst stage of the pandemic, to becoming a fully integrated part of the teaching methodology of many schools. According to a recent YouGov survey commissioned by Microsoft, 71% of elementary and middle school educators say that technology has helped them improve their methodology and improved their ability to teach. In addition, 82% of teachers report that the pace at which technology has driven innovation in teaching and learning has accelerated in the past year.

Before this pandemic, in some way, those of us who had been dedicating ourselves to education were the ones who defended the need to digitally transform the sector and the benefits that technology brought to it. However, the experience has served to make everyone aware of the benefits of the application of technology in the educational environment. In that sense, there has been an enormous advance. We have seen a huge increase in the use of our Teams tool, which is already used by more than 200 million students, teachers, and education staff around the world.

The biggest challenges, then, currently, are to not only take advantage of data and Artificial Intelligence to provide more personalized experiences and operate with greater agility, but also the integration of technology with pedagogy, which will allow more flexible, attractive learning experiences and inclusive. Students are increasingly diverse, and so are their expectations about the role of college education in their journey to employment.

The biggest challenges, then, currently, are to not only take advantage of data and Artificial Intelligence to provide more personalized experiences and operate with greater agility, but also the integration of technology with pedagogy, which will allow more flexible, attractive learning experiences and inclusive.

2. How can open data help drive these improvements? What technologies need to be implemented to drive improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of the learning system?

Data is in all aspects of our lives. Although it may not be related to the mathematics or algorithm that governs predictive analytics, its impact can be seen in education by detecting learning difficulties before it is too late. This can help teachers and institutions gain a greater understanding of their students and information on how to help solve their problems.

Predictive analytics platforms and Artificial Intelligence technology have already been used with very positive results by different industries to understand user behavior and improve decision-making. With the right data, the same can be applied in classrooms. On the one hand, it helps to personalize and drive better learning outcomes, to create inclusive and personalized learning experiences, so that each student is empowered to succeed. If its implementation is correct, it allows a better and greater monitoring of the needs of the student, who becomes the center of learning and who will enjoy permanent support.

At Microsoft we want to be the ideal travel companion for the digital transformation of the education sector. We offer educational entities the best solutions -cloud and hardware- to prepare students for their professional future, in a complete environment of collaboration and communication for the classroom, both in face-to-face and online models. Solutions like Office 365 Education and the Surface device are designed precisely to drive collaboration both inside and outside the classroom. The educational version of Microsoft Teams makes a virtual classroom possible. It is a free tool for schools and universities that integrates conversations, video calls, content, assignments and applications in one place, allowing teachers to create learning environments that are lively and accessible from mobile devices,

And, in addition, we make available to schools, teachers and students devices specifically designed for the educational environment, such as the Surface Go 2, expressly designed for the educational environment. It is an evolutionary device, that is, it adapts to any educational stage and boosts the creativity of students thanks to its power, versatility and safety. This device allows the mobility of both teachers and students inside and outside the classroom; connectivity with other peripheral devices (printers, cameras ...); and includes the Microsoft Classroom Pen for natural writing and drawing in digital ink.

3. There is increasing demand for digital skills and competencies related to data. In this sense, the National Plan for Digital Skills, which includes the digitization of education and the development of digital skills for learning. What changes should be made in educational programs in order to promote the acquisition of digital knowledge by students?

Without a doubt, one of the biggest challenges we face today is the lack of training and digital skills. According to a study carried out by Microsoft and EY, 57% of the companies surveyed expect AI to have a high or very high impact in business areas that are "totally unknown to companies today."

There is a clear opportunity for Spain to lead in Europe in digital talent, consolidating itself as one of the most attractive countries to attract and retain this talent. A recent LinkedIn study anticipates that two million technology-related jobs will be created in Spain in the next five years, not only in the technology industry, but also,and above all, in companies in other sectors of activity that seek to incorporate the necessary talent to carry out their transformation. However, there is a shortage of professionals with skills and training in digital skills. According to data from the Digital Economy and Society Index Report published annually by the European Commission, Spain is below the European average in most of the indicators that refer to the digital skills of Spanish professionals.

There is, therefore, an urgent demand to train qualified talent with digital skills, data management, AI, machine learning ... Technology-related profiles are among the most difficult to find and, in the near future, those related to technology data analytics, cloud computing and application development.

For this, adequate training is necessary, not only in the way of teaching, but also in the curricular content. Any career, not just those in the STEM field, would need to include subjects related to technology and AI, which will define the future. The use of AI reaches any field, not only technology, therefore, students of any type of career -Law, Journalism ... - to give some examples of non-STEM careers, need qualified training in technology such as AI or data science, since they will have to apply it in their professional future.

We must bet on public-private collaborations and involve the technology industry, public administrations, the educational community, adapting the curricular contents of the University to the labor reality- and third sector entities, with the aim of promoting employability and professional recycling. In this way, the training of professionals in areas such as quantum computing, Artificial Intelligence, or data analytics and we can aspire to digital leadership.

In the next five years, two million technology-related jobs will be created in Spain, not only in the technology industry, but also, and above all, in companies in other sectors of activity that seek to incorporate the necessary talent to lead carry out your transformation.

4. Even today we find a disparity between the number of men and women who choose professional branches related to technology. What is needed to promote the role of women in technology?

According to the National Observatory of Telecommunications and Information Society -ONTSI- (July 2020), the digital gender gap has been progressively reduced in Spain, going from 8.1 to 1 point, although women maintain an unfavorable position in digital skills and Internet use. In advanced skills, such as programming, the gap in Spain is 6.8 points, the EU average being 8 points. The percentage of researchers in the ICT services sector drops to 23.4%. And in terms of the percentage of graduates in STEM, Spain ranks 12th within the EU, with a difference between the sexes of 17 points.

Without a doubt, there is still a long way to go. One of the main barriers that women face in the technology sector and when it comes to entrepreneurship are stereotypes and cultural tradition. The masculinized environment of technical careers and stereotypes about those who are dedicated to technology make them unattractive careers for women.

Digitization is boosting the economy and promoting business competitiveness,as well as generating an increase in the creation of specialized employment. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the impact of digitization on the labor market is that these new jobs are not only being created in the technology industry, but also in companies from all sectors, which need to incorporate specialized talent and digital skills.

Therefore, there is an urgent demand to train qualified talent with digital capabilities and this talent must be diverse. The woman cannot be left behind. It is time to tackle gender inequality, and alert everyone to this enormous opportunity, regardless of their gender. STEM careers are an ideal future option for anyone, regardless of gender.

Forfavor the female presence in the technology sector, in favor of a digital era without exclusion, at Microsoft we have launched different initiatives that seek to banish stereotypes and encourage girls and young people to take an interest in science and technology and make them see that they they can also be the protagonists of the digital society. In addition to the WONNOW Awards that we convened with CaixaBank, we also participate and collaborate in many initiatives, such as the Ada Byron Awards together with the University of Deusto, to help give visibility to the work of women in the STEM field, so that they are references of those who They are about to come.

The digital gender gap has been progressively reduced in Spain, going from 8.1 to 1 point, although women maintain an unfavorable position in digital skills and Internet use. In advanced skills, such as programming, the gap in Spain is 6.8 points, the EU average being 8 points.

5. How can initiatives like hackathons, challenge or challenges help drive data-driven innovation? How was your experience in the III Aporta Challenge?

These types of initiatives are key to that much-needed change. At Microsoft we are constantly organizing hackathons on a global, regional and local scale, to innovate in different priority areas for the company, such as education.

But we go further. We also use these tools in class. One of Microsoft's bets is the projects STEM hacking.These are projects in which the “maker” concept of learning by doing with programming and robotics is mixed, through the use of everyday materials. What's more,They are made up of activities that allow teachers to guide their students to construct and create scientific instruments and project-based tools to visualize data through science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Our projects -both Hacking STEM as well as coding and computational language through the use of free tools such as Make Code- aim to bring programming and robotics to any subject in a transversal way, and why not, learn programming in a Latin class or in a biology one.

My experience in the III Aporta Challenge has been fantastic because it has allowed me to learn about incredible ideas and projects where the usefulness of the amount of data available becomes a reality and is put at the service of improving the education of all. There has been a lot of participation and, in addition, with very careful and worked presentations. The truth is that I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has participated and also congratulate the winners.

6. A year ago, Microsoft launched a campaign to promote open data in order to close the gap between countries and companies that have the necessary data to innovate and those that do not. What has the project consisted of? What progress has been made?

Microsoft's global initiative Open Data Campaign seeks to help close the growing “data gap” between the small number of technology companies that benefit most from the data economy today and other organizations that are hampered by lack of access to data or lack of capabilities to use the ones you already have.

Microsoft believes that more needs to be done to help organizations share and collaborate around data so that businesses and governments can use it to meet the challenges they face, as the ability to share data has huge benefits. And not only for the business environment, but they also play a critical role in helping us understand and address major challenges, such as climate change, or health crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. To take full advantage of them, it is necessary to develop the ability to share them in a safe and reliable way, and to allow them to be used effectively.

Within the Open Data Campaign initiative, Microsoft has announced 5 great principles that will guide how the company itself approaches how to share its data with others:

• Open- Will work to make relevant data on large social issues as open as possible.
• Usable- Invest in creating new technologies and tools, governance mechanisms and policies so that data can be used by everyone.
• Boosters- Microsoft will help organizations generate value from their data and develop AI talent to use it effectively.
• Insurance- Microsoft will employ security controls to ensure data collaboration is secure at the operational level.
• Private- Microsoft will help organizations protect the privacy of individuals in data-sharing collaborations that involve personally identifiable information.

We continue to make progress in this regard. Last year, Microsoft Spain, next to Foundation 29, the Chair on Privacy and Digital Transformation Microsoft-Universitat de València and with the legal advice of the law firm J&A Garrigues have created the Guide "Health Data"that describes the technical and legal framework to carry out the creation of a public repository of health systems data, and that these can be shared and used in research environments and LaLiga is one of the entities that has shared, in June of this year, its anonymized data.

Data is the beginning of everything and one of our biggest responsibilities as a technology company is to help conserve the ecosystem on a large scale, on a planetary level. For this, the greatest challenge is to consolidate not only all the available data, but the artificial intelligence algorithms that allow access to it and allow making decisions, creating predictive models, scenarios with updated information from multiple sources. For this reason, Microsoft launched the concept of Planetary Computer, based on Open Data, to make more than 10 Petabytes of data - and growing - available to scientists, biologists, startups and companies, free of charge, from multiple sources (biodiversity, electrification , forestry, biomass, satellite), APIs, Development Environments and applications (predictive model, etc.) to create a greater impact for the planet.

Microsoft's global initiative Open Data Campaign seeks to help close the growing “data gap” between the small number of technology companies that benefit most from the data economy today and other organizations that are hampered by lack of access to data or lack of capabilities to use the ones you already have.

7. They also offer some open data sets through their Azure Open Datasets initiative. What kind of data do they offer? How can users use them?

This initiative seeks that companies improve the accuracy of the predictions of their Machine Learning models and reduce the time of data preparation, thanks to selected data sets of public access, ready to use and easily accessible from the Azure services.

There is data of all kinds: health and genomics, transport, labor and economy, population and security, common data ... that can be used in multiple ways. And it is also possible to contribute datasets to the community.

8. Which are the Microsoft's future plans for open data?

After a year with the Opendata campaign, we have had many learnings and, in collaboration with our partners, we are going to focus next year on practical aspects that make the process of data sharing easier. We just started publishing materials for organizations to see the nuts and bolts of how to start sharing data. We will continue to identify possible collaborations to solve social challenges on issues of sustainability, health, equity and inclusion. We also want to connect those who are working with data or want to explore that realm with the opportunities offered by the Microsoft Certifications in Data and Artificial Intelligence. And, above all, this issue requires a good regulatory framework and, for this, it is necessary that those who define the policies meet with the industry.