L'auteur décrit son voyage sur la route de l'information partant d'utilisateur relativement inexpérimenté et devenant relativement compétent. La motivation pour cette expérience était la nécessité de maîtriser la technologie afin de se concentrer sur le contenu d'un cours politique appelé : Le gouvernement et l'Internet connectés . À la fin du voyage, une question essentielle s'est présentée. Comment le gouvernement assurera-t-il que ses employés obtiennent le niveau nécessaire de compétence pour réaliser la vision du nouveau gouvernement connecté tel que décrit par Masse quand il n'y a aucun plan global évident pour la formation? La clé permettant d'apprendre la technique requise serait, semble-t-il, de trouver un moment approprié pour enseigner quand la motivation est élevée.

"Just send me the file by email," says your colleague on the other end of the line and rather casually at that. "Sure thing," you reply, sounding confident but knowing full well that you haven't got the first clue.

That was how I reacted only nine months ago. I am going to describe my journey on the information highway from being a relatively inexperienced to a relatively proficient user.

I am an occupational therapist with many years experience in both clinical and administrative positions and I have been working on an MA in Public Administration at Carleton University on a part-time basis for some time. In the fall of 1996, I signed up for a policy elective called Wired: Government and the Net, which was conducted entirely on the Internet. We conducted research using the Internet and posted our assignments on the class listserv. We could also choose to have assignments posted on the course home page. The class reviewed the postings, wrote posted comments and tried to keep a discussion going.

When I started the course, I had what I would have called a reasonable level of familiarity and skill. I was mostly self-taught, with some knowledge of email, a small selection of computer "for Dummies" books, and the tried-and-true method of trial-and-error. I had successfully completed two management information systems courses as part of my MPA work. Despite what I considered fairly advanced preparation, I found that I was forced to spend valuable time dealing with technical issues rather than being able to get into the real course content.

Posting assignments to the course listserv was not easy. I was doing all my work in WordPerfect and when I uploaded my file it became unreadable. When some of my classmates posted their work, I found that I couldn't read it.

There was lots of discussion on the listserv and finally someone pointed out that the only sure way to upload and post in readable format was to save and send your document as a text file. After uploading my file I found that every single line of text ended with ^M, which had to be removed manually. Then someone suggested saving it as an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) file. Fortunately I had some knowledge of HTML but not enough to make it an easy task.

Then, having just figured out how to send files as attachments we were all informed that the list server couldn't handle attachments and the file had to be "inserted" into email rather than attached. Another glitch, just when I thought I was getting somewhere! I certainly didn't have time for this.

The above qualifies as "learning-by-doing" under the pressure of meeting course requirements. I knew already that motivation was a significant factor in my learning of new skills. But throughout it all, I wondered whether I was the only one who was so dense. I knew that I knew more than many, but still there was a nagging doubt about my own abilities. Nonetheless, my journey was well underway.

OCCUP-THER Listserv

The first port of call on my journey was a listserv to which I had subscribed in the summer of 1995 in an attempt to keep up with current issues in occupational therapy. One of the "Wired" course requirements was to write a short paper that discussed a practical use of information technology. And while occupational therapists are not really part of the government, I was given permission to study this listserv by conducting an online survey. So what did I observe on the OCCUP-THER listserv?

First of all, just because someone can figure out how to become a listserv member does not mean he or she has the skill level to participate fully. Some may be reluctant to admit how little they know, fearing they are in the minority. When everyone around you seems to be more expert than you are, it can be intimidating. After I had sent a second request to those who hadn't responded to my electronic survey, one of the members of the listserv confessed that she didn't have a clue how to respond to my email survey.

Many subscribers to OCCUP-THER try to unsubscribe from the listserv simply by sending the single line message "unsubscribe" to the same address used for posting messages. One member wrote, "Please unsubscribe me from the list. I am desperate. Are not able to read. Already 300 messages waiting for time I do not have."

My survey included an open-ended question asking if members had experienced any problems related to the listserv. The high volume of messages, about sixty per week, was mentioned several times. Some people felt pressured by such a long list of messages, although most recognized their value and relevance. There are often messages posted to the listserv asking for advice on how to handle all the messages efficiently. Then, about a week later, one of the members went away for several days and set her computer to reply automatically to messages, informing the sender of her absence. Unfortunately, she never thought, or realized, that she should cancel her subscription to the listserv so that her automatic reply would not be sent to all list members. Coincidentally the manager of the listserv was also away for a few days. More than one thousand autoreply messages later, the listserv manager finally unsubscribed the absent member until her return date, which the entire listserv knew well by then.

Listserv members were irate. On this usually conservative and polite listserv there started to appear messages that were quite uncharacteristic of the normal content. Some blamed the owner for causing the storm of reply messages. Others presumed that the member had purposely tried to irritate them. When all had settled down, as one member pointed out, everyone had probably learned a valuable lesson about what not to do when they go away.

A Side Trip to New Zealand

While writing my paper about OCCUP-THER, I was asked to participate in a special time-limited listserv for occupational therapy students in New Zealand, which had been set up to help students learn use of the Internet. The professor for the course recruited occupational therapists who were using the Internet in their professional work. The first question posed by the students to the more seasoned members was how those of us who were subscribed had learned about the Internet. Most had learned, as I had, in trying to accomplish another goal.

A freelance scientific writer once told me how he had learned about the Internet: "pretty much by reading and following the advice of people around me . . . Because it is such a powerful tool for writers, most of my freelance buddies are already well advanced." His motivation in this case was to be able to participate effectively in the world of freelance writing.

Another informant, a federal public servant who uses computer technology extensively, but who had not been hooked up to a network for technical reasons, reported having taken a half-day Internet course but could not recall ever seeing the Treasury Board's Internet Guide (now the "Government of Canada Internet Guide"). He had only recently been linked up to the Internet and because he was beginning to use it in accomplishing his daily work, his motivation to improve his skills was heightened.

I suspect that the occupational therapists who are members of the OCCUP-THER listserv and the New Zealand students face many of the same challenges and have many of the same needs as public servants who find themselves lurking on the fringes of wired government.

A Message from Marcel Massé

In an address to the Government in Technology Conference, Marcel Massé, President of the Treasury Board, described how information technology would revolutionize the government's mandate and "signal the arrival of ... Wired Government." He went on to describe his vision of this wired government.

In the Wired Government of the future, Public Service employees would work in virtual teams to develop policy and solve problems. Departmental allegiances and identification would become less important as teams came together and disbanded after resolving issues, sometimes without ever having been in the same room, or the same city, or even on the same continent. There would be no telephones; instead of picking up a receiver, you'd answer your computer, where each conversation would be a video exchange. Citizens' requests for government forms or information could be dealt with instantly. You would download the requested materials to their computer or to a kiosk located near them, where they could access the information using a personal identifier. And in the Wired Government voice-activated simultaneous translation would allow you to speak to anyone, anywhere, regardless of the caller's language. As many of you know, much of the technology [exists today] ... the key challenge to make Wired Government an operational reality is to provide greater leadership and commitment at all levels of the public sector to the knowledge role of government.

Massé told the same audience of award winners for innovation in technology in government that

... many have linked Canada's growth and continued prosperity to its ability to function in the rapidly evolving Information Age. Some have gone so far as to call the information highway Canada's new National Dream. How we respond to information technology's far-reaching influence must be an immediate priority. The growth of the Internet, not as a commercial venue, but as a "public space" for the exchange of ideas, is a case in point. That Federal MPs now have email addresses and can keep in touch with constituents online, is both indicative of this and a welcome addition to communication tools available . . . we are in the business of re-inventing government.

I sent a message to my Member of Parliament and received a prompt reply from his legislative assistant. Extensive planning, the assistant wrote under the member's name, had gone into getting the House of Commons onto email. For instance, there had been pilot projects to assist in decision-making about the best system to support the needs of Parliament. Indeed, a major confidentiality issue was having the assistants able to log on under the member's name. As far as training is concerned, all staff were given forty-five to sixty minutes of in-office training, which could be augmented by up to three additional hours of "hands-on introduction to the Internet course which focuses on research and communication." This Internet course is available to Members of Parliament on a one-to-one basis at their convenience for as long as necessary and with content tailored to their individual needs.

I wondered how many take advantage of this additional training or whether they rely on their assistants to do most of the learning. I was intrigued by the suggestion that Members of Parliament could become proficient in such a short time while I was taking what seemed to be an eternity.

Training and Development Canada

I then began to wonder how the government is proceeding with Massé's immense transformation. How is it preparing its employees? It seemed prudent to investigate the Government's training policies and practices to see if they support the transformation to a wired government. This brought me to the Web site of Training and Development Canada (TDC).

TDC offers what it calls Total Training Solutions, promoting itself as a "vital, practical partner in the change process ... by [helping public servants] acquire new skills, to brush up on old ones, and to gain confidence to use new technologies and methods of dealing with new challenges." TDC proclaims itself "totally committed to continuous learning, with public sector-oriented products and services that reflect the current changing requirements and policies in the government workplace, and the latest technologies to meet our client's training needs. Course design links training directly ... to the needs of the user and the manager in the workplace." Emphasis is on flexibility in location and courses in a variety of formats and durations which can be further tailored to the needs of the organization.

The detailed description of the courses includes many modules which appear to support the transformation already described by Marcel Massé. The major category, if judged by the number of subject areas listed, is Information Management and Technology. These courses cover the technical side of information technology from the most fundamental matters such as "What is a PC?" and "How does it run?" to client-server concepts.

I had lingering questions. By what means is the training matched up with the trainee? How does one become a trainee? The initiative to take advantage of training rests, in the end, with individuals, managers and government leaders. TDC refers individuals to their department's training co-ordinator, a formal link between TDC and each department. The training co-ordinator has authority only to promote and facilitate training and to ensure training needs are assessed on an ongoing basis.

I sent an email message to TDC asking how TDC relates to the department co-ordinators. The email reply was:

Training and Development Canada consults the Departmental Training Coordinators in order to determine the training needs of the various government departments.

Committees (such as the Interdepartmental Committee of Small Training Depts) are formed and serve as a forum to discuss and plan training. Most training plans are devised by the individual departments, however TDC does work in conjunction with our stakeholders in order to provide timely and effective training in fields that are driven by changing policies (such as finance and personnel).

In order to obtain additional information on how the individual departments determine their training plans, it may be best to consult their home pages under the headings of Human Resources and/or Training.

Government of Canada's Internet Guide

In the Government of Canada's Internet Guide, the definitive Internet authority for the federal government, the discussion of training has been organized into three categories:

• Introduction which provides an overview of the Internet and its applications;
• Technical design programs that focus on specific elements of the Internet and electronic communications; and
• Marketing, which covers corporate communications, public relations and marketing on the Internet.

The guide advises that training is required if the government is to meet its mandate of providing the public with up-to-date, current information that reflects the special legal and policy requirements of the federal government. Furthermore, government training must be adaptable to meet the individual needs of the users and should be targeted to those whose job it is to disseminate information. Target groups should be "encouraged to participate." The guide offers a market case for training: "Training improves overall staff comfort and ability to use the Internet and WWW; training increases opportunities to share information and improve the culture of an organization by helping it to move ahead with technological change."

The guide includes questions designed to help with the identification of training needs. For example: How can the Internet become an effective working tool? How will the availability of the Internet and WWW affect the Internet user's relationship with clients and colleagues? How can staff take advantage of the opportunities offered by the Internet and WWW to work quickly, efficiently, and seamlessly with other government departments and agencies? How can the advantages and opportunities of the Internet and WWW be promoted to staff? How can the Internet and WWW meet the different service requirements of ministerial and departmental practices and priorities?

The ingredients for the Wired Government are there--the description of what it will be like, the skills needed, the training to develop the skills and the guide for using the technology. What I couldn't find is a clear plan to ensure it comes together.

Summary and Conclusions

Although my journey was unscientific, it suggests that many public servants cannot use the full potential of the Internet. Even where functional proficiency exists, that proficiency is quite thin overall.

What is the government doing to ensure its employees have adequate skill level to achieve the vision of the new wired government? Although the government, through TDC, has developed a selection of courses designed to address skill requirements for using the Internet, there is no obvious overall plan to ensure employees participate in the training. TDC offers flexible approaches to accommodate varying needs. These courses are promoted to public servants who are encouraged to avail themselves of them. Training, however, is predominantly voluntary with the motivation coming from the individual. The existence of online help is commendable but appeals to those with reasonable skills and better. The beginner user is left to be intimidated or frustrated by the language. Attention needs to be given to making them feel comfortable about their skill level. A user-friendly approach that creates a non-threatening environment will achieve more than unintended intimidation.

Considerable skill development can come about when there is a need to know in order to do something else rather than as an end in itself. This, in fact, is predominantly how I learned. One participant who responded to my OCCUP-THER survey said that you have to find what she called the "teachable moment" to provide effective skill training. Ensuring that individuals have a motivation to learn ( i.e., that they can relate what is to be learned directly to their everyday work lives), is important and will result in greater skill development.

Motivation to learn the Internet appears to be associated with having tasks (goals) that require the use of the Internet. In other words, the material or skills to be learned must be meaningful to the user and have immediate practical application. In occupational therapy, therapy goals that are developed with clients are achieved through involvement in meaningful occupations. The secret, it seems, is to have the right training available when the teachable moment occurs.

Notes

Campbell, Donna. "How I Kept Out of the Pot Holes on the Information Highway," Government Information in Canada/Information gouvernementale au Canada 3, no. 3 (1996-7). [http://www.usask.ca/library/gic/v3n3/campbell/campbell.html]
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