Assessment of digital literacy of civil servants

Ovchinnikov Svyatoslav Sergeevich post-graduate student, Human Resource Management Department, Lomonosov Moscow State University 119991, Russia, Moscow, Lomonosovsky Prospekt, 27, building 4 oss-009@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Gradually, at present, the dependence of a person and his life on his participation in the virtual reality of the unified global cyberspace of information and communication, which has become a symbol of the modern digital society, is increasing ^{[1, p. 83]}. In the modern world, the processes of digitalization have covered not only commercial organizations, but are also actively implemented in the public administration system of many countries of the world. The scientific literature presents various approaches to the definition of public administration. One of them is that public administration is considered as a kind of social management that ensures the organization of specific social processes and relationships into a certain system, consistency of actions, orderliness of social systems, their necessary stability and stability ^{[2, p. 11]}. Various scientific studies, legislative and legal documents cover and respond to the issues of digitalization of the Russian Federation, scientific events are held. Informatization of public administration, the emergence of e-government, an increase in the number of public services provided in electronic form - these and other products of the implementation of the federal project "Digital Public Administration" have significantly changed the requirements for the skills, skills and knowledge of domestic civil servants. The development of digital literacy of civil servants is becoming relevant, since on the basis of the Higher School of Public Administration of the RANEPA, a Training Center for Digital Transformation Managers (Chief Digital Transformation Officer, CDTO) was created, which implements programs for state and municipal students responsible for digital development ^{[3, p. 311]}. Basically, on the basis of this center, state and municipal employees of managerial positions, or specialists of IT departments, who already have a high level of IT competencies, undergo retraining and advanced training. The concept of literacy both in our country and abroad has developed in accordance with the needs of society, production - from the simplest skills (reading, writing, counting) up to the possession of a minimum of socially necessary knowledge and skills (functional literacy) ^{[4, p. 156]}.

The origins of the modern understanding of "digital literacy" usually go back to the works of Paul Gilster, he believed that digital literacy consists in "mastering ideas, not keystrokes" ^{[5, p. 25]}. This definition is not unambiguous, and each theorist approaches the term "digital literacy" in his own way. A. Seliverstova characterizes the term "digital literacy" as a set of basic knowledge, skills and abilities in the use of digital devices and network technologies ^{[6, p. 220]}. The global trend associated with the penetration of digital technologies into social processes, the "digitization" of phenomena and phenomena of reality is revealed within the framework of the theory of digitalization ^{[7, p. 69]}. Digital technologies are technologies for collecting, storing, processing, searching, transmitting and presenting data in electronic form ^{[8, p. 36]}. A particular problem in the context of technology is that due to the low level of knowledge, skills and technical literacy skills, the question of how digital tools work correctly is compounded ^{[9, p. 7]}. Digital tools are websites or applications that allow interested parties to participate in the project and to which you can to gain access through a digital interface or otherwise use digital technologies for functioning ^{[10, p. 4]}. As it turns out, although digital transformation is associated with social domains, some researchers believe that it is difficult to link it with social theories. This is due to the digital literacy of social theorists who depend on ICT specialists – their skills are not as developed as those of specialists in this field ^{[11, p. 5]}. Digital inequality has forced scientists to recognize digital literacy and Internet connectivity as "supersocial determinants of health", since they affect many other determinants of health (for example, education, work, housing) ^{[12, p. 1]}. Digital inequality refers to inequality between individuals, consumers and enterprises at different socio-economic levels in terms of both their access to ICT and the use of the Internet for a wide variety of activities ^{[13, p. 3]}. In response to technical innovations, scientists and practitioners have developed various concepts of competencies and literacy (for example, computer literacy, media literacy, literacy in the field of information and communication technologies, digital literacy), which include competencies that allow effective use of the digital environment ^{[14, p. 3]}.

Professor Sharikov A.V. reveals four components that characterize digital literacy ^{[15, p. 104]}:

1) Technical and technological capabilities. This component has a utilitarian, pragmatic character in the development of the digital environment, which creates prerequisites both for expanding the content and communicative capabilities of a person and for realizing his creative potential using digital technologies.

2)                 Content and communication capabilities. This component considers the implementation of socio-cultural aspects of mediatized communication of interpersonal, personal-group and mass levels. These are also expanded opportunities for creating media texts, as well as receiving new media texts from other participants in communication processes, their perception and interpretation.

3) Technical and technological threats. We are talking about the security of the devices and software used, the formation of knowledge and skills of working with tools that provide such security.

4)                 Sociopsychological threats. This is the most difficult component of digital literacy to study and operationalize, the structure of which includes socio-psychological and ethical aspects.

This classification represents a wide range of information and communication and socio-psychological opportunities and threats to digital literacy. A completely different classification of the components of digital literacy, and which the author will focus on when testing civil servants, is proposed by Toktarova V.I., Rebko O.V. The authors consider digital literacy as a set of 5 components, the assessment of which shows the objective level of its proficiency ^{[16, p. 169-170]}:

1) Information literacy is a person who is "able to understand the relevance of information and can find, evaluate and use it effectively."

2) Digital information literacy is "the ability to access information, manage it, understand, generalize, transmit, evaluate and create information in a safe and appropriate way through digital technologies" ^{[17, p. 17]}.

3)                 Media literacy is the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to understand all means of (mass) communication and formats in which data, information and knowledge are created, stored, transmitted and presented (for example, printed newspapers and magazines, radio and television, cable media, CD, DVD, mobile phones, PDF text formats, JPEG format for photos and graphic images).

4)                 Computer literacy is broadly understood as the ability to use a computer effectively ^{[18, p. 258]}. Attention is mainly focused on the work of technical skills of interaction with computer software products.

5)                 Computational literacy is "the ability to understand, reformulate and generate information in formal languages in order to create simple algorithms and encode information" ^{[18, p. 258]}.

6)                 Communication literacy in the digital environment is often understood as knowledge of the rules of network etiquette and the ability to observe them when communicating through digital messaging services and electronic devices.

The effectiveness of this classification is reflected in many ongoing studies. For example, the NAFI analytical center conducts research related to the use of the "digital literacy index", which is a quantitative expression of the level of formation of digital competencies. This index is used to assess the level of digital literacy development of a large community (professional, social, national) and reflects the degree of digital education of a certain social group, and not of each individual subject. For example, NAFI revealed that a quarter of the adult population – 28 million Russians – digital literacy remains at a low level, and the main barriers to its increase are a weak interest in technological innovations and a relatively low level of ownership of digital devices ^{[19, p. 54]}. The author of the article used the Digital literacy index to assess the level of digital literacy among civil servants of the Government Apparatus and the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation. The assessment was aimed at testing the following competencies: the ability to collect, process and analyze information data (this competence corresponds to information literacy), the ability to use digital tools to ensure cybersecurity of government structures (this competence corresponds to digital literacy), the ability to use Microsoft Office programs to perform official duties (this competence corresponds to media literacy), knowledge of components personal computer (computer literacy corresponds to this competence), the ability to create and implement automatic software products for public service (computer literacy corresponds to this competence, digital culture (communicative literacy corresponds to this competence). 126 civil servants of various professional, social and competence profiles took part in the testing, the age of respondents ranged from 18 to 50 years. The analysis of respondents' responses showed that the respondents' most pronounced competence is "The ability to collect, process and analyze information data" (71.03%). The reason for this was the forced work with a large volume of incoming information in government agencies. A civil servant is obliged to collect, process and analyze state information in large volumes every working day within the framework of his official duties, and for this he needs certain information competencies. The competence "The ability to use digital tools to ensure the cybersecurity of state structures" was the least important (38.11%). This suggests that most government employees are not familiar enough with the tools of using antivirus programs, two-factor authentication systems, password protection and do not take the existing threats to government systems seriously enough. Based on the results of the study, the following recommendations can be proposed for the development of digital literacy among civil servants: the introduction of practice-oriented activities (seminars, simulators, simulators, etc.) aimed at adapting to the conditions of the information and communication environment, the development of a mentoring system in the civil service, the creation and implementation of state digital learning platforms for the development of digital competencies, onlinetraining, material and non-material encouragement of civil servants are making progress in improving their level of digital literacy.

The attention of representatives of the scientific and practical communities is focused on the digital transformation of public administration, the requirement of employers to the professional training of personnel, the expansion of the list of requirements to the synthesis of knowledge, skills, skills and personal qualities. The intensity of the introduction and use of digital technologies in the public administration sector of the Russian Federation has formed a corresponding request to strengthen the development of digital, computer, information, media, computing and communication literacy among civil servants. The formation and development of digital literacy of civil servants should not be carried out on a one-time, haphazard basis, but in the logic of subordination to a specific goal and on a structured platform of processes. The use of new approaches involving the availability of digital skills, the ability to think broadly, the availability of professional training in the field of computer science and communications, has a huge impact on the current modern state structure and on public administration in the Russian Federation as a whole.

To strengthen the digital preparedness of civil servants for the digital transformation of public administration, the development of technology for the development of digital competencies is required. The process of formation and development of digital competencies is determined by the specifics of the profession of a public civil servant, as well as the qualification requirements for official activity (knowledge, skills and abilities) will contribute to the development of digital literacy in general for the entire civil service.

Uruguay has been successfully implementing digitalization in all spheres of society over the past few years: telecommunications infrastructure, the process of connecting homes to fiber optics, free Internet plans are offered to the population (connection rates are the lowest in the region and the highest speeds), all children attending public schools have their own computer with an Internet connection, which they share with their families, the population has basic digital literacy skills; and outstanding initiatives are being implemented, such as the traceability of individual livestock, consideration of digital government development strategies and the introduction of national electronic medical records ^{[20, p. 1]}.