{
  "id": "1997-decemberjanuary-drivers-education",
  "slug": "1997-decemberjanuary-drivers-education",
  "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1997-decemberjanuary-drivers-education.html",
  "year": 1997,
  "month": "December/January",
  "monthNum": 12,
  "headline": "Driver's education",
  "kicker": "On the Internet",
  "author_name": "Nora Paul",
  "author_title": "",
  "affiliation": "The Poynter Institute",
  "summary": "A guide to free online resources and tutorials for teaching Computer-Assisted Reporting (CAR) techniques in newsrooms, covering topics from general CAR skills to statistics, databases, spreadsheets, and internet research.",
  "keywords": [
    "training",
    "journalism",
    "resources"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Journalism & Newsroom",
    "Investigative Methods",
    "Technology"
  ],
  "technologies": [
    "Excel",
    "Lotus 1-2-3",
    "Quattro Pro",
    "FileMaker Pro",
    "Access",
    "Internet",
    "World Wide Web",
    "FTP",
    "Email"
  ],
  "full_text": "As Jerry Garcia said, \"Somebody has to do something and it's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us.\"\n\nIf you are feeling that way because you have to do something about CAR training in your newsroom, don't get all pathetic, there is a lot of help out on the Internet.\n\nI'm going to break down the types of CAR techniques and resources you might be needing to do training on and will list a few places with good tutorials, handouts, or explanations that you can use.\n\nGeneral\n\nFree Academy http://www.freep.com/jobspage/academy/index.htm The Detroit Free Press FREEP Academy page has a great listing with links to handouts on topics from getting started with computer-assisted reporting to transportation stories to cleaning computer data to why you should know financial journalism. A very nice resource, written by and for working journalists. Thanks, FREEP Academy Dean Joe Grimm.\n\nComputer Assisted Journalism Front Page http://www.nyu.edu/pages/journalism/caj/home.htm\n\nJohn Garcia, formerly a professor at NYU, put this guidebook together as a teaching aid for his classes.\n\nIt will help you in yours, too. He's put together great reporting exercises and examples.\n\nStatistics\n\nStatistics Every Writer Should Know http://nilesonline.com/stats/ Having to teach about mean versus median (when you don't always keep them straight yourself). This tutorial on statistics is geared for journalists. Here's your manual, but contact Robert Niles at robert@nilesonline.com before using it.\n\nAs he says on the site, \"Hey, since he went to the trouble of making this site, it's the least you can do.\"\n\nNews & Numbers: Help for placing \"scientific\" and statistical claims in perspective. http://www.facsnet.org/cgi-bin/facsnet acgi?alpha=Nwr5r.67ujU5E1 Victor Cohn, former science editor at the Washington Post, wrote these chapters, which should be the required reading of anyone teaching, or taking, a class on numeracy.\n\nDatabases\n\nDatabases Basics http://www.indiana.edu/~ucspcc/training/db/database.html A brilliant tutorial on databases, their use and their construction, by Indiana University. It is an Adobe Acrobat file, so you will need the reader installed on your computer to get it. Look, too, at the files on Filemaker Pro and Access.\n\nSpreadsheets\n\nExcel training basics http://www.indiana.edu/~ucspcc/training/db database.html This tutorial, also from Indiana University, includes sample files you can use in your teaching.\n\nThe Spreadsheet Page: http://www.j-walk.com/ss/\n\nAn incredible collection of information about spreadsheets with specific links to pages with information about Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, Quattro Pro, and other programs.\n\nAnd to liven up those training sessions, there is even a section for spreadsheet jokes.\n\nInternet Overview\n\nNora Paul's Computer-Assisted Research: a guide to tapping online information http://www.poynter.org/car/cg_chome.htm OK, I'm allowed to put mine first, aren't I? Anyway, this guide has chapters on the main tools of the Internet and an overview of the uses of computer-assisted research techniques in newsgathering.\n\nThe structure focuses on the whats and the whys of using these resources.\n\nMike Wendland's Wired Journalist http://www.rtndf.org/programs/century/wired/wjforward.html With Mike's focus on broadcast journalists' needs, this book is a terrific guide to the uses of the net for journalists. For you trainers, his chapter V, Training Exercises, is a life-saver with real life-like reporting assignments for which the Internet can provide information.\n\nE-mail/Newsgroups/Listservs\n\nThe Reporter's Guide to Internet Mailing Lists http://www.daily.umn.edu/~broeker/guide.html Timothy Broeker, in nice clear language, covers all the various aspects of Mailing List use. It's focus on use in journalism is particularly helpful.\n\nEverything E-Mail\n\nhttp://everythingemail.net/discussion.html Mary Houton-Kemp's Everything E-mail is just what it is billed, EVERYTHING e-mail! If you are doing a class on e-mail use, this is your one stop shop. There are e-mail tips, a glossary of terms, finding e-mail addresses, getting news by e-mail. The listing of resources about listservs, how to find them, etc. is very useful and great handout material.\n\nSearching the World Wide Web\n\nResearching on the Internet http://www2.dgsys.com/-editors/articles excerpt.html The Internet Newsroom's Tim Maloy put this quick overview of ideas and tips for searching the net together, it would be a good quick read for starting web search instruction sessions.\n\nFinding Data on the Internet http://nilesonline.com/data/ This is a terrific site, particularly the compilation of \"Links to Potential Story Data\", compiled by Robert Niles. Check it out.\n\nFinding Information on the Internet: A Tutorial http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html\n\nThe librarians at Berkeley have put this very comprehensive self-teaching guide together. Why not try doing some virtual training, have everyone, on their own time, step through this tutorial and then meet for a brown bagger discussion of what they encountered along the way.\n\nEvaluating information on the web\n\nICYouSee A to Z: T is for Thinking http://www.ithaca.edu/library/Training/hott.html\n\nWritten by the librarians at Ithaca College, this site gives a good overview and some directed exercises for looking at and evaluating information found on the World Wide Web.\n\nEvaluating Web Resources http://www.science.widener.edu/~withers/webeval.htm\n\nWritten by librarians at Widener University, this is the ultimate website for critical thinking about evaluation of information. There is even a PowerPoint program: The Web as a research tool: evaluation techniques. The handouts on evaluating different kinds of web sites (advocacy, news, informational, etc.) are great.\n\nThe Online Journalist: Part 1: How \"good\" is information on the Internet? Part 2: What's in a Domain Name? http://www.facsnet.org/cgi-bin/facsnet.cgi?alpha=Nwr5r.67ujU5EL Randy Reddick, of FACSnet and author of the Online Journalist, put these two chapters on the website. They are good explanations and would be wonderful handouts, for helping journalists learn how to check the credibility of information and sources they find on the Web.\n\nNora Paul can be reached at (813) 821-9494, or send e-mail to npaul@poynter.org",
  "provenance": {
    "extracted_by": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
    "extracted_at": "2026-07-05",
    "verified": true
  },
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