THE RETURN OF THE INTERNET DETECTIVE

A second edition of the highly acclaimed "Internet Detective" Web 
tutorial has just been released.  Produced with funding from the 
European Union through the DESIRE project, the tutorial offers 
Internet users some online training so that they can learn to 
sniff out the clues needed to evaluate the quality of the 
information found on the Internet.

CASING THE WEB!

The Internet is a great resource, but how do you know that the 
information you're looking at ain't a load of baloney?  

There's a lot of real gems to be found, but you have to be careful out 
there - information on the Internet can mis-inform you, con you and 
degrade your work.  

Internet Detective is a free, self-paced, interactive tutorial on the 
WWW which provides an introduction to the issues of information quality 
on the Internet and teaches the skills required to evaluate critically 
the quality of an Internet resource. 

Written by staff at the Institute for Learning and Research Technology 
at the University of Bristol, it uses tutorial software developed at 
the University of Newcastle, which saves your scores and your 
place so that you can re-visit the course and take up where you left 
off. The tutorial takes a couple of hours to complete. 

SO WHAT'S NEW?

The new version builds on material in the original but has some new 
features:
 
o  Lots of new quizzes - to increase the interactivity, offering you 
the chance to try your hand at Internet detective work.
  
o  Teaching materials - to support teachers, lecturers and trainers who 
use the tutorial with their students. 

o  An exercise that covers the Web-hoax - to highlight the fact that on 
the Internet, things are not always what they seem

AND THE WORD ON THE STREET?

The tutorial has been positively received in a variety of sectors.  
Over 16,000 people registered at the "detective agency" in the first 
nine months, and there have been some positive reports ....

"This online tutorial offers a stage-by-stage evaluation 
of "content, form and process" in a Web site, and is aimed at both 
users and creators of Web pages.  The methodical approach usefully 
opens up the intuitive assessments we apply when arriving at a URL for 
the first time."  (The Independent)

"Just a quick word of thanks for the Internet Detective - as a relative 
Internet novice myself I've struggled with how to convey to students 
the importance of not taking as gospel everything they find on the net 
- I can now point them to the Detective which does a brilliant job of 
explaining it and gives the skills needed to evaluate the quality of 
information."  (Teaching & Learning Support Service, Kingston University)

"I think it's a very useful resource, and I'm immediately going to 
direct people on our courses to it when we tell them about the   
Internet. Lots of useful information and the quizzes are fun. Told me 
some stuff that I didn't know. The examples of how to look at a Web 
page are wonderful. Very clear and well thought-out."  
(Computing Services, Edinburgh University)

"Don your trilby and join the Detective in sniffing out clues about the 
quality of a site from the moment you arrive, or even before: your 
first clues can be picked up from the Web address"  (BBC Education)

GET ON THE CASE!

So please feel free to get on the case and teach yourself some 
Internet detective skills! The Internet Detective can be accessed from the 
homepage of the DESIRE site at:

http://www.desire.org/

or directly from:

http://www.sosig.ac.uk/desire/internet-detective.html

Queries and comments about the Internet Detective can be sent to:

[log in to unmask]


**********************************************************
Tracey Hooper - Project Manager (DESIRE) & 
ILRT Central Services Manager, Institute for Learning 
and Research Technology, University of Bristol, 8-10 Berkeley 
Square, BRISTOL, BS8 1HH, UK.  Tel: +44 (0)117 928 7197,
Fax: +44(0)117 928 7112 <http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/>




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