The potential audience for EnterTech training is spread all over Texas. There are many ways to deliver training to this audience; some of these ways are more practical than others. The following are delivery schemes that could be effective but that we do not recommend. For one reason or another, the following approaches are not practical or appropriate for EnterTech. They are presented here as a way of emphasizing some of the constraints that EnterTech must consider and that our later Recommendations take into account.

A Video Game

If you want interactivity and viewer involvement, what could be better than a video game? Game machines (e.g., Nintendo 64, Sega Saturn, Sony Playstation) are highly sophisticated audiovisual computers with a large installed base and a very low price point. Even though most games primarily involve the development of eye-hand coordination (that is, they are "twitch" games), others are quite sophisticated simulations that can develop problem-solving and other skills. Some successful video games can involve their "players" for many many hours over the course of many days. Game machines are also a very appropriate platform for delivery to the home. They can be found in the lowest income households.

Producing a video game as the primary interactive media element of EnterTech training is not practical simply because it is not possible to buy and deliver game machines to the training sites. Game machines also generally lack keyboards and other input devices that EnterTech trainees should be comfortable using. Facility with a Playstation or other game machine controller is irrelevant to EnterTech's purpose.

Also, producing a video game is very expensive, and furthermore, producing a successful game (that is, one that the audience finds interesting and compelling) is not a sure thing. The risk of spending a lot of money on a failure is very high. Finally, relying on a game as the primary interactive media element may send the wrong message. EnterTech trainees should take their potential careers seriously.

A Computer Game

It is possible to produce a game for PC's, but this is more difficult and limiting because the graphics and audio capabilities of PC's varies widely. Game machines are closed, and therefore predictable, delivery platforms. Games produced for PC's must be designed for the lowest common denominator, and they often cause problems for the systems on which they are installed.

In many ways the internship simulation planned for EnterTech is a game, it just is not a stand-alone computer game. Unlike most games, it will probably be delivered in a web browser, and it will be integrated with a considerable amount of other more traditional instructional material, most of which will be delivered via the web.

Instructional Television (videotape, cable, broadcast, or satellite)

(Long stand-alone video presentations; not short segments interspersed with other media.)

People learn a great deal from television. The average person views several hours a day, and a very high proportion of what people "know" about the world comes from television. Many identify closely with fictional characters and carefully follow long and involved stories. They "interact" with what they see on the screen. Despite this, we know that "instructional television," which was thought to be of such great promise in the 1950's, simply does not work. The reason it does not work is that almost no one has enough money to do enough of it well enough.

Broadcast television is obviously effective (advertisers are not stupid). Network television is the benchmark. In order to use television effectively for an educational purpose one must deliver a large volume of engaging programming to the audience over a long period of time. In addition, the production level or "quality" of this programming must approach that of the networks. For most educational goals, including EnterTech's, there is simply not enough money or time to do this. Even educational programs that are generally acknowledged to be excellent, are thin on content. Consider PBS's "The Civil War" -- how much did you actually learn from watching this program?

Viewing video is usually a group activity. In an instructional setting this means that one loses the advantage of students being able to proceed at their own rate.

Video can be effective for showing a part of a process, presenting a simple scenario, or putting us in contact with a person, but it is not well suited to presenting a complex educational curriculum.

Distance Learning

(Connecting multiple sites together with video and audio for presentation by an instructor and possible student-instructor and student-student interaction.)

This works well in some educational applications, but it is not practical for EnterTech. It is too expensive, and there are not enough sites in convenient locations to reach the target population. Also, like a pre-produced video presentation, by taking this approach one loses the advantage of students being able to proceed at their own rate.

However, it is possible that a curriculum very much like EnterTech's could be delivered this way. Texas community colleges have the infrastructure to do this, and it is possible that some students in the target population might prefer this type of presentation because it is less demanding than self-paced instruction. This delivery method would be attractive if the potential audience numbered only a few thousand. Since EnterTech's target clientele is much larger, the traditional audio and video distance learning approach is not appropriate.

PowerPoint Presentation

Microsoft PowerPoint is a very powerful and capable program. It runs on both PC's and Macs. The presentations do not require the program to run; the PowerPoint Player can be freely distributed. Authoring new presentations is very easy (and therefore inexpensive). Audio and video are supported, there are numerous effects that can help keep the viewers attention, and the viewer can control the pace of the presentation.

The problem with PowerPoint is that it produces a linear presentation. It does not allow the branching options desired for many training programs and required by EnterTech. It also does not have the tracking and statistics features needed for this project.

PowerPoint could be used successfully however if one had sufficiently clever curriculum designers and if it were adequately supplemented by web based testing. If speed and cost of production were the primary criteria, PowerPoint would be a real contender.

Using PowerPoint would present a credibility problem however. Someone in the Governor's office would undoubtedly say, "We gave you two million dollars and you did PowerPoint presentations?"

WebTV

The main problem with WebTV (http://www.webtv.com) is that it is not really the web and not really TV. It translates web content for display on a very low-resolution screen (640 by 480 interlaced), and although keyboards are available, its primary interface is through a handheld remote. The television set is generally a communal device, but Web TV is a single user medium. Web TV is conflicted.

From EnterTech's point of view, WebTV would be an alternative if you wanted to deliver training to individuals in their homes and needed to provide a low cost hardware/software platform. WebTV consists of low cost hardware, and it is very easy to install. It lacks the look and feel of a "real" computer however, and training on and gaining a level of comfort with such office-type computers is at least part of what EnterTech is about.