Wow! At long last we have an example of interactive video being used to enhance learning in a really effective way. Cyberace has been produced specifically to address the issue of racism in a rural context. As the back of the DVD package says (although this is a CD-Rom it has been intelligently packaged as a DVD rather than in a CD case, to give added appeal to its target audience of 12 to 14-year-olds): “Racist incidents ranging from name-calling to violent attacks routinely occur to the 2 per cent of black and ethnic minority groups who live in predominantly white communities.”

Away from the metropolis, it is just that low representation of ethnic groups in the local community that makes awareness-raising and attitude-training so important.

The three interactive videos that form the CD’s centrepiece have been impressively staged inside a highly-professional multimedia set, designed with Macromedia Director. It is based on the premise that Sirius has been trying to make contact with Earth, but that racism stands in the way of communication.

The three scenarios - involving a teacher who jumps to conclusions about the behaviour of a black pupil, a school bus driver who refuses to pick up a group of Travellers, and two white schoolfriends who make racist jokes in the presence of an Asian girl - have been filmed to a high standard and play back with sharp definition.

Users are asked how they would react at key points in the action. The scene develops in the light of their response. If used with a whole class via a data-projector, these decisions could evolve from group discussion, with a separate lesson devoted to each scenario. Used by pairs on a standalone workstation, the CD would take approximately 45 minutes to work through.

Users forced to quit before completing all the activities are provided with a login password so that they can continue next time at the same point - a feature common in games software, but too often neglected by designers of educational multimedia.

Teachers have become somewhat disenchanted with educational CD-Roms, too many of which are little more than a series of text and picture links. In Cyberace there is a databank presented as a quiz with definitions of key terms, and a datalink section of information on organisations and material on racism, with links to free online resources.

This superb, richly featured and fully interactive CD-Rom is a model of what multimedia learning should be.

Michael Thorn is deputy head of Hawkes Farm Primary School, Hailsham, East Sussex