TONY MCADAMS and LESLIE K. DUCLOS TEACHING BUSINESS ETHICS WITH COMPUTER-BASED MULTIMEDIA? A CAUTIONARY ANALYSIS (Accepted February 10 1999) ABSTRACT. Still shots, videos, music, and movie clips can be helpful in bringing some excitement to the study of business ethics. For several years, Professor McAdams has been using The Great Gatsby as a “text” for discussing American commercial values. That discussion serves as an introduction to a larger examination of contemporary busi- ness ethics. Recently, Professor Duclos and her students converted that socratic explor- ation of Gatsby’s contemporary relevance to a PC-based, multimedia “show” employing the efficient and manageable PowerPoint software presentation package. Computer-based multimedia added “flavor” to the presentation, but developing this lengthy lesson required hundreds of hours, substantial hardware/software and a high tolerance for frustration. KEY WORDS: American Dream, business ethics, computers, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby, learning, literature, lying, moral growth, movies, multimedia, music, software, teaching, technology, videos INTRODUCTION The MTV generation has grown accustomed to education through entertainment. Commercials, infomercials, music videos, computer games, and a new generation of television documentaries use words, music, and images in combination to convey messages. Education literature and experience suggest that a broadened, more provocative sensory experi- ence improves learning and retention. With this in mind, we decided to experiment with a computer-based multimedia examination of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925) as a lesson in business ethics. MULTIMEDIA Broadly, the word multimedia refers to any communication system that employs two or more forms of media in the same presentation. More usefully, multimedia is any presentation of information using text, graphics, animation, pictures, video, and sound. Today, that presentation is often accomplished via a computer-based program. Indeed, since the Teaching Business Ethics 3: 57–67, 1999. © 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.