Once upon a time, there was a technical school where management decided that they needed to keep up with the times and get a website and introduce the Internet into their classes. Being a school that taught computer programming with a faculty of highly skilled computer specialists, they immediately decided to use that expertise by hiring a contractor to do their web page. Of course, they paid more than any two of their instructors' salaries combined to get this company to do the work.

The company had no educational web design experience, they were only familiar with creating a website to market a product. So, the only people they taked to at the school were the admissions manager and the president. They were awfully busy with other clients, so they threw together a quick page as a temporary measure to get the site started. This page basically gave the name of the school, a map to the campus, and pictures of the buildings and the president. It took ten minutes to load because of the way the picture files were created. But the important thing was that the URL was added to the company's tv advertising even though there was less information on the site than there was in the tv ad. The contractor promised a more complete site soon. This was in August.

In September, the technical support people started installling Internet access in the library and classroom computers. No one thought it necessary to give the instructors any access on the computers in their offices. And no one bothered to tell the instructors when their classrooms got internet access. Most instructors found out when their students stopped listening to their lectures and started looking for dirty pictures on the Internet. Oh yeah, for some odd reason, viruses on the classroom computers tripled after the Internet access was put on them.

In October, the instructors were given a chance to take an in-service class on using the Internet. Of course, part-time instructors (the majority of the instructors) were welcome to attend, but would not be paid for the time. The worst instructor at the school was selected to give the training. He didn't bother to prepare a lesson plan; after all he could wing it for two hours. He brought in a computer with a small monitor to a large conference room (why bother using a computer classroom, there were only 15 or 20 of them available) and proceeded to tell the other instructors what was what. He didn't actually know much; he was unable to answer any of the other instructors' questions. Besides that, no one could see the screen on the monitor anyway. The instructors (especially the ones not getting paid) left in a surly mood.

In November, they had a school-wide teachers' meeting. At this, instructors were told to start incorporating Internet use into their classes. But, oh yeah, you part-time instructors still won't be paid for any time spent outside of your teaching hours. But your job review next year will be partially based on how well you use the Internet in your classes. Instructors got surlier. Hey, by the way, how come the school website hasn't changed since August?

In February of the next year, the school started teaching Java programming. One of the instructors was supposed to attend this class as a student, so she could teach it later on. Of course, the Chief Financial Officer wouldn't pay an extra $50 to give her a textbook. No reason why she couldn't use the library copy. What do you mean some people like to take notes in their textbooks? Hey, by the way, how come the school website still hasn't changed since August?

In March, another instructor wanted to create a webpage for her networking class, but the network administrator wouldn't let her load the files to the Internet server and wouldn't let her put a link to the page on the school website. Just how exactly are we supposed to integrate the Internet in our classroom then? Why don't you load the files on every hard drive in the classroom and just use the browser to access them? Oh, by the way, we plan to move you to a different classroom each time you teach the course. Hey, by the way, how come the school website still hasn't changed since August?

Still another instructor decided to use the Internet for some class exercises in her Business Communication course. Unfortunately, the day she planned to use it was a Monday in April. April Fools! That weekend, technical support replaced all the computers in her classroom with ones which did not have Internet access. Oh she's just teaching a general education class; no need to tell about this move in advance. Hey, by the way, how come the school website still hasn't changed since August?

Things kept going like this. Eventually the contractor delivered the new website (more than a year later). It was visually very exiting, every new bell and whistle had been added to it. Unfortunately, it still had no content; it was hard to navigate in; and instructors still couldn't link any of their websites to it. The picture of the president of the company was unchanged.