Rather, Clark says he decided that technology had moved in such a direction that it had become possible to make it an integral part of the educational process at the business school.

Now students are no longer just required to have computers but to demonstrate a proficiency in them and to use them on a day-to-day basis for their class-work.

"We have the opportunity to take the technology and use it at the heart of the school, to really bring it into the center of what we do, in the classroom, in the way we run the school, in our interactions with students and on campus and with alumni," Clark says.

Professors now use the World Wide Web, CD-ROMs, digitized video and e-mail to give their students a better understanding of the complex situations they will encounter in the business world.

Students say the difference in the past year has been profound.

"In one year we've come from a dinosaur system to leapfrogging virtually every MBA program I know in the country," Ingle says.

One of the most profound and innovative applications for the technology in the curriculum is in the advent of multimedia cases.

Since the early part of this century, cases have been an integral part of the HBS curriculum. Designed to present students with real-life business situations, HBS has long been a leader in their development and use.

The switch to a multimedia format has allowed the cases presented to include much more information than before and to represent better the complexities of business situations.

Pictures, sound and full-motion video included in these presentations provide added realism and detail, and the flexible format of a computer-based case allows it to be a more accurate simulation, allowing students to see the results of their decisions.

"We can bring what one of our colleagues, Paul Lawrence, long ago called 'chunks of reality' into the classroom chew on them, pull at them and understand what's going on. We can do that to a level of depth, reality and nuance that simply was not possible with the paper cases," Clark says.

In addition to cases, Web use has become widespread. Professors now post syllabi, distribute assignments and communicate with students over the Web.

Of particular interest to many students is a program which tabulates students' classes, assignments and other data so that individualized Web pages can be created for each student reflecting their assignment schedules.

"With all of the classes and all of the different assignments, it's hard to keep track," Ingle says. "[The program] automatically recognizes who I am and what my classes are. Professors can even automatically send messages to the class."

Sink or Swim