The significant increase in recent years in the popularity of the internet, particularly the World Wide Web, has obvious implications for the school sector. Beyond expertise in their own subject areas, teachers now need to become aware of how they may become more proficient users of this new form of electronic media which can help them better achieve their pedagogical aims and objectives. Through their participation in the School Teachers' Website Management Programme (ST- WMP), teachers are learning how to perform all the tasks related to web design and development. This staff development programme for secondary school teachers consists of workshops and hands-on practice in building and maintaining a website dedicated to publishing information about web-related aspects of teaching and learning.
This paper reports on our experience with offering this special programme to secondary school teachers in Hong Kong and also reports on the findings of a survey conducted among participants concerning their experience with using the internet for teaching and learning in their schools.

In 1998, a Five Year Strategy outlined new initiatives for information technology in education (ITE) in Hong Kong schools. The 'vision' for ITE involved a 'paradigm shift' in teaching and learning activities, ' from a largely textbook-based teacher-centred approach to a more interactive and learner-centred approach'. However, strategies to bring about these changes were not elaborated. Two years later, when other educational reforms were proposed, it was recognised that current practices in teaching and learning would be resistant to change. Hence, an 'incremental and interactive approach' to change was suggested, in which 'generic skills' including ITE were to be gradually 'infused' into school curriculum over time. The research reported in this paper aimed to investigate whether an 'incremental and interactive approach' could be an effective way to promote greater use of information technology in history teaching in secondary schools. Over a two year period, a small group of teachers made personal decisions about using new technology in their teaching, then met to discuss what happened when they did so. Initially, teachers believed that ITE and PowerPoint presentations were synonymous, and that the role of new technology was to facilitate expository approaches to teaching. However, ideas about ITE gradually changed and teachers became more willing to try 'new' activities involving information technology as ideas about curriculum and pedagogy were examined. It is suggested that professional development activities which provide opportunities for teachers to investigate ITE could be an important initiative in implementing curriculum reforms in schools.