"As Arthur C. Clarke once pointed out, people exaggerate the short-run impacts of technological change and underestimate the long-run impacts" (Cairncross 233).

     The bastard child has become a sore point to some professors in the academic world. While some have embraced it with open arms, others spurn it for what it is. Many feel that it could corrupt education wholly. This could not be further from the truth.

     Education is a constantly changing process. Hypertext brings change to the academic world. Illana Snyder speak of the changes, "These include the promotion of more independent and active learning, changes to teaching and curriculum practices, and challenges to our assumptions about literacy and literary education" (102). While many doubt the relevance of hypertext source citations, you can easily think through them with a few common sense rules.

     Another question is the impact of hypertext on the codex. Tulva feels that, "Despite exaggerated reports of its demise, the codex book is not dead--but, like handwriting in the age of print, it isn't likely to remain the dominant means of textual dissemination" (Heresy). The codex will live on. Learning from textbooks may change to learning from E-books, but the codex holds sway and will for quite a while.

     Those that accept hypertext have started using it for enhanced educational purposes. Interconnectivity has allowed distance learning, the Gutenberg Project, and other sources of academic excellence. Many credible sources can be found through university or library databases, often with data previously unavailable. The allowance of anyone with a connection will have great long-term impacts on education.

     Resistance against hypertext will eventually fade. As Illana Snyder put it, "It will become increasingly difficult for academics to limit their activities to the medium of print, especially when increasing numbers of publishers of books and journals begin to adopt the new technologies" (116). Education will eventually adopt hypertext and rightly so. Reaching a group of students worldwide with educational and intellectual discussion is a necessary and useful process.