It has all happened so quickly. I won't spend lots of time talking of its effect on teaching and learning. It wasn't very long ago, however, that a poor ESL student would have to rely on purchased materials to gain additional reading fluency.More profoundly, on a personal level, I remember when I could think of questions which I couldn't answer. Suppose twelve years ago I wondered whether Venezuela or Columbia had a larger population. If the local libraries weren't open, there was no way of finding out. Knowledge was not accessible. This inability to find out anything at anytime, was universal. People who have grown up with the Net cannot even imagine what it's like to be left in the dark.
Now information is plentiful and easy to find. I just hope that people are still asking interesting questions.