It's easy to get immersed in new technologies and lose sight of the reality for most people. While I may blog, twitter, flickr, skype, second life, etc., most people do not. Even at academic conferences, the adoption of technology is limited. Or non-existent. A small percentage of the population actually uses these tools. This number is growing, but to date, the hype exceeds the reality. I see it a bit like the stock market. When a company is vastly overvalued, due to hype, it is a function of the future potential investors are betting on. The hype of educational technology is the equivalent. We are betting on the transformative aspect of participative tools...
A short article addressing this hype theme - Assuming too much about the web we know: "It's too easy to start making assumptions - assumptions about general awareness, about the number of people who really know what's happening in "our" online world. Viewed from the comfort of our living room, bookmarked pages and social circles, the Web looks pretty small and awareness looks pretty big. It's too easy to assume that people have heard about the tools and sites we use everyday.
But they haven't. In real terms, no one has."