The unintended, secondary effects of technological innovation on society are frequently more influential in the long run than the direct and deliberate effects. This article lists some effects that are likely to happen regardless of the methods used to implement educational technologies, as well as others that are contingent on particular implementation strategies. Among the short-term likely effects of instructional technology (those occurring within a decade) are that access to education will improve, high initial investments will be followed by reduced daily operating costs, curricular quality will increase while local control and teacher initiative decrease, and the characteristics of the teaching profession, of teacher education, and of those entering the profession will change drastically. Effects that may take decades to appear include the separation of training from education, the emergence of a new definition of intelligence, the development of more rapid social change, and the evolution of a fundamentally different mode of teaching and learning. Effects contingent on implementation strategy will include the extent to which human interaction is reduced in the learning process; the degree of equity with which the advantages of educational technology are made available to learners; and the amount of control exercised over the planning of the growth of information technology. (Author/PGD)