"Hopefully" must be one of the most frequently "misused" words in the English language. If you've ever said something like, "Hopefully, I'll win the lottery" or "Hopefully, those mohawk-headed gentlemen in the leather jackets won't come over here and pummel me," you have, technically, been mis-speaking.
People have a tendency to use "hopefully" to mean "I hope" (as in the examples mentioned above). It doesn't mean that. What it means is, "in a hopeful manner." So, for example, a writing teacher might say that he handed out the final exams hopefully, i.e., he was full of hope that his students would pass. If he said, "Hopefully, my students will pass," he would really be saying that his students would pass, and they would do so with smiles on their faces and hope in their hearts.
But all this isn't really true. See, the question is one of descriptivism vs. prescriptivism. The prescriptivist would say that hopefully can only mean "in a hopeful manner" and that everybody uses it incorrectly. The descriptivist would say, if everyone is using it incorrectly, it ceases to be incorrect. The Solipsist tends to side with the descriptivists on this one. What's your opinion?
Now, we're off to give our students a practice midterm. Hopefully, they'll do OK.
You mean it's an adverb. I think the point of language is being understood so I side with you on this one.
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