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0. Introduction
1. What is it?
2. Why do we use it?
3. Where does it come from?
4. How does it work?
5. How does it change?
6. How does it change us?
7. How do we change it?
8. What are its costs & benefits?
9. How do we evaluate it?

Lesson

What are technology's costs & benefits?  They can be measured in time, health, jobs, fairness, sustainability, environment, advances in knowledge, culture, and more.  Our book illustrates cost/benefit tradeoffs enabler vs. crutch, complexity vs. predictability, catastrophic vs. chronic, control vs. freedom, and progress vs. obsolescence.

Hook stories

Horses, steam cars, and internal combustion

Better Products

When police have bad data

Air traffic control relies on computers

DDT and Cars

Rwanda Radio

Kurzweil Reader

Activities

Cost Bubbles lets students brainstorm about all the costs (not just monetary) associated with cars.  PMI Chart structures what students think are plusses, minuses, and interesting about a technology they choose.  Differentiated instruction includes writing a poem based on the PMI Chart and thinking about costs & benefits in terms of direct vs. indirect and anticipated vs. unanticipated.

Content Standards (click for details)

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 2008 KnowledgeContext

Teaching Young People to Think About Technology