Today is rung 5 of 5 on this topic
Industrialisation and how technology changes societies
Can do: Analyses how a technological change reshaped work, cities and family life, and who won and lost.
Why it matters
It's the best historical parallel for the change they're living through, and it teaches that technology's effects are distributed unevenly.
What it looks like when it's wobbly
Sees industrialisation as simple progress, with no sense of the costs or who paid them.
⏱️ Two-minute check
"Who benefited from industrialisation and who paid for it?"
Solid looks like: Names distinct groups on each side with specifics.
The full activity for this topic · 30 minutes
Then and Now Technology
- 1Pick one industrial-era technology and list what it changed: work, housing, health, family.
- 2Split the effects into winners and losers.
- 3Now do the same for one modern technology — smartphones, AI, delivery apps.
- 4Compare the two lists and find the structural similarities.
- 5Ask what response worked historically — regulation, unions, education — and what might now.
If it's too hard
One technology, three effects.
If it's too easy
Write an argument about whether a current technology's benefits outweigh its costs, with evidence.
Say this
"Better for whom? Somebody's job disappeared in that story — what happened to them?"