Spring 2027

Technology and Social Change in History

Explores the history of technology over the last four centuries, focusing on the social basis of technical change, its impact on everyday life, and associated ethical issues.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Eric Schatzberg

The workload included three short papers and substantial reading. While most readings were interesting, some were dry, and the TA graded papers strictly but considered semester-long improvement.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Identify and summarize key concepts in the history of technology

  • Utilize historical methods and techniques and apply these to analyze primary sources including print media, visual art, film, web-based content, and technical materials

  • Apply concepts from the history of technology to relevant present-day issues in engineering and technology policy

  • Produce original arguments that demonstrate critical thinking skills and draw on course concepts, arguments specifically about the role of technology—as a collection of material, social, and political practices—and technological change in the contemporary world

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing or 3 credits in HISTORY or HIST SCI

    • Sophomore standing
    • 3 credits in HISTORY or HIST SCI
    take one
HISTSCI 222

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Any of
    • Sophomore standing
    • 3 credits in HISTORY or HIST SCI

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

ERIC SCHATZBERG is recorded teaching in Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2016. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.

Meeting source records

No records available.

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Eric Schatzberg

Professor Schatzberg was energetic and passionate, making lectures engaging. Students found the course approachable with no midterms or finals, relying instead on written assignments.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2015: 3.62 GPA, 87.1% A/AB (n=70 letter grades); Fall 2016: 3.59 GPA, 83.5% A/AB (n=79 letter grades); Fall 2020: 3.44 GPA, 71.4% A/AB (n=35 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Eric Schatzberg

The workload included three short papers and substantial reading. While most readings were interesting, some were dry, and the TA graded papers strictly but considered semester-long improvement.

Past student reviews · Eric Schatzberg

Students appreciated that the professor took feedback seriously, potentially adjusting dry readings. One reviewer strongly recommended him as a professor due to his clear enjoyment of the subject.

Topics

  • Social basis of technical change
  • Impact of technology on everyday life
  • Ethical issues in technology (last four centuries)
  • Present-day issues in engineering and technology policy

Skills

  • Identify and summarize key concepts in the history of technology
  • Utilize historical methods to analyze primary sources such as print media, visual art, film, web-based content, and technical materials
  • Apply historical technology concepts to present-day issues in engineering and technology policy
  • Produce original arguments demonstrating critical thinking regarding technology's role in the contemporary world

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2020— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Fall 2020

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2020 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1108 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
[]
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Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "e288c1d53728875b7b2803b7202db345f8f5b2828b07b3a6cf4bc71f713851cf",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}