'Technology' as per se is not needed to grasp the Basics of photography. It's more like basic electrical!!!
Amps volts ohms watts as opposed to aperture stops, time, film/sensor sensitivity and depth of field etc...
The Basics can be demonstrated with an extremely simple 'pin-hole' camera, made for nothing!! (Oh the memories!).
I used to have a commercial/wedding photographic business, (with my own dark-rooms etc) and when my kids were
starting high-school, the school asked me to run some classes for the interested 'Wipper-snappers'. (Young kids, or
'Carpet-Commandos') on photography. I had made up a 10 page document with words & pics for each kid, to accompany
the talks I would give them, including blackboard diagrams/info, and lots of hands-on equipment... About 2 hours into it,
a kid put up his hand and said... "Mr. Sprigg, I don't understand what you are talking about!"... So I reverted to the most
basic of descriptions, and fabricated pin-hole cameras with them. I'd set up a small store room as a dark-room, and blacked
it out. After taking 'shots' outside, we developed them, and made B&W prints in the dark-room. I don't know what they
really understood, but they took home real prints that they had made! Maybe it instilled some to learn more!!...
