Christine Agopian

Professor Sascha Hosters

Expository Writing I
14 September 2016
Methods Change with the Times
For most of us, when given a task to complete, we look to others to accomplish it for us
or, at the very least, aid us in completing it ourselves. When writing an essay about a
controversial topic, we will ask our family and friends their opinion and use the responses we
obtain in our work. It is a part of who we are as a generation to rely on others in aiding us to
complete our tasks. We do this because we know that we cannot only rely on ourselves to see all
the different branching thoughts that come from one idea. Whether we realize it or not, we are
constantly looking to others for help and what we have all been turning to for assistance in
almost everything we do for the past two decades has been the internet. This new form of
assistance is a topic that Cathy Davidson discussed in Project Classroom Makeover. We have
been using our computers as a connection base to communicate and learn from people from all
over the World. We alone, as individuals are cognitively incapable of viewing every idea from
every perception it can be viewed in. In using the internet and learning how other people with
different histories and backgrounds view the same things, we gradually become more open
minded as individuals and we learn more than we ever could having focused on only a small
group of individuals with similar mindsets as our own.
When we turn to a wide variety of diverse people for insight on a topic, we open tens of
thousands of doors guarding thoughts behind them that we would have never thought of on our
own. In allowing others to involve themselves and leave their input, we all learn more
collectively. This process of gathering a group of individuals to solve issues is called
crowdsourcing. Davidson states that, the fundamental principle of all crowdsourcing is that
difference and diversity - not expertise and uniformity - solves problems (Davidson, 65). In
making this statement, Davidson was comparing crowdsourcing to outsourcing. Therefore, her
assertion described outsourcing to be a system of expertise and uniformity rather than
involving difference and diversity. Although outsourcing is a valid technique to discovering
solutions to issues, its flaw lies in the mindset of the individuals that are usually a part of the
group. Those involved in the outsourcing group typically exhibit similar mindsets. They think
alike and therefore, will have a limited amount of answers to their potential issues. The solution
to this predicament is is the superior technique; crowdsourcing. This alternate form of solving
problems involves a diverse group of people coming together to find answers. In gathering a
diverse group rather than a cognitively indistinguishable one, the ideas that are spoken vary
substantially. Every mind in a diverse group thinks differently and as a result, the solutions are
copious. Crowdsourced thinking is very different from credentialing, or relying on top down
expertise. If anything, crowdsourcing is suspicious of expertise, because the more expert we are,
the more likely we are to be limited in what we even conceive to be the problem, let alone the
answer (Davidson 65). Those who are familiar with the same things tend to have the same
insight. These people with commonalities will find it difficult to expand their minds to think of
new and exciting ideas that, when spoken to the rest of the group, impress and inspire them.
Crowdsourcing encourages individuals with unique perceptions to combine their thoughts and
share their ideas in an effort to discover new possibilities. Rather than finding a group of
individuals within a community - who tend to have the same credentials and general thought
process - to discuss ideas, crowdsourcing combines individuals with a wide variety of skills and

cognitive abilities. Crowdsourcing is outsourcing to the crowd (Davidson 65). The idea of
crowdsourcing is to assemble a group that is different enough to expand a thought as far as they
can. It is an idea that is critical of experts because experts tend to think alike and individuals who
think alike will not be capable of pushing the bounds of an idea and inspecting it from all angles.
Crowdsourcing could certainly be the factor that reforms educational facilities and pushes
students who worry they will not make it past high school to college and beyond. School systems
today are based on a hierarchy and they follow the protocol of outsourcing. Teachers and
administrators within schools tend to follow a certain procedure of educating students the same
way they have been taught themselves. This is because the tightly knit community of teachers
think alike. Educational facilities have teachers in each classroom with a set of credentials
enabling them to pass their knowledge onto their students. The issue with this system is that an
abundance of these students are getting lost in their own diverging thoughts before teachers can
finish their sentences. Students get distracted and lose focus because they are not interested in
what is being said or the way the information is delivered. Rather than thinking of ways we can
be preparing our students for the future, we seem determined to prepare them for the past.
(Davidson, 70). Within the last two decades, the methods in which youth retain knowledge has
altered drastically. With the creation of cyberspace, we all have easy access to answers for any
question we can think of. There is no longer a need to go to libraries and read books and look up
articles because today, when we ask a question, we want to find a direct answer. With the
internet, we can find that answer and because of this, we cannot relate to the teaching techniques
that were put in place since the formation of school systems. This certainly does not imply that
teachers and education are obsolete; teachers are essential for the overall success of our nation.
However, if the methods in which the information that we rely on teachers to relay were
delivered in a more fascinating way to students, more of them would stay in school and continue
on to success. In putting groups of students together from different states and countries and
asking them to develop learning techniques, they will surely uncover methods that school
systems do not utilize, but these methods could be the way to aid students in truly learning.
These methods could allow children to uncover hidden interests in subjects they had never found
to be enthralling before. In simply changing the way information is communicated and passed
down, students who would otherwise drop out of school could go on to become innovators and
make real impacts on our society. The formal education most of us experienced - and which we
now often think of when we picture a classroom - is based on giving premium value to expertise,
specialization, and hierarchy. It prepared us for success in the twentieth century, when those
things mattered above all. Yet what form of equation is required in the information age, when
what matters has grown very different? (Davidson, 70). As time progresses, our technological
capabilities are enhanced and methods in terms of education need revising. Our cognitive bounds
must be broken in order to understand that change in time requires a change in thinking. Students
go home every day after school and they use learning techniques when memorizing cheat codes
and the characters in the games and tv shows that they watch. They are, for the most part,
subconsciously familiarizing themselves with these techniques. If students were given the
opportunity to display the methods in which they have taught themselves to learn and school
systems adopted those methods, children would excel in school. Davidson spent a snow day with
three enthusiastic children playing LittleBigPlanet, a video game that teaches children
ingenuity, basic science knowledge, collaborative team-building skills, and other marks of what,
in our competition, we consider to be imaginative (and reimagined) learning (Davidson 92).
When Davidson asked these three nine year olds what they had learned that day they dissolved

into helpless, hysterical laughter (Davidson 92). These children were so entertained by the way
they were learning that they had not realized they had learned anything at all. Students would be
far more attentive and interested because they are being taught in a way that makes it effortless
for them to follow along and remain engaged.
When reviewing the characteristics of outsourcing and crowdsourcing, the relationship
between the two is clear. Crowdsourcing is a method of having the crowd of the population
being affected gather information, solve issues, and make suggestions. Having those who will be
directly affected find solutions and propose ideas rather than having just a group of individuals
with the same mindset and the same capabilities discuss the same idea. Crowdsourcing allows
for the expansion of ideas and the ability to view topics from more that just one lens. Educators
can watch their students eyes light up when learning by devising new ways to keep these
children engaged. With this form of problem solving, the proposals to resolve issues worldwide
will be endless and their solutions, long lasting.