"Project Classroom Makeover" Close Reading - 9/8

I believe that the use of the words "thinking" and "conceive" in the first and second sentences of this passage, respectively, imply that expertise in itself is not necessarily detrimental to crowdsourcing a particular problem. The problem itself is not expertise, but the attitudes and natural dispositions that come with being knowledgeable about a certain area - that other people do not have anything useful to contribute. A person specializing in something could hold to the idea that only they themselves know what is best, but that does not mean that their knowledge is any less useful. If anything, experts collaborating through crowdsourcing could pool in their vast banks of knowledge to come up with an extremely thought-out and informed solution. Essentially, each person brings in their own skills to the table. As long as these experts do not hold themselves as the only truth or solution to a problem, there is no reason why they cannot succeed in a crowdsourcing environment. Davidson uses the phrase "more likely", instead of using an absolute word like "always" or "definitely" in regards to expertise being limited in what we can understand to be the problem, meaning that in some cases it can be possible for expertise compatible with crowdsourcing. Finally, the use of the word "suspicious" shows a moderate mistrust between expertise and crowdsourcing, though this does not mean they are directly incompatible. Davidson could have written something like "crowdsourcing is the antithesis of expertise", substituting out the word 'suspicious' for something much more absolute like 'the antithesis'. Instead she remains more neutral, open to the idea that expertise and crowdsourcing can sometimes go hand in hand. When the writer writes about 'expertise', I interpreted it to mean the more self-absorbed attitudes that come with expertise, rather than the knowledge that constitutes expertise itself.

This passage works as a justification of the ideas behind giving the students at Duke iPods by introducing another method of leaning and problem-solving through crowdsourcing as opposed to being told what to memorize and learn. This passage provides the idea behind crowdsourcing that fits into a greater critique of the standardized American school system, using examples of the iPods and Inez Davidson, the teacher from Alberta.