Novelty can come in many different
shapes and forms. Duke University, for example took advantage of a deal with
Apple to give students iPods to create apps – something previously unheard of
and regarded as extremely controversial. “Duke took a lot of heat for being a
‘rich, privileged institution’” (Davidson 54). Many of the critics frowned upon
Duke’s decision to make a deal with Apple that gave students iPods to help
supplement their education, but there were some positive results from this
infamous “iPod Experiment”. Students “turned their iPods into social media and networked their
learning in ways we [the administrators at Duke] did not anticipate” (Davidson
52). The students took full advantage of this new technology and found
different ways to use it that had not previously been considered. Engineering
students took the iPods apart and figured out how they work, medical students
used the iPods to listen to irregular heartbeats, music students used the iPods
as a means of sharing their composition with one another, and the list goes on.
Many of these new ideas conjured up by the students at Duke were used by Apple
to design apps for the iPods to make their product more appealing to a wider
audience. Once they became apps, the new functions of the iPods that the
students had thought up became an add-on that could theoretically be on any
given iPod so long as the owner downloaded the app from the app store. The new
and exciting functions of the iPod thought up by students were now available to
anyone and could be put on any iPod so long as it had sufficient memory
available. Mrs. Davidson, a teacher from Mountain View, Alberta, was considered
one of a kind when she thought. She constantly fought with the school’s
superintendant because “she refused, ever, to teach to a test” (Davidson 65).
This teacher had her own process and ideas of how teaching should be done. “She
was very skeptical of the concept of learning disabilities…She insisted that
everyone had a unique way of learning and believed that to be true of the
smartest students as well as the academically weakest” (Davidson 65). This was
a teacher who was driven and motivated - she stood out amongst other teachers
because of her unorthodox methods. “She covered what the province demanded of
third, fourth, and fifth graders, and far more, but she always did it her way,
as a challenge, a game, an interactive communal and learning activity. She made
learning fun,” (Davidson 65). This teacher went beyond the bare minimum and
taught what she could in new and exciting ways that really helped the students
learn and even gave her some notoriety – “graduate students earning their
degrees in the province were coming to Mountain View to find out what was
happening there” (Davidson 65). Mrs. Davidson’s methods of teaching stood as
exemplary amongst teachers and were considered novel and outstanding at the
time and even held success stories. “Ted, who had his mother [Mrs. Davidson] as
a teacher for all three years…ended up winning a full scholarship to the
University of Chicago, where he tested out of virtually all of his first- and
second-year college courses” (Davidson 66). Mrs. Davidson’s new methods of
teaching were an inspiration to Cathy Davidson and played a role in her
agreeing to take up the deal with Apple on behalf of Duke to supply the
students with iPods as a new form of teaching. In this way, the novelty became
inspiration and created a second novelty. Ideas were built upon and changed to
meet the needs of the user, but who did the original idea belong to?
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Novelty can come in many different shapes and forms. Duke University, for example took advantage of a deal with Apple to give students iPods to create apps – something previously unheard of and regarded as extremely controversial. “Duke took a lot of heat for being a ‘rich, privileged institution’” (Davidson 54). Many of the critics frowned upon Duke’s decision to make a deal with Apple that gave students iPods to help supplement their education, but there were some positive results from this infamous “iPod Experiment”. Students “turned their iPods into social media and networked their learning in ways we [the administrators at Duke] did not anticipate” (Davidson 52). The students took full advantage of this new technology and found different ways to use it that had not previously been considered. Engineering students took the iPods apart and figured out how they work, medical students used the iPods to listen to irregular heartbeats, music students used the iPods as a means of sharing their composition with one another, and the list goes on. One person would come up with an idea, share it with another who would share it with a third, and the ideas began to proliferate (hence, the iPods becoming “social media”). Many of these new ideas conjured up by the students at Duke were used by Apple to design apps for the iPods to make their product more appealing to a wider audience. Once they became apps, the new functions of the iPods that the students had thought up became an add-on that could theoretically be on any given iPod so long as the owner downloaded the app from the app store and the device had sufficient memory available. The students still learned from the experiment, finding new ways to utilize every function of a glorified music player, and the “iPod experiment” was deemed a success at trying to approach learning from a different angle, yet using iPods to change the means through which teachers teach was not the only alternative approach to education discussed by Davidson in her essay.
Mrs. Davidson, a teacher from Mountain View, Alberta, was considered one of a kind when she thought. She constantly fought with the school’s superintendent because “she refused, ever, to teach to a test” (Davidson 65). In a traditional elementary school system, teachers go by a syllabus of sorts and teach their students material in preparation for certain questions and problems that would be found on an exam that the students would take after having completed the unit, but Mrs. Davidson didn’t do that. Mrs. Davidson had her own processes and ideas of how teaching should be done, which didn’t always coincide with traditional teaching methods. She didn’t believe that students should be taught something just to prepare for a test, but rather she went beyond the spectrum of the syllabus. As stated by Cathy Davidson in regards to Mrs. Davidson, “[s]he covered what the province demanded of third, fourth, and fifth graders, and far more, but she always did it her way, as a challenge, a game, an interactive communal and learning activity. She made learning fun,” (Davidson 65). This teacher went beyond the bare minimum and taught what she could in new and exciting ways that really helped the students learn. By approaching teaching from different ways through games or social learning, she was able to keep the kids interested and even got notoriety for her style of teaching.
“[G]raduate students earning their degrees in the province were coming to Mountain View to find out what was happening there” (Davidson 65). Graduate students made their way to a small Canadian town to watch an elementary school teacher just go through her motions to find different ways through which they could approach teaching, and for good reason - Mrs. Davidson’s methods of teaching stood as exemplary amongst teachers and were considered novel and outstanding at the time and even held success stories. “Ted, who had his mother [Mrs. Davidson] as a teacher for all three years…ended up winning a full scholarship to the University of Chicago, where he tested out of virtually all of his first- and second-year college courses” (Davidson 66). Having the same teacher for three years in elementary school would most definitely have a strong impact on how a student is able to learn as they get older, as students in elementary school are still developing mentally. The University of Chicago is an incredibly prestigious school, so having a student who had the same teacher for three years in their developmental stage get a full scholarship to that school and test “out of virtually all of his first- and second-year college courses” (Davidson 66) shows that the methods through which the teacher used (the teacher in this case being Mrs. Davidson) shows how strong of an educator he or she really is. Mrs. Davidson’s new methods of teaching were an inspiration to Cathy Davidson and played a role in her agreeing to take up the deal with Apple on behalf of Duke to supply the students with iPods as a new form of teaching. In this way, the novelty became inspiration and created a second novelty. Ideas were built upon one-another and changed to meet the needs of the user, but who did the original idea belong to? Was there an inspiration for Mrs. Davidson that lead her to teach in the ways she had? If so, what was the inspiration for the idea that inspired her? Following a discussion with those who peer reviewed my paper, I decided that it would be better not only for me to break up the lengthy paragraph I originally had, but to extend the segments that I break it up into by doing more analyses of the quotes that I had included. I was able to find a way to separate the paragraph into three smaller paragraphs that seemed logical to me, and from there supplemented each piece either by moving around quotes to improve the organization of the paragraph, or by adding more analyses to help strengthen my argument that "Novelty is something new emerging from something which already exists". By further analyzing quotes regarding Mrs. Davidson's teaching methods, which were considered one of a kind and singular at the time, I was able to help strengthen the argument for my thesis statement. I also tried to identify parts within my essay where I was using quotes more as summations of my arguments and tried to extrapolate information from those quotes and apply it to my argument rather than just summarizing them. I still have a fair amount of work I want to do with my essay, but I'm getting somewhere at least.
“[G]raduate students earning their degrees in the province were coming to Mountain View to find out what was happening there” (Davidson 65). Graduate students made their way to a small Canadian town to watch an elementary school teacher just go through her motions to find different ways through which they could approach teaching, and for good reason - Mrs. Davidson’s methods of teaching stood as exemplary amongst teachers and were considered novel and outstanding at the time and even held success stories. “Ted, who had his mother [Mrs. Davidson] as a teacher for all three years…ended up winning a full scholarship to the University of Chicago, where he tested out of virtually all of his first- and second-year college courses” (Davidson 66). Having the same teacher for three years in elementary school would most definitely have a strong impact on how a student is able to learn as they get older, as students in elementary school are still developing mentally. The University of Chicago is an incredibly prestigious school, so having a student who had the same teacher for three years in their developmental stage get a full scholarship to that school and test “out of virtually all of his first- and second-year college courses” (Davidson 66) shows that the methods through which the teacher used (the teacher in this case being Mrs. Davidson) shows how strong of an educator he or she really is. Mrs. Davidson’s new methods of teaching were an inspiration to Cathy Davidson and played a role in her agreeing to take up the deal with Apple on behalf of Duke to supply the students with iPods as a new form of teaching. In this way, the novelty became inspiration and created a second novelty. Ideas were built upon one-another and changed to meet the needs of the user, but who did the original idea belong to? Was there an inspiration for Mrs. Davidson that lead her to teach in the ways she had? If so, what was the inspiration for the idea that inspired her? Following a discussion with those who peer reviewed my paper, I decided that it would be better not only for me to break up the lengthy paragraph I originally had, but to extend the segments that I break it up into by doing more analyses of the quotes that I had included. I was able to find a way to separate the paragraph into three smaller paragraphs that seemed logical to me, and from there supplemented each piece either by moving around quotes to improve the organization of the paragraph, or by adding more analyses to help strengthen my argument that "Novelty is something new emerging from something which already exists". By further analyzing quotes regarding Mrs. Davidson's teaching methods, which were considered one of a kind and singular at the time, I was able to help strengthen the argument for my thesis statement. I also tried to identify parts within my essay where I was using quotes more as summations of my arguments and tried to extrapolate information from those quotes and apply it to my argument rather than just summarizing them. I still have a fair amount of work I want to do with my essay, but I'm getting somewhere at least.
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