Review Of Cathy Davidson's 'Project Classroom Makeover'

In Cathy Davidson’s, “Project Classroom Makeover”, Davidson analyzes and elucidates upon faults she observes in the American education system. Davidson introduces her own experiment, the iPod experiment, in which she distributes free iPods to all first-year Duke University students and all other Duke University students who have the iPod incorporated in at least one of their classes. Through the iPod experiment, Davidson learns that the iPod was capable of more than listening to music. Therefore, through the experiment, the iPod allowed for new, innovative creations. Similarly, in Jonathan Lethem’s, “The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism”, Lethem argues that individuals who have successful ideas should allow up-and-coming artists to use their

In addition, Davidson was critiqued for using iPods as a form of learning due to its high monetary value. However, Davidson argues that the iPod, for what it was capable of, was “an inexpensive computer” (Davidson, 54). Here, Davidson demonstrates that she wants the new forms of education to become more accessible, but not necessarily free. Davidson has found new ways of transforming something like the iPod, which was originally made for only listening to music, to a computer. Furthermore, at the time of the iPod experiment, a computer was relatively expensive. Therefore, if iPods could replace computers, then these better forms of education could become more accessible to everyone, especially underfunded

According to Lethem, artists should not demand any compensation for when others use their work as inspiration, but they should encourage others so that the world can become a more cultured and larger place. Moreover, Lethem presents the hypocrisy in huge corporations, such as the Walt Disney Company, that once used previous works of art as inspiration, but would now sue anyone who tries to make any images that are like those of Disney’s. In Disney’s case, it is important that they know that “to live outside the law, you must be honest” (Lethem, 220). Today, Disney is prepared to sue anyone that tries to use Disney’s plagiarized work as inspiration. However, when Disney was first created, they would have most likely defended themselves by saying they simply used other works, such as Shakespeare, for inspiration, but this is simply not fair. If Disney can live outside the law, they must be honest and