I did a very low key, casual presentation with my mother and my neighbor since I live at home. It consisted of a powerpoint that followed the way the class was structured, because I thought that this structure worked well for me in learning the material and it makes sense.  My presentation felt a lot like a seminar or a lecture; I did not engage my audience beyond Q&A and discussions which featured reflections about what my audience had learned.

Looking back, the most difficult aspect of this project was finding a balance between presenting too much information but still providing a broad understanding of the topic. I do not think I could have cut out parts of my outline, but perhaps could have presented it differently as opposed to talking so much. I think I should have used a petcha-kucha, or at least had a time limit on each slide (at the same time however, I had unforeseen technical problems with my phone as I was recording my presentation; I kept running out of memory on my phone and constantly had my presentation interrupted because I had to transfer pieces of it onto my computer). Ironically, my audience took these interruptions and treated them as intermissions in which they reflected amongst themselves about what I had just talked about.

Even though my presentation was like a lecture, I still consider it a success because I was able to remold my audience’s views on homelessness. At the start of my presentation, I asked my audience what they thought was the number one cause of homelessness in the US. My neighbor said substance abuse and mental illness and my mother agreed, with the added stipulation that substance abuse and mental illness are two individual causes that can prevent someone from finding work or can cause someone to lose their job. During the fortunate/unfortunate pauses in my presentation, my audience said that they were aware of the information I was providing but had never connected it with homelessness.  I repeatedly emphasized that the cause of homelessness is the lack of affordable housing and high rents. In addition, I asked my audience at the start what they thought of homeless people in general. To my saddened surprise (but in an ironic way, it was a good surprise), my audience viewed homeless people as dangerous or potentially violent. After the discussion about what life is like for the homeless as well as describing the negative discourses revolving around homelessness, they came to understand that the stereotypical ideas that they have held are social constructs they were conditioned to believe. Thus, I believe my project, in spite of the flaws, was successful because it actual caused learning to take place and I was able to change how they view homelessness.

I know my neighbor in particular is likely to forward this information to her own circle of friends because of how talkative and extroverted she is. She’s very passionate about current affairs and social justice, and I chose her as a member of my audience because I know she has a history of disseminating information she picks up from newspaper articles, to other friends, etc, to her own social network. In this sense, I hope the knowledge I presented will be passed around. I personally believe this is the most important part of teaching. If moved enough, people will pay knowledge forward.