I was pretty nervous about my TED Talk because I was really struggling to decide what information to keep in my presentation and what I had to cut in order to stay under the time limit. I was pretty unsure about how strong my information was because I was afraid I wouldn’t be clear enough in my ideas to actual exemplify my thesis as well as a paradigm shift in general. I also spent a lot of time trying to make my presentation slides as effective as possible, after deciding that the previous theme that I used was just not a good fit. In terms of my recorded presentation, I think it went well. I was pleasantly surprised that I rerecorded my presentation significantly fewer times, which I attribute to knowing the information a little better. I also really loved watching my group members’ projects and I thought they all had such amazing topics as well as presentations in general.
For our History of a Public Controversy Project, I have a few ideas that I’ve been brainstorming that might work well. In terms of the current times we are living in, I think it might be interesting to consider how COVID-19 and enforcing mask-wearing in public has turned into a controversial topic, especially as people cite their constitutional rights. Another idea I had was about the idea of privacy rights, especially in terms of government surveillance and things like that. I think this is another topic that has some potential in terms of considering how people consider the commonplace that the government is supposed to keep its citizens safe in contrast with people considering how this government surveillance is impeding on people’s rights. I’m really looking forward to hearing what my other group members come up with for this project and working with them on this!