Comments on: Education Series: Lesson 10

By: Adam Cirone

Adam Cirone — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:24:31 +0000

I would agree with removing the clicker in the future.

I really enjoy the discussion about “nested-hierarchies” and common descent. The car analogy is good, and I am looking forward to seeing how the final versions will come together. Understanding the evidence for common descent and its power as a scientific theory will help people become more accepting of evolution.

By: GJG

GJG — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:59:30 +0000

Greg, my speaking notes appear on a monitor (which is just my plasma TV hijacked from the family room and put in the exercise room). The camera sits on a tripod behind it. The text is advanced via a PowerPoint presentation from a laptop using the VGA input on the TV. The “clicker” is just one of those remote slide advancers.

I’ve found it to be slightly distracting, and might get somebody else to advance the digital “cue cards” when I shoot the final version.

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 07:13:57 +0000

(This is Link648099, btw…I changed my name to something easier to pronounce!)

Once again, very informative and enjoyable!

Just one question though….what in the world is that clicker you have? It’s been with you from the beginning!

By: GJG

GJG — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:28:00 +0000

Stephen, I know exactly what you’re talking about. I tried to shoot all of these in one night — which forced me to splice multiple takes. Then I edited some stuff out, which created more splicing.

This will all be fixed in the final versions. Now that I know where the graphics are going to be, I highlighted all text that will be “hidden” in the script. If I foul up a word, I simply go back to the last highlighted text and start over. That way the splices will all be hidden behind graphics.

Glad you liked the family reunion analogy. I’m sure others have used it besides myself.

By: Stephen Douglas

Stephen Douglas — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:01:08 +0000

Oh, and another thing: I love the family reunion example. I would have pressed it a bit further by mentioning common characteristics of nuclear families such as square jaws, red hair, cleft chins, etc. In fact, if you wanted to flesh out the analogy a little more, the issue of marriage from outside the family could make some use of the issue of genetic material contributed by in-laws and how that helps identify/exclude, etc. But if not that, I’d definitely include as examples at least a couple of those characteristics I mentioned above.

By: Stephen Douglas

Stephen Douglas — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 01:52:22 +0000

Brilliant as ever - no mispronunciations!

But that’s not very helpful, so let me offer a general critical remark on the production of these. I fully understand and sympathize with your need to splice together multiple takes. But I can’t help but think these are distracting. This could actually fairly easily be remedied by simply inserting slides and pictures just before the “seams”. Here again, I understand that it’s hard to talk for minutes straight without a flub or something, and almost as hard to come up with a new graphic to throw up every time this happens. But I can’t tell you how much more professional this would look and how much less distracting it would be. Take it for what it’s worth!