30 May 2012
Virginia geology on video: The Grenville Orogeny & the rifting of Rodinia
Posted by Callan Bentley
I’m playing around with Microsoft Expression screen capture for the book project I’m working on, and here is a video I worked up yesterday as a demonstration of this new way of telling a geologic story:
The Grenville Orogeny and the rifting of Rodinia (opening of the Iapetus Ocean):
[youtube=”www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6itZWD8bQc”]
I’m frustrated by the way my voice keeps blowing out the microphone, and how often I say “um” and how I didn’t plan the inset video so that it didn’t cover up anything critical in the image. And, of course, I’m speaking at 90 mph in order to get through 20-some slides in under 10 minutes. What do you think? Let’s have some critique, here. This is in the early stages of the game; I’m open to your input.
Callan Bentley is Associate Professor of Geology at Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. For his work on this blog, the National Association of Geoscience Teachers recognized him with the James Shea Award. He has also won the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia, and the Biggs Award for Excellence in Geoscience Teaching from the Geoscience Education Division of the Geological Society of America. In previous years, Callan served as a contributing editor at EARTH magazine, President of the Geological Society of Washington and President the Geo2YC division of NAGT.
Looks great. You gave a lot of really good “geology 101” info like describing what foliation is, why the Iapetus is called the Iapetus, and defining a lot of good vocabulary (with pictures which is nice). In light of that, the only thing I’d add is how we get the dates for the basement rocks.
You may want to add to your graphic or mention that upon continental rifting, the renewed rifting does not always occur along the same rifting boundaries as before.. Might be difficult to change the graphic, but easy to add a bit of a disclaimer.
Looks good, even to someone with my limited knowledge of geology (although, given the time since my freshman geology classes, it was surprising how many of the terms I recognised and, worse, knew the meaning of).
You might want to try another microphone, though. Turning down the mic volume might help, but I think the mike’s at fault here.
Great video. I don’t think you need the inset of yourself speaking the whole video. Maybe a fullscreen shot of you at the beginning for an introduction then just go with the slides. Like the Houses of the Holy reference.
Great video! I agree with the comment that the inset of you interferes a bit, especially since at one point it covers some of the information on the graphics information behind the inset that I wanted to see and read. I forwarded the link to several of my basic geology students. It also helped me to visualize my professional research on old Rodinia margins here in New Mexico and northern Mexico. Thanks for making it.