PS – Terri, the link to the video you saw is here.

Yes, I put myself among the geeks. I get overly excited when I place my fingers on an incredibly comfortable keyboard and start to type away. I have felt upgrade envy. I have gotten an overwhelming sense of satisfaction that I am the only one who has ever manually edited our Moodle database to allow for integration with our information management system.

So, what does this have to do with my new project, SpeedGeek Learning. Well, in short, I want to Geek out about things with others. I would like a space that makes it okay to know something so in-depth that you can win over even the most reluctant onlookers. I want other geeks to show off their geekdom and get credit for having done something for the first time.

Or, as Maya Bisineer puts it: Geeks are into figuring out Really Cool Stuff, or RCS. I believe that we must embrace the RCS that all of us have the capactity for. For, if our interactions and learning every day leaves out the passion of RCS, what the heck are we doing? Needless to say, Maya’s presentation will be one of the most important SpeedGeek Videos initially available on the site:

Parents, one of our focuses this semester is writing persuasively. We start with an effective paragraph with strong topic sentences and move to a multi-paragraph persuasive essay, literary analysis essay, narrative writing, poetry, summaries, and online writing.

We would love your input on how writing is important in your line of work.

Some good, thoughtful comments from the parents on the importance of good writing, and a great way to get parents engaged with the work their students are doing at school.

She made contact through Facebook (from home, naturally, because our filter is “protecting” us) and asked if he’d be interested in Skyping in to share his experiences and do a question and answer session with her students. He said yes, so we’ll be Skyping during her 5th period class on October 6th, from 12:14 – 1:12 pm MDT. Her other classes can attend via an in-school field trip (if they don’t have anything pressing going on in their 5th period class), and a couple of other Business teachers will bring their 5th period classes as well. We’ll also be ustreaming it out so parents can watch (everyone is welcome to drop in but, as always, we’ll focus on making sure the technology works for the students, the ustream is a bonus).

Oh yeah, the guy? Jason Shellen. He’s currently CEO of Thing Labs. Previously he was an employee of Pyra Labs and worked on Blogger as it was acquired by Google, and he was the founding product manager of Google Reader.

Once again, it’s great to see teachers and students reaching out to others, and others being kind enough to give some time. It’s so darn easy that I’m wondering what everyone is waiting for? Who could you bring into your classroom?

What was really impressive was that the students’ willingness to be connected back into our class when they are at home feeling crummy. They want to participate, they want to stay in touch, they want to continue to learn and aren’t letting the flu get in their way.

I think this is a nice use of Skype, and I’m sure many other teachers are doing similar things. I know other folks have said this, but I wonder if this outbreak turns even more serious with lots of absences or school closures, if that might accelerate how quickly schools start to move more of their instruction online (in some shape or form). Could H1N1 end up being a tipping point?