Orlando Jones skyped with my class today.

[tishaturk]

I just. WHAT.

Some of you no doubt remember what happened last year: One of my students tweeted Orlando Jones, he responded, epic hilarity ensued.

This year, I put readings by and about Mr. Jones on the syllabus: A Daily Dot piece from last fall about his interest in fic, an essay he wrote for HuffPo, and of course the Tumblr posts referenced

Comments

[killabeez]

we balanced the webcam on a stack of student notebooks plus copies of Jameson's FIC and Jenkins' Textual Poachers

This is my favorite part of this whole wonderful tale. ♥

[tishaturk]

One of my students mentioned it to him at some point and he laughed and laughed. (And then talked about Textual Poachers and fangirled about meeting Jenkins--SO CUTE.)

[jarrow]

Good luck topping THAT next year ;-)

[sabaceanbabe]

I bet if she invited him to cosplay in a class, he'd do it in a heartbeat.

[tishaturk]

I MAY HAVE TO TEST THIS THEORY.

[tishaturk]

One of my students is on the speakers committee; she grabbed me after class and said "Do you think we could get him to come speak next year??? I am totally going to bring it up in the committee!!!" So -- I mean, at this point, nothing would surprise me, you know? And hey, we got Bill Nye earlier this fall; why NOT Orlando Jones?

[sabaceanbabe]

That is just too freakin' AWESOME! Much like Mr. Jones himself. :D

[tishaturk]

So delightful, seriously. :D

[vonniek]

Every time you tell once of your teaching stories, I wish I could de-age myself 25 years so that I can attend your classes. Although this one would be kinda hard to top. :) Wow.

[tishaturk]

VONNIE. IT WAS AMAZING.

Also: apparently a handful of students from the class went over to the Student Activities office right after class and filled out the paperwork to start a fan studies club--an official student organization. Guess who's the faculty advisor. :D

[avidrosette]

That is awesome! Thanks for telling us about it! I'd be really curious to know his thoughts on the "key differences between the way that the money people at networks see fans and the way that he (and by extension other actors and the creative side of the industry) relates to fans." Are the money folks trying to pigeonhole fan demographics and monetize them, or do they assume they know the demographics and dismiss them, or something else? Thanks again for sharing what sounds like an awesome experience!

[tishaturk]

I didn't take notes while we were talking, and my memory is not good, but some of my students have been posting quotes to Tumblr; I will see what I can reconstruct for you. :)