{"id":19021,"date":"2019-02-05T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/community.macmillan.com\/community\/the-english-community\/bedford-bits\/blog\/2019\/02\/05\/zombies-in-the-writing-classroom"},"modified":"2019-02-22T18:59:32","modified_gmt":"2019-02-22T23:59:32","slug":"zombies-in-the-writing-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/05\/zombies-in-the-writing-classroom\/","title":{"rendered":"Zombies in the Writing Classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Six<\/a>I kicked off Spring semester with some discussion questions meant to work as icebreakers. Two of the prompts are fairly typical: one asks students to talk about an object significant to their careers, and the other asks students to brainstorm characteristics of technical writing based on their experience and observations.<\/p>\n

As an alternative to those two fairly customary discussion topics, I devised \u00a0this third, more playful prompt, \u201cYour Career and the Zombie Apocalypse\u201d:<\/p>\n

Imagine that the \u00a0Zombie Apocalypse is upon us. The walking dead are bearing down upon your part of the country, and everyone in the world is working to stop them and preserve life in the world as it was before the zombie awakening. As a way to introduce yourself to the class, write a reply that tells us the following:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. your major and career goal (i.e., what do you want to be when you graduate?).<\/li>\n
  2. what one thing people in your career can do right now* to stop the zombies.<\/li>\n
  3. how that one thing will be \u00a0effective.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    *In other words, this one thing needs to be a capability that your career already has. You cannot make up some solution that does not exist. That would be too easy :)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    I\u2019m delighted to report that the Zombies Discussion has been the most popular by far. Even more significant to me, students\u2019 responses are showing a wonderful level of creative and analytical thinking. For instance, one computer science major suggested creating programs that analyze live video streams, comparing appearance and movements to what zombies look like and the ways that zombies walk in order to determine when zombies are near. Not a bad solution, I think. Even better, \u00a0however, were the replies . One student asked how the program would tell the difference between zombies and people in zombie costumes. Another wondered how the program would differentiate between zombies and people with mobility issues, like senior citizens or people with injuries or disabilities.<\/p>\n

    Other students have talked about military drone strikes, protecting information systems, security of the water supply, crowdsourcing reports of outbreaks, social media survivor networks, cures and vaccinations, DNA modification, landscape barriers, and more.<\/p>\n

    Zombies aren\u2019t really my thing, but the success of this icebreaker has convinced me that they have a place in this course. I am even wondering about an all-Zombie section of technical writing. Imagine the assignment opportunities:<\/p>\n