AMC is partnering with University of California at Irvine to offer a free online course about The Walking Dead. Eh, it’s still more useful than Newberry College’s Social Media major.
The eight-week course, titled “Society, Science, Survival: Lessons from AMC’s The Walking Dead,” will include content, video clips and examples from the show, as well as possible participation from the actors.
Possible participation? Don’t tease us like this, AMC.
And it won’t be just about zombies. The companies said the interdisciplinary course will use the show as a lens to examine topics like Maslow’s hierarchy, public health and pandemics and the science of hope. “Others have focused on specific pedagogical models and approaches… [We wondered] how could we get a course with high numbers of users and engagement?” Instructure co-founder Brian Whitmer said in a briefing ahead of the announcement. “We decided to see what a pop culture connection does to engagement.” [Gigaom]
He said “engagement” not just once, but twice? Taintpunch this man.
The online course convenes each Monday starting October 14th, the day after The Walking Dead‘s season four premiere. It joins other zombie-centric college courses like Michigan State University’s “Surviving the Coming Zombie Apocalypse: Disasters, Catastrophes and Human Behavior”, Columbia College Chicago’s “Zombies in Popular Media”, and ENGL 333 at the University of Baltimore. At least it’s a free class. I can’t imagine taking classes in something you can’t use for a job and then end up being a blogger or something. Oh. Wait. I can imagine that.
Feeling bad because you missed out on the cool new products announced by Her Universe at SDCC? Today’s your lucky day because those items are now available online. There’s the Darth Vader dress, Star Trek costume tee, The Walking Dead hoodie and lots of great t-shirts.
I would like to say this is a candid video, just two dudes who ran into each other on a back lot and started talking about killing zombies. I said I’d like to, in reality it looks like AMC is using former movie maker, now hockey jersey model Kevin Smith as the promotional juggernaut for the forthcoming fourth season of The Walking Dead.
Smith hosts two (in what appears to be of many) behind the scenes videos, the first one centers on Norman Reedus and his characters weapon of choice.
Next, Smith talks with Lauren Cohan about her weapon of choice… the power of love! Ok, really it’s about her marriage to Glenn at the end of season 3, but still love is a powerful weapon.
And speaking of Glenn and Maggie, EW just posted a pic from a season 4 promotional shoot featuring Cohan and Steven Yeun practicing CPR, a valuable skill in a zombie apocalypse I am sure we can all agree.
“It’s in a really safe place, they’re in a good groove, living as close to what normal life should be,” says Yeun. “Whatever you can call that in this world.”
Is it bad that part of me wanted zombies to rush Smith and Reedus in the first clip, forcing Reedus to give Smith a good old fashioned Otis to the knee? Nothing personal against Kevin Smith, I just think it would have punched the scene up a little.
Cosplay Zone 