How to Play
Here are 7 activity ideas for using the Analog Inspiration card decks with educators and students. Of course, there are many more creative ways you might activate these cards, and you could certainly build an entire experience around one card! I offer a variety of workshops, talks, and intensives using the decks, so please contact me if you'd like to request a professional development opportunity at your institution. Be well and happy teaching!
Classic Mode
Don’t overthink it; use Analog Inspiration to generate new teaching ideas and cultivate new conversations among educators, students, and administrators in your community.
Setting: Anywhere
Decks Needed: 1 per person or group
Group Size: 1 or 2-6
1 Player: Shuffle the deck, pick a card, and start generating new teaching ideas.
2-6 Players (preferred): Shuffle, pass out five cards to each person. Provide folks with time to read and silently reflect:
How does this value show up in my teaching?
How might I center it more deeply in my design, my practice, and my relationships with students?
How might we work together to build something new for our students, or for ourselves?
Then, invite folks to "play” one card of their choosing by laying it face up on the table. Discuss this card for a few minutes, and then move onto the next person. After playing a card, pick up a new card from the pile. Repeat for 10-15 minutes or until all cards are gone. Make sure everyone gets a chance to play at least one card!
Card Swap
Use Analog Inspiration to get folks moving and talking at the beginning of your professional development or school event.
Setting: Campus Events, School Trainings, Professional Development Workshops, Orientations, etc.
Decks Needed: 1 deck per 40 people
Group Size: 2 (constantly changing)
Directions: Pass out one card to each person. To start the activity, ask folks to read the card and reflect on its concept. Then, invite folks to stand up, walk around the room, and find a partner. Pairs take turns sharing the concept on their card and discussing a prompt of your choosing. Perhaps something like, “How does this concept show up in my teaching?” or “What are you currently doing in your class to promote, prioritize, or address this concept?” Only after a minute or two of discussion, invite folks to swap cards with their peer, move on, and find someone else. Repeat for 10-15 minutes!
Take It or Leave It
Use Analog Inspiration to help folks prioritize their values and reflect on how critical human skills will be impacted by the emergence of generative AI.
Setting: Faculty Development Workshop
Decks Needed: 1 per table
Group Size: 4-8
Directions: Invite participants to pick three cards from the deck. Give everyone a few moments to read their cards silently and reflect on them. Ask participants to identify two cards to keep: one card that best represents their personal values as an educator and one card they believe will have the greatest impact on their discipline’s future. Next, have participants “discard” their remaining third card by passing it to the person on their left. Allow everyone to read their new card, then repeat the process: keep the cards they want, pass one to the left. Continue for a set number of rounds or minutes, with one person at each table drawing from the deck and the last person in the chain discarding extras. End the card exchange by inviting each table to display their two cards face up on the table. Discuss as a group: Why did you keep the cards you did? How do you see generative AI impacting this value, concern, or skill?
“Dealing” with AI
Use Analog Inspiration to develop values-based, applied strategies for responding to and proactively addressing difficult AI-related scenarios in the classroom.
Setting: Professional Development Workshop or Intensive
Decks Needed: 1 per table
Group Size: 4-6
Directions: Draft a few scenarios related to AI, teaching, and learning. They should be based on real, difficult scenarios that educators and students are navigating in this moment. Invite tables to turn all of their cards face-up on the table so they are easily viewable. Display the scenario on the slideshow and instruct participants to look at their cards and, together as a table, select 3-5 cards that might help them respond to or proactively address the situation. In other words, they are tasked with building a “hand” of cards to take with them and guide their actions in navigating or preventing this difficult scenario. After table discussion, debrief as a large group.
Targeted Task Time
Use Analog Inspiration to structure targeted individual or collective work time, helping instructors develop tangible strategies for integrating human-centered learning into their own courses.
Setting: Course Design Intensive
Decks Needed: 1 per person (or 1 per table)
Group Size: 1 (or 2-6)
Directions: For individual work time, simply provide each participant with a deck and ask them to work through it, integrating ideas and completing tasks that resonate with them. After 30-60 minutes of work time, invite folks to share their progress with one another. For more collaborative work time, place the deck in the center of each table and turn over three cards face up. Ask participants to read all three cards aloud to their table mates, and then, individually and silently, choose one card to focus on for the next 15 minutes of individual work time. During that time, invite participants to develop one concrete way to integrate that concept more deeply into their own course. This could mean simply trying out the AI-activity idea on the card if applicable; or, it could involve coming up with a new original idea. After 15 minutes, ask participants share and compare their work with folks at their tables. Repeat with a new set of three cards!
A Student-Centered Start
Use Analog Inspiration to foster student reflection and critical engagement with AI during the first week of class.
Setting: The Classroom
Decks Needed: 1 per class (or more, depending on class size)
Group Size: 2-180
Directions: During the first week of class, share a physical or digital version of the deck with your students and ask them to reflect on one card that really resonates with them. Invite them to share an example from their life where this value, concern, or skill impacted their learning (either positively or negatively). You might ask students to turn in written reflections or bring their reflection to class to share with one another. Use this conversation as a segue into a discussion of how generative AI might be utilized or discouraged in your course in support these human-centered values and skills. For a more targeted first-week activity, go through the deck and curate a custom set of student-facing cards (I recommend starting with cards like Belonging, Bias, Hope, Insight, Intention, Motivation, Trust). Share these curated cards with students and invite them to complete the task on one of the cards and bring their work to class for community discussion.
Concept
Clusters
Use Analog Inspiration to help your department identify the values, skills, and teaching strategies most critical to your curriculum as generative AI reshapes how students learn and engage with course material.
Setting: Departmental Retreat
Decks Needed: 1 per table
Group Size: 3-10
Directions: Place ~25 cards face up on the table. Give participants time to quietly read through the concepts and reflect on what each might mean for their discipline given generative AI’s emergence. Ask folks to work together for 15-20 minutes to create a card constellation map on their table by sorting their cards into meaningful clusters or “starter packs.” For instance, participants might group “Motivation” and “Curiosity” together; or, they might cluster “Perseverance,” “Authenticity,” and “Process” together to describe the importance of iterative, real-world assessments throughout the curriculum. Once groups create their clusters, discuss: How might this set of values and skills be enhanced or threatened by AI? Which cluster feels most critical for us to thread throughout our curriculum at this moment? Finally, ask each table to select one cluster and map out a curriculum strategy: How will they intentionally thread these connected values and skills throughout their curriculum as AI impacts both their field and student learning?