Intros with Digital Cards!

 A couple of teachers in one of my online courses just shared this site with me as a way to have students introduce themselves in online or other classes. They create decks of cards for each class:  https://bighugelabs.com/deck.php. I created the little card posted here in one or two minutes without joining, which is free, but joining provides additional options. Once the card was completed, I clicked on" download," and it dropped right into my desktop!
 
The main site has many resources to be used in creative, fun ways among students:  https://bighugelabs.com/
 
What do you think? What ideas would you have for these tools to promote learning among adult students? Could they help students read better? Write better? Use computers better? Speak better?  I've shared one idea here. Share yours!
 
Additional idea: Send me your card, and I'll post it here in our Reading and Writing CoP! leecywise@gmail.com
 
Leecy Wise
Moderator
Reading and Writing CoP
 
Leecy with Tanzanian Goat
Leecy and Goat
 
Ed Latham's Puppy card from response below! What a cutie! 
Puppy Intro

Comments

I used this site with students to have them identify something in life that provides an emotional response. The is that they could explicitly use the emotional words that were intended. The cards were required to have a picture, and below that picture a description of the behavior or traits that elicited the emotional response. Additionally, students were challenged to use icons in the top left of the image that helped to indicate what type of elements contributed to the emotional response. 

At that time I was training a young puppy so I created the card here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/9TBs3PZeZU0lEHhz2

You may note the two icons in the top right as the conflicting emotions of the Time necessary to clean up and train a puppy as well as the Joy a young Puppy can provide. 

Students thought this was an interesting exercise because it got them reflecting on the causes of our emotions and how most situations have both positive and negative perspectives. The icons became a fun game of each student trying to use the context of the text together with the icons to name the emotions the person had attached to the card. Fun stuff for sure!

 

Many of my students were aware of the card game Magic the Gathering. This game, created by a phd Mathematician, has been the worlds most popular collectible card game since the 90s and still has national tournaments that give out hundreds of thousands of dollars in prizes. Sites like the one shared offer people the tools to start innovating game ideas they have. What new mechanics can they create? What new abilities do their cards have? Are there new symbols or new types of energies used in your games? What weaknesses does your card have? Having students work in teams to create games using tools like this can be a powerfully creative mathematical exercise as they work on mechanics and balance within their games. 

Love it, love it, love it, Ed. Thanks. I took the liberty of posting your card with the initial prompt. I wondered about those icons. Now they make sense. I adopted a very lively puppy last February, and she's still a handful! I know all about those conflicting emotions. That is an element that we would do well to promote among students: expressing emotions in different health ways! Leecy