Issue 14 • September 25, 2024

I’ve always wanted to be a game show host. Turns out, as a teacher there are many opportunities to host game shows in the classroom.

A game show’s novelty and excitement can energize your classroom, making review sessions more interactive and memorable. A playful game encourages teamwork, boosts participation, and helps reinforce key concepts in a fun way.

Jeopardy Joy with Factile 🟦

Coming up with the categories and questions took a lot of time, but students loved playing, so it was worth it. 

Fast forward to more recent years. With generative AI, I began using a chatbot to generate the categories and questions about a topic. I then would do a whole lot of copying and pasting to get the questions into a Jeopardy game (either in a PowerPoint or Google Slides template or in JeopardyLabs). I wished that the generated questions and answers could automatically be put into the game board.

My wish was granted! Factile, an online Jeopardy game maker, has generative AI built in to assist in game creation.

Factile uses AI to automatically create games based on the topic and grade level you enter. You can optionally upload a document to focus questions on specific content.  There are several helpful options with the AI.  You can generate questions in regular Jeopardy style format or as multiple choice format.  You can also generate the questions formed as “clues” just like in the Jeopardy gameshow.

The AI assistance is a welcome time-saver, but Factile has a lot more than just AI going for it. As I’ve played around with Factile, I’m amazed at all the features and options.

• Factile is designed to be played in class or played virtually over a video meeting.

• You can have up to 100 teams, and a team can be an individual or a group.

• Teams can pick a quirky cartoon mascot, including a winking pineapple, waving lobster, and smiling boat captain, or they can upload their own image.

• There’s an array of choices for game settings, managing teams, viewing answers, and adjusting buzzers.

• The game adjusts the team score based on the question amount.

• Buzzer Mode requires a paid plan and turns any phone, tablet, or computer into a buzzer button. Players join by entering a PIN on the Factile website. For teams with multiple players, each player can have a buzzer and the first one on the team to buzz in registers for the team.

• The music and sound effects are a nice touch, and you can toggle them on and off.

• You can save a game’s progress and continue playing at a later time.

• For better game play, I make my own rule that the lowest value must be chosen first in a Jeopardy category. 

• After you’ve played in class, you can give students the shareable link to your game and they can review on their own in Flashcard, Multiple Choice, or Matching Board mode.

• The extensive Factile User Doc has everything you need to know about creating and playing Factile.

When creating a game:

• Jumpstart your game creation process by searching and copying an existing public game. Then customize the questions.

• Add questions to your Question Bank first. Then you can categorize and order questions by dragging questions onto the game board.

• If your questions don’t fit nicely into categories, simply label columns with letters and don’t worry about the questions in each column being related.

• You don’t have to have the traditional 6 Jeopardy categories with 5 questions each. You just need a minimum of one category with one question.

You can use Factile for free. A free account allows you to create and share custom games, but you’ll need a Basic plan if you want to use Factile’s buzzers, include images in questions, or use the other advanced game options.

The AI feature, called AutoGen, is available for the Free account or the Basic plan.  In either case, to use AI, you buy tokens for $5, which is enough to generate 100 - 200 questions.

With a paid plan, you can upload questions in an Excel or CSV file, so it’s possible to ask a chatbot like Gemini to write the categories and questions in a table and format that table to match Factile’s template as an alternative to buying Tokens for AutoGen. 

Try a game of Factile yourself. I suggest this AI-mazing Discoveries game where you can test your AI knowledge. Then, channel your inner game show host and play a game of Factile in class.

Thanks to Factile for sponsoring this issue of the Learning in Hand Newsletter!

Fictional Face Fun 😄

I generated the two pictures of myself above with Meta AI using the prompt, “Imagine me as a game show host.” When your prompt for Meta AI begins with “imagine me,” it uses your likeness in the output.

Meta AI is available on the web and in the Messenger app. It does requires an Instagram or Facebook account to generate images.

The first time you want to use an Imagine Me prompt, do it from inside the Messenger app on your phone. Tap the Meta AI button and enter the words “imagine me.” It'll snap three photos of you, which it'll use as the basis for all future Imagine Me prompts.

Perhaps you could use Imagine Me versions of yourself like you could a Bitmoji. Dress your imaginary self to match your lesson topic and insert it into your slideshows and documents.

Below I imagined myself as an architect, superhero, Roman solider, and detective.

Tip: I sometimes add the word “smiling” to the prompt, otherwise I look too serious in these fun photos.

Piece by Piece

The Piece by Piece Lego Minifigure Generator does not use AI. You choose your minifig’s skin tone, facial expression, hair, and outfit. The site then gives you three versions you can download: you and Pharrell, you with a yellow brick background, and you with no background.

The Minifigure Generator promotes the Piece by Piece movie, which comes to theaters October 11. It’s the life story of Pharrell Williams told through Lego animation.

Tip: The site automatically plays music. There is a Mute button in the bottom right corner of the webpage.

Design to Drive ➡️

You can save a Canva design to Google Drive and open it in Google Slides. It takes several clicks to export, and the fonts and formatting might not exactly match the original.

Click Share → See All → Google Drive  → Choose folder → Change File Type to PPTX → Save.

Alternatively, you can go to Share → See All → Microsoft PowerPoint → Download. Then upload the PPTX to your Google Drive.

Why go from Canva to Google Slides? Perhaps you want your design to be stored in your Google Drive. Or, maybe sharing and collaboration works better for you in Google Slides than it does in Canva.

Animated Alphabet ⌨️

Check out this ABC book for keyboard shortcuts in Google apps by Jessica Twomey and Christine Pinto. Each slide is cleverly illustrated with an animated GIF.

Dissolve Distractions 💨

If you’ve updated your Mac, iPad, or iPhone to the latest operating system, you now have access to Safari’s new Distraction Control.

When browsing a webpage in Safari, tap the Page Menu icon (a rectangle with two lines underneath) in the address bar and choose Hide Distracting Items. With a slick animation, distracting elements like ads, related content, and extra menus disappear after clicking them. Tap Done to continue browsing.

This feature is great for screen mirroring during lessons, helping students focus on the content, not the clutter.

To bring back the hidden items, just tap the Page Menu icon and select Show Hidden Items.

Disco Dazzle 🪩

If you want to hear more from me, listen to the latest episode of the Easy EdTech Podcast. I chat with Dr. Monica Burns about students becoming graphic designers.

Smiles from Iowa,

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