Reindeer Games: Make AI Professional Development a Holiday Hit

Hello Artificial Intelligence Fans,

Today, I want to walk you through our recent AI professional development creation and how you can replicate it at your holiday party (or faculty meeting).

At the bottom, you’ll find a step-by-step guide and a template to turn your event into a professional development hit!

I can’t take full credit for this. Abby Bell, the Provost Office’s Executive Assistant, initiated the idea.

The Idea

Recently, at our faculty meetings, we’ve introduced AI tips to inspire creativity and innovation. But we decided to infuse some holiday cheer into our professional development. Inspired by the Provost Office’s tradRecently, at our faculty meetings, we’ve introduced AI tips to inspire creativity and innovation. But Abby decided to infuse some holiday cheer into our professional development. Inspired by the Provost Office’s tradition of turning December faculty meetings into a celebration of the year with interactive games (last year’s trivia game earned my team a very stylish mug), we thought: why not make AI the centerpiece of this year’s festivities?

Abby wanted to allow people to use the faculty celebration list (who was promoted, received an award, or published a book) to create AI-inspired artwork, poems, and possible songs. You can rarely get everything you want into a single activity. Setting goals upfront will help you prioritize various technologies and find the right tool for the task.

After some brainstorming, we landed on four main goals:

Help faculty creatively use AI to celebrate each other.
Display the results for everyone to enjoy.
Let people vote for their favorites and select a winner.
Keep it simple and accessible.

The game needed to be simple on several levels; it needed to be engaging for faculty that may not use AI much; it needed to be easy to submit and like posts; and finally, you needed to do it all on a single screen. Our initial idea was to use a hashtag and let people post on social media. While not a bad idea, you always run the risk of someone not utilizing a particular social media platform. We also brainstormed using a Google form to submit work, but we only had an hour; pulling the photos and posting them would take too long.

So, I turned to AI to help solve the problem. I prompted Chat-GPT with the following question: “How do we let people submit photos live during a presentation?” It suggested Padlet.

The Setup

Padlet is a tool that makes interactive collaboration easy. Here’s why we chose it:

Ease of Use: Participants can access the board by scanning a QR code. No accounts or downloads are required.
Versatility: Faculty can submit AI-generated creations—text, images, poems, or anything else they are inspired to create.
Engagement: Padlet allows everyone to view submissions in real time, vote for their favorites, and leave comments.

How We Organized the Activity

Preparation:
- Prompt Table Guides: We created guides to help participants craft strong prompts for AI tools. These guides included basic knowledge, such as:
  - Be Direct and Specific: Avoid vague instructions; the AI responds better to clarity.
  - Choose Strong Verbs: Use action-oriented and descriptive words.
  - Encourage Depth: Ask the AI to “take its time” or “focus on detail” for richer results.
  - Set Style or Audience: Specify who the content is for and the tone.
  - Avoid Negatives: Instead of ‘Don’t write formally,’ use ‘Write informally.'”
- Deputizing AI Helpers: We identified faculty members with strong AI skills and asked them to serve as roving helpers during the activity. Their job was to assist less experienced participants in crafting prompts and navigating AI tools. It also removed the super-users from sweeping the prizes.
Low-Tech Option:
We added a creative, hands-on option for those who prefer to keep it simple. Participants could draw a gingerbread representation of their dean, snap a photo, and upload it to Padlet. While this does allow people not to use AI, it is important to note they will still witness what AI can do. If you are not in the academic space, it could be a supervisor or team member.
Execution::
- Kickoff: At the event, we displayed the Padlet board with the QR code in the corner
- Creative Submissions: Faculty had 20–30 minutes to craft their submissions using AI tools or the low-tech option.
- Voting and Feedback: Once submissions were uploaded, the Padlet board became the centerpiece of the event. Everyone could browse the entries, vote for their favorites, and leave comments.

Why This Approach Worked

Accessible for All Levels: The combination of tech-savvy guides and low-tech alternatives ensured that everyone could participate, regardless of their comfort level with AI.
Interactive and Fun: The voting and commenting features on Padlet encouraged engagement and created a sense of community.
Showcasing AI’s Potential: By framing AI as a creative tool, we demonstrated its versatility and accessibility in a way that resonated with faculty.

The Outcome

We want the “Reindeer Games” to turn professional development into a festive, collaborative experience. While we haven’t had our meeting yet, we hope the faculty walk away with a better understanding of AI, some holiday laughs, and a renewed sense of creativity. And who knows—maybe some stylish swag for winning.

How You Can Do It

If you’re inspired to bring a similar activity to your team, here’s what you’ll need:

A collaborative platform like Padlet, where participants can share and vote on submissions.
Examples and guides to help participants craft effective AI prompts.
Support from experienced users to assist those who are less familiar with AI tools.
Low-tech alternatives for those who prefer a hands-on approach.

By combining creativity, accessibility, and a touch of holiday magic, you can make AI professional development engaging, memorable, and fun.

Extra Credit

Try adding live conversational AI to help you introduce the game and give a few tips. Hold your phone up to the mic. My conversational AI is named Alex.

Here is an example of what it could sound like.

Resource Downloads

As promised, here is a step-by-step guide with the prompt guide and a low-tech printable. Also, if you need help setting up your Padlet board, download this PDF tutorial.

A step-by-step guide to creating an AI game for professional development.

Reindeer Games: Download

A step-by-step guide to using Padlet.

Creating a Padlet Board: Download

Happy “Reindeer Gaming,” and may the best gingerbread supervisor win!

The image was created by Midjourney using the following prompt: Imagine AI reindeer games with gingerbreads and full of Christmas spirit.