- Personalized Learning with AI Activity Cards
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- August 2025: One Great Tech Tool, Two New AI Cards, and Three Good Reads.
August 2025: One Great Tech Tool, Two New AI Cards, and Three Good Reads.
There’s something energizing about the start of a new school year, isn’t there? Fresh notebooks, sharpened pencils, and the chance to set the tone for months of meaningful learning ahead. This issue is all about helping you kick off the year with purpose and creativity. Inside, you’ll find strategies to spark student engagement in those first crucial weeks, two new AI Activity Cards designed to make back-to-school smoother (and more fun), plus a tried-and-true tech tool that can set you up for success. If you find something here that inspires you, please share it with a colleague who’s gearing up for the year, too!

Short Side note: If you like our content, we have a self-paced 15 hour/1 semester hour class starting in September: AI-Planning: Build, Teach, and Assess Student-Centered Learning with Confidence. Click here to register, or learn more about the course.
AI in Education Tool Review:
This month, we're taking a look at Playlabs.ai, an AI-powered platform designed to support educators and students in creating engaging and interactive learning experiences. This tool aims to transform how schools use AI, moving beyond simple content creation to foster creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking. Here at Creating Learners, we are using Playlabs to create models of many of our AI cards.
What is Playlabs.ai?
Playlabs.ai is an innovative platform that empowers teachers and students to build their own AI-powered educational games, stories, and projects. It uses a user-friendly interface that allows learners of all ages to design and share interactive content without needing a background in coding. The platform is built around the idea of "playful learning," where students become creators of AI, not just consumers of it. It's designed to bring project-based learning to life by allowing students to build unique, AI-driven applications.
Benefits of Using Playlabs.ai
Fosters Creativity and AI Literacy: Unlike tools that just generate text, Playlabs.ai encourages students to think creatively and critically about how AI works. By building their own projects, students gain a deeper understanding of AI concepts like machine learning, natural language processing, and data input in an accessible, hands-on way.
Promotes Student Agency and Ownership: Playlabs.ai puts students in the driver's seat. They get to choose their own topics, design their projects, and bring their ideas to life. This sense of ownership motivates learners and makes the educational process more personal and meaningful.
Supports Project-Based and Inquiry-Based Learning: The platform is a natural fit for project-based and inquiry-based learning models. Students can use Playlabs.ai to create interactive exhibits, simulations, quizzes, or even digital storybooks that demonstrate their knowledge of a subject. It turns learning into a hands-on, tangible experience.
Enhances Collaboration and Communication Skills: The platform is designed to be used in a classroom setting, allowing students to collaborate on projects. Working together on a shared creation helps them develop essential communication, teamwork, and problem-solving skills.
Provides a Low-Code/No-Code Environment: One of Playlabs.ai's biggest strengths is its ease of use. The intuitive drag-and-drop interface and simple input fields mean that students can jump right into creating without getting bogged down by complex coding. This makes AI accessible to everyone, regardless of their technical skill level.
Cultivates a Growth Mindset: When students build, test, and refine their own AI projects, they learn that mistakes are part of the process. This iterative approach encourages a growth mindset, resilience, and a willingness to experiment.
Potential Drawbacks of Playlabs.ai
Requires Structured Guidance: While the platform is easy to use, students will still need clear guidance from educators to connect their projects to specific learning objectives. Without a well-defined project scope, students may not fully grasp the academic content behind their creations.
Initial Setup Time: Getting a classroom of students started on any new platform can have a learning curve. Teachers may need to spend some time exploring the tool themselves to understand its full potential and troubleshoot common issues.
Potential for Misuse: Like any open-ended creation tool, there's a possibility that students could create off-topic or inappropriate content. Teachers must set clear expectations and monitor student projects to ensure they remain focused and appropriate.
Pricing Model: Playlabs.ai has different pricing tiers for schools and districts. While the tool is powerful, schools must evaluate if the features and benefits justify the investment.
Playlabs.ai is a promising and forward-thinking tool that shifts the focus of AI in education from passive consumption to active creation. By allowing students to become the architects of their own learning experiences, it has the potential to cultivate essential skills for a future where AI literacy is becoming increasingly crucial.
Two new AI Activity Cards + 1 Bonus
This month’s cards focus on back to school. To help with back-to-school, we created a bonus card this month.
AI activity cards were designed to encourage teachers to think about how to utilize AI with their students. They include a description of the activity, a sample prompt to put into an AI tool, and some reflection questions. -They are not complete lesson plans. -They assume students have been instructed on the strengths and weaknesses of AI.
Build Our AI Mascot: Students work in teams to design a classroom mascot using AI. The mascot’s personality, mission, and story are shaped by the group, creating a shared symbol for the class culture.
Solve It Together!: Teams use AI to brainstorm creative solutions to real (or fun) classroom challenges, building a problem-solving mindset and collaborative skills.
Predict the Future Me: Students use AI to generate a playful (or serious!) prediction of who they’ll be in 10 years. This activity blends imagination, self-reflection, and career exploration with a healthy dose of humor and goal-setting.
Three Good Reads
This month’s picks are all about the evolving role of AI in education—where the challenges meet opportunities for real classroom innovation. From ISTE’s take on shifting the conversation beyond hurdles, to Stanford’s early findings on how teachers are actually using AI, to an upcoming Back to School AI Summit packed with fresh insights, these reads will spark ideas for the year ahead. Dive in and see how educators everywhere are shaping what’s next.
We hope you found this issue of our monthly newsletter useful. We would appreciate your feedback.
If your organization is looking for PD related to these topics, shoot us an email. We would love to work with you.
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