UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) has launched AI Creative Labs, a collection of hands-on learning experiences designed to provide instructors with a way to help students explore artificial intelligence through creativity, play and experimentation.
Facilitated in the Dreamery, a co-learning lab for emerging technologies and innovative learning experiences, AI Creative Labs provide instructors with ready-to-use classroom experiences that introduce students to AI through music creation, storytelling and game design.
The initiative builds upon several successful learning experiences first introduced in 2024 and brings them together under a unified framework designed to help students move beyond simply using AI tools and toward creating with them. Since spring 2025, AI Creative Labs experiences have engaged more than 900 students across seven colleges with over 40 class sessions.
”AI Creative Labs are built around the idea that students learn best when they’re actively creating,” said Zach Lonsinger, interim innovation and experiences manager in TLT’s Creative Learning Initiatives group. “Rather than talking about AI in the abstract, these experiences invite students to experiment, build, reflect and discover what is possible through hands-on exploration.”
AI Creative Labs are guided by a set of design principles that emphasize active creation over passive consumption. Each experience uses play as an entry point, encourages rapid experimentation and positions AI as a creative collaborator rather than a tool for generating answers. By providing students with opportunities to build, create and reflect, the labs help develop both AI literacy and the creative confidence needed to navigate an increasingly AI-enabled world.
Current AI Creative Labs offerings include:
- AI Music Lab — Students use generative AI tools to compose original songs while exploring creativity, authorship and the evolving relationship between humans and AI.
- AI Game Lab — Students use AI to design and prototype original tabletop games, creating game mechanics, rules and narratives and integrating physical game components while exploring how AI can support the creative design process.
- AI Story Lab — A new offering for fall 2026, AI Story Lab invites students to create original stories, characters and worlds using generative AI tools. Through collaborative storytelling activities, students explore narrative design, creativity and the role AI can play in the writing process.
The experiences are designed to be adaptable across disciplines and have been incorporated into courses ranging from communications and business to engineering, education and the arts.
In addition to AI Creative Labs, the Interactive Experiences team continues to offer IMPACT, a card-based learning experience that helps students explore how technology affects individuals, communities and society through conversation and perspective-taking.
Recently, IMPACT was featured in a Penn State News article following the publication of research in the Journal of Play in Adulthood. The study found that the IMPACT Deck can support empathy development, meaningful discussion, and connection among college students through structured play-based learning activities. The findings reinforce the value of creative, experiential approaches to teaching and learning and highlight the impact that play can have on fostering reflection and understanding.
Together, AI Creative Labs and IMPACT reflect TLT’s broader commitment to designing learning experiences that encourage curiosity, creativity, critical thinking, and meaningful engagement with emerging technologies.
Faculty interested in bringing an AI Creative Lab or an IMPACT experience to their course can request a session through TLT’s Creative Learning Initiatives team. Experiences can be customized for a variety of disciplines and class sizes and are designed to complement existing course objectives while introducing students to emerging technologies through hands-on learning.
To learn more about available experiences or to book a session for a class, visit TLT’s Dreamery website or email Zach Lonsinger at zal5010@psu.edu.