Going through the course at fifteen
This page does not explain the course again: it says in which order to go through it at fifteen, and why that order. Every step leads to a real chapter, on what already matters at that age: homework to hand in, an image going round a group, a call that imitates a familiar voice, a file uploaded without a second thought.
The order to follow the course in
- Words in pieces. It opens the path: it is the first step of the mechanism, before any question of trust.
- The next word. It comes straight afterwards because it shows how an answer is assembled, one word after another.
- Why it makes things up. It arrives as soon as the mechanism is in place: homework handed in is the first place where a plausible invention slips through unannounced.
- What you give it. It switches to the side of what you hand over: before talking about what circulates without being asked for, you need to know what you upload yourself.
- A fabricated image. It comes next because it is the most common case: an image going round a group, before anyone has thought of checking it.
- A fabricated voice. It follows the previous one: the same process applies to a voice on the phone, where trust is given even faster.
- Watermarks. It answers the question the two previous chapters raise: is there a mark that proves the origin?
- When not to use it. It closes the path with the rule that covers everything before it: asking who pays if the answer is wrong.
What already matters, at fifteen
Four of these chapters touch on situations already lived through: they deserve a word more than the sentence in the path.
Homework, and honesty
Using a model for a piece of homework is not, in itself, the question that matters. What matters is what you do with it next: an answer can invent a fact, a date or a reference with the same confidence as an accurate one, with no signal to give it away. Handing it in as it stands means handing in its mistakes too, under your own name. The chapter why it makes things up explains why that misplaced trust is no accident.
What you give away without thinking
Uploading a text or a photo to a service to get help or a retouch also means handing it to someone else. What that service then does with it depends on its own rules, rarely read before sending. The chapter what you give it separates out what really happens to uploaded content, beyond the reassuring sentence that so often sits next to the send button.
What circulates in a group
An image or a video that arrives in a messaging app, already passed on by several people, has not checked itself along the way: the number of times it has circulated says nothing about whether it is true. The chapter a fabricated image sets out the traces that fabrication leaves, and what those traces are not enough to prove.
The voice, on the phone
A recognised voice on the phone convinces faster than any other kind of proof, and that is exactly what makes it an easy target. The chapter a fabricated voice explains how a voice is rebuilt from a short sample, and the simple move that defeats the trick: hang up, then call the person back on a number you already know.
What you will be able to do afterwards
- Reread an answer produced for a piece of homework, and check at least one fact, date or reference before handing it in.
- Spot, in an image doing the rounds, a detail that does not add up, before passing it on.
- Hang up on a call that plays on a recognised voice for an urgent request, and call the person back on a number you already know.
- Check what a service says it does with a text or a photo before uploading them, never afterwards.
- Remember that a missing watermark proves nothing, and that a watermark that is there does not prove everything either.
- Ask, before acting on an answer, the question that settles it: who pays if it is wrong?
For the adult alongside
This path assumes reading on your own, at your own pace, with no marking and no account to create: it does not replace a session built for a class, and it does not say how to run one. To prepare a lesson or a talk, the page for teaching is addressed to the adult alongside.
Sources
- Empowering Learners for the Age of AI: An AI Literacy Framework for Primary and Secondary Education (“AILit Framework”) OECD and European Commission, 2026. A common framework with four competence areas, designed for primary and secondary education, the age of this path.
- AI Competency Framework for Students UNESCO, 2024. Twelve competencies for students, across four dimensions and three levels of progression.