AI literacy starts with better questions.

The first edition

Practical AI literacy for pupils and teachers.

The session reached 50 pupils and 6 teachers. The syllabus covered what AI is, how students can use it, and where assistance stops being their own work.

Questions the pupils actually asked

• “Will Artificial Intelligence take away our jobs when we grow up?”
• “Can I use AI to do my school assignments, or is that cheating?”
• “Does AI always tell the truth?”

Syllabus

What was covered

• What AI is (and isn't)Understanding AI as pattern-recognition maths, not magic or a human brain. Differentiating between Narrow AI (what we use today) and General AI (science fiction).
• How AI learnsThe four-step process of machine learning using the “dog vs. cat” analogy — data, features, training, prediction. Key vocabulary: data, algorithm, training.
• Three advantages, three disadvantagesSpeed, error reduction and personalisation versus bias, hallucinations (confident lies) and job-displacement risks.
• Traditional vs. generative AISorting tools (spam filters) versus creative tools (ChatGPT, image generators). Understanding ChatGPT as “smart autocomplete”.
• Image generation demonstrationLive prompt engineering with Gemini, showing how specific, detailed prompts create better images. Examples included a man playing guitar, an AI car braking for a pedestrian and a class of students attending a lecture from their tutor.
• AI tools for studentsFree, practical tools including ChatGPT, DeepSeek, NotebookLM, Perplexity, Gamma and Canva AI. Emphasis on using AI to understand, not to replace thinking.
• Academic integrityWhere AI assistance stops and your own work begins — the importance of critical thinking, fact-checking and never copying AI output directly.

Only frames that preserve the pupils' privacy are published alongside the school and location.