🔮 Phase 1 - Anticipation 🗳️ Guessing game ⏱ 5 minutes

Activity 1 - Six Pictures

Six pictures. One at a time. Was this made by a person, or by a computer? Do not think too hard. Ten seconds each. Go with your first feeling.

🔮 Mystery 🤫 Silence & Focus
Step 1 - Before we start
Six pictures. One at a time. For each one, all you have to say is: was this made by a person, or by a computer?
Do not think too hard. Ten seconds each. Go with your first feeling.
Step 2 - Person, or computer?
Picture 1 of 6
10
No feedback between pictures. No going back. Trust your first feeling.
Step 3 - Class result
This class averaged
- / 6
Three out of six is what you would get by guessing with your eyes closed. Most classes get around four. Most adults get around four. Professional photographers, tested properly, get around four.

So this is not about you not looking carefully enough. Something else is going on. Before we find out what, one more picture. Sixty seconds. Nothing to answer.
Step 4 - Sixty seconds, one picture
🌆
60
Now you are going to look at one picture for sixty seconds. That is all. There is no question at the end.
That one was made by a computer.
Now that you know - does it change what you think of it? That question is harder than it looks. Keep it. We come back to it at the end.
Step 5 - Hold that thought
Private · saved to your portfolio · up to 150 characters
Does knowing how it was made change what you think of it?
There is no right answer. This is never marked or shown to the class.
🔒 Autosaves every few seconds as you type. You will see this exact sentence again at the end of Activity 6, editable.
0 / 150
✅ Saved to portfolio
Keep that thought. Now let's find out what the machine was actually doing.
"Something else is going on. Before we find out why you couldn't tell, you need one accurate picture of what the machine is actually doing."
← Lesson Overview Continue to Encounter →

What happens in Activity 1

A 5-minute Phase 1 - Anticipation activity. Six images, ten seconds each, two buttons (person / computer), no feedback and no running score shown - exactly three are human-made and three are generated, in random order. A class-average reveal, then sixty silent seconds with one further image and a reveal line, a private journal entry (up to 150 chars), and three starting self-ratings you will see again, worded identically, at the end of Activity 7.

🎯 Learning objectives

Discover you can't reliably tell a generated image from a made one. Look at one image in silence and notice whether knowing how it was made changes anything. Record what you believe right now, before the lesson changes it.

🖼️ On the images

Images are shown as labelled, described placeholder tiles (gradient + caption) rather than real photographs, matching the approach used across this codebase (no external image asset pipeline exists for any lesson). The guessing mechanic and scoring are fully real; only the visual source is simulated.

♿ SEN Adaptations
  • The ten-second image timer can be switched off entirely from the accessibility profile
  • Voice-to-text input available for the journal entry
  • Silence timer extendable to 90 or 120 seconds; skip button always available and never recorded as a failure
  • Full audio narration and captions for every written instruction
🖨️ No-Tech Format
  • Print-pack card 1 has the six images two-per-page with a tick-box grid
  • Teacher collects, counts by hand, and writes the class average on the board (~90 seconds, works just as well)
  • For the silent minute, hold up one printed image and time it
Phase 1 · Anticipation · Guessing game
Activity 1 - Six Pictures
6Guesses
3Ratings
5mDuration
Progress0%
1
Six guesses
2
See the class result
3
Sixty seconds, one picture
4
Write your journal entry
5
Rate where you're starting from
All Activities - Lesson 14
1
Six Pictures
2
What Is the Machine Actually Doing?
3
The Tells
4
Where Did This Come From?
5
Whose Is It?
6
Make It and Label It
7
What Have You Learned?