News2015February
News from the Graduate Program in Critical & Creative Thinking
University of Massachusetts Boston26 February 2015
Student Matters
Applications to graduate are due by March 13th. All students planning to graduate with an MA or Graduate Certificate in either May or August must complete and submit the application form by that date. This year's UMass Boston Commencement ceremonies are on Friday, May 29th.
Registration for summer 2015 courses opens in early April. Offerings from the Critical and Creative Thinking program include the following:
Hybrid:
CRCRTH 611 Seminar in Critical Thinking (Theme: Design for Living Complexities): M,W; 6:00-9:00pm, July 13 - Aug. 19) Face-to-face students: register for class #2019, online students register for class #1968.
CRCRTH 612 Seminar in Creativity (Theme: Personal and Professional applications): M,W; 6:00-9:00pm, May 27 - July 8). Face-to-face: #2020, Online: #1969.
CRCRTH 618 Creative Thinking, Collaboration, and Organizational Change, Fr,Sa; 9:00-4:15pm, July 17 - Aug. 1). Face-to-face: #2316, Online: #2317.
Online:
CRCRTH 619 Biomedical Ethics (July 13 - Aug. 20). Register for class #1970.
CRCRTH 627 Issues and Controversies in Antiracist and Multicultural Education (May 26 - July 9). Register for class #1971.
CCT Community
Rhoda Maurer (CCT MA exp. spring, 2015) has recently started as Director of Horticulture at Cornell Plantations:
http://www.cornellplantations.org/news#node-4981
CCT Events
CCT Community Open House Events
For more information or to RSVP, contact cct@umb.edu.
All are welcome to join us online or on campus for these events, where you'll learn more about the Critical and Creative Thinking program and have a chance to meet students, faculty, and others in the CCT community. You'll have a chance to participate in activities and discussion, see presentations from alumni and students, and interact in other ways to help you learn how the study of critical and creative thinking extends to to schools, workplaces, and community and personal settings.
Upcoming events for spring 2015:
Monday, March 2 (online-only event, 7:00-8:30pm ET). Theme: Clearness: Questions in Support of Critical Thinking
Monday, April 6 (UMass Boston Campus Center, room 2540, 6:30-9:00pm). Theme: Presentations by alums of the CCT program.
Monday, May 4/Tuesday, May 5 (UMass Boston Campus Center, time TBD). Theme: Student presentations: Synthesis and Reflective Practice projects.
Spring 2015 Online Information Sessions for the Critical and Creative Thinking Program
Prospective students are invited to join these online information sessions to learn more about the program through informal, relaxed discussion in Google+ Hangout. Enter or leave any time during the hour and bring any questions that you have about graduate study with the program and its tracks focusing on Critical, Creative, and Reflective Practice, Science in a Changing World, and Liberal and Interdisciplinary Studies. Email cct@umb.edu with questions or use the links below to RSVP or join the session.
Info. session dates:
Thursday, March 26, 4:00-5:00pm ET
Thursday, April 23, 4:00-5:00pm ET
Alum and CCT associates Notes
CCT alums and associates are encouraged to send items of interest to the Critical and Creative Thinking community to be included in future newsletters. Please submit events, announcements, and opportunities through this form: http://bit.ly/CCTSICWi
Events
Students Are Not Asking Questions: A Working Conference to Address a Fundamental Problem in Education
July 13-14, 2015
For more information and to register: http://rightquestion.org/conference/
Educators observe again and again that far too many of their students are passively awaiting instructions on what to do and think. Getting their students to ask questions can feel "like pulling teeth." This summer, educators working in a wide range of environments, from primary through higher education classrooms, in formal school and nonformal educational programs, from the field and from the academy, are coming together to work on this problem. We invite you to join us, and bring your expertise, your perspective and your questions. Early Bird and Group discounts are available. Space is limited to 250 participants.
"A World of Questions": art exhibit by Award-winning Zimbabwean designer Chaz Maviyane-Davies.
UMass Boston's Harbor Art Gallery through March 12.
Maviyane-Davies says that graphic design has been used brilliantly to sell autos, oil, and political candidates, so why not use it to promote our common good? Her posters ask the viewer to engage with important issues—the environment, the economy, fossil fuels, endangered species, and more.
For more information: http://www.umb.edu/news/detail/harbor_gallery_presents_a_world_of_questions
OpenEd Forum
Friday, March 13th • 9:00 - 4:00
UMass Boston, Campus Center 3rd floor Ballroom
Come Learn about the Global Open Education Movement!
Inspiring Speakers -- Exciting Projects -- Creative Commons and Copyright Workshop -- Presentations by UMass Boston Faculty, Librarians, Instructional Designers and Special Guests.
Learn about the benefits of open education, how to find and share Open Educational Resources and save money on textbooks. Attend a workshop on Copyright and Creative Commons and learn how to publish your work on ScholarWorks, OpenCourseWare and iTunesU, and deliver your online open course on the new OpenEducation platform by Blackboard. The keynote presentation will be given by Mary Lou Forward, Executive Director of the Open Education Consortium.
To register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/opened-forum-umass-boston-tickets-15804706302
For more information: http://www.umb.edu/news_events_media/events/opened_forum_opening_minds_sharing_knowledge
2015 Annual University Conference on Teaching, Learning, and Technology: Teaching as Exploration: Students, Teachers, and Staff as Co-learners
Monday, May 18, 2015
University of Massachusetts Boston – Ryan Lounge. Schedule and details to be announced in April.
See below for under the Opportunities section for information about the Call for Proposals.
Opportunities
The Experimental College at Tufts provides an opportunity for visiting lecturers to propose and offer enriching undergraduate courses across the arts, sciences, and other areas. Fall 2015 proposals due march 9
http://www.excollege.tufts.edu/lecturersApply.asp
Bridge Education Abroad Institute (BEAI) Summer Programs in South Africa.
Our institute plans short programs all across the world, to provide students with unique opportunities to experience different political cultures while strengthening their leadership and diplomacy skills. Our programs draw a diverse group of students together from all over the world to discuss pressing global issues while exchange cultural values. In a rapidly globalizing world, we believe these experiences are invaluable to the success of students in the global job market.
For the summer of 2015, we have programs scheduled in Cape Town and Johannesburg for the months of June, July and August. This program will include lectures from experienced professors and guest speakers from all over the globe, including the United States of America.
For more information, contact info@beainstitute.org and see http://www.beainstitute.org/beai/south-africa/
2015 Annual University Conference on Teaching, Learning, and Technology: Teaching as Exploration: Students, Teachers, and Staff as Co-learners
Monday, May 18, 2015
University of Massachusetts Boston – Ryan Lounge. Schedule and details to be announced in April.
Call for Proposals
Please submit your proposal at: http://www.umb.edu/cit/conferences/cit_proposals
Proposal deadline: Monday, March 25, 2015
What we learn from our students is not the same as what they learn from us, but the knowledge teachers can acquire when we position ourselves as students of our students’ learning can be powerful. What can be gained from approaching teaching as exploration and co-learning? How can we use what we've learned to make our teaching more effective? We invite you to submit proposals for the 9th annual University Conference on Teaching, Learning, and Technology. The conference will provide opportunities for sharing strategies and exploring issues in teaching and learning at every level. We encourage proposals for interactive sessions that frame specific demonstrations, descriptions, or problems with general concepts, theories, or pedagogies that conference participants can transform for their own uses.
We welcome faculty, instructors, staff, students, and administrators to share their stories and engage us about how they learn together, what they have learned, and how others can use this in their practice.
Each conference session will be one hour long and will typically involve co-presenters, or a panel. If you are proposing a single presentation, you may be asked to share a session with other panelists who will be addressing a similar topic, issue, or concern.
Please submit your proposal at: http://www.umb.edu/cit/conferences/cit_proposals
Conference registration information will follow in early April.
Sponsored by the Center for Innovative Teaching (CIT), Healey Library, Office for Faculty Development, CAPS and IT-Educational Technology
Resources
UMass Boston Workshop Series on Research
The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP) would like to invite you several trainings. The goal of these trainings is to provide the knowledge required by both Principal Investigators (PIs) and Department Administrators in the development and acquisition as well as facilitate the ongoing administrative and financial requirements of sponsored projects.
Upcoming trainings: https://files.ctctcdn.com/d436a899201/ddc0b37b-54ee-4c45-ab07-e52123c2a164.pdf
More information and registration: http://www.umb.edu/orsp/training
Food for Thought
(additional web links and posts can also be found on CCT's Diigo pages. General critical and creative thinking focus: https://groups.diigo.com/group/ccreflect; Science in a Changing World focus: https://groups.diigo.com/group/sicwumb)
To Watch:
The Dance on the Circle: A Poem in Music and Pottery
A 3.5-Minute Music Video That Was Shot In 5 Seconds
To Read:
Who Really Said That?
The Ambivalent Practices of Reflexivity
Expectations of brilliance underlie gender distributions across academic disciplines
The Privileged Are Taking Over the Arts
A Playground Made Entirely of Snow and Ice
Six creative ways artists can improve communities
Making your kid play organized sports could cost them their creativity
A Brief History of Happiness: How America Lost Track of the Good Life—and Where to Find It Now
The Hidden Cost of a Flexible Job
Universal Design Learning Explained
Criteria for Grades
Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ)
The Death of the Artist—and the Birth of the Creative Entrepreneur
On the decline of corporate investment in science
Public and Scientists’ Views on Science and Society
The Common Core Has Not Killed Literature
Danny Glover, speaking at RISD, addresses responsibility of artists in the world
Agency by Design: Investigating the promises, practices, and pedagogies of maker-centered learning
Is Your First Grader College Ready?
From "The Learner's Way": Schools, learning, innovation and student futures
Nietzsche on the competing creative energies: the Apollonian and the Dionysian
Dominance of the English language in science
Game Theory Says Pete Carroll’s Call at Goal Line Is Defensible
Buying In to Opting Out: A Growing National Movement Shuns Standardized Tests
On encouraging lifelong learning
"A World Without Teachers": A contest to challenge filmmakers to show us a future without teachers
How Learning Artistic Skills Alters the Brain
Humor
Report: Increasing Number Of Educators Found To Be Suffering From Teaching Disabilities (from the Onion)
Man Visits The Leaning Tower of Pisa And Shares His Photos With The Internet