Thinking Master’s courses

Section	Content
Module description	Obviously, we live in a new world.: robots deliver food, neural networks write texts, and AI assistants answer questions. It seems to have become easier for us: we can unload our brain. Is this really the case? What happens to our consciousness, thinking, values, feelings, society, and the world when we try to balance effort with our own comfort? The emergence of new digital assistants and assistants, the development of generative artificial intelligence technology actualizes the need to develop human critical and systems thinking skills. Tasks such as setting goals, formulating questions, defining the values behind various statements, and building a system map of research are important in all areas of research and development. Solving these problems is a fascinating intellectual activity. The Thinking block offers a range of courses to develop the skills necessary to build a successful professional trajectory. We designed our courses so that complex, incomprehensible, and demanding questions would become valuable, and finding answers to them would be a pleasure. Among the teachers of the module courses there are both leading experts from the academy, as well as experts from Yandex Education, Skolkovo, the National Commission for the Implementation of the Code of Ethics in the field of AI, and the interuniversity Computer Game Research Laboratory. We are all different, but we are united by the belief that thinking is not just a skill, but a form of relationship with reality.
Language	Russian and English Recommended level of English proficiency is at least B2 (according to the international CEFR scale). This is important for your successful completion of the course.
Контакты	E-mail: think@itmo.ru Address: Kronverksky Pr. 49, room 2323

Ethics in Artificial Intelligence (in Russian)

More information you can find here Этика в сфере искусственного интеллекта

Daria Chirva

Glukhovsky Andrey

Sinev Dmitry

Melentyeva Tatyana

Visual Forms of Thinking (in Russian)

More information you can find here Визуальные формы мышления и кинематограф

Teachers:

Ilya Verkhoglyadov

Maria Gribova

Olga Davydova

Ksenia Kapelchuk

Ivan Petrin

Artem Radeev

Computer Games and Methods of Critical Analysis of Technologies (in Russian)

More information you can find here Компьютерные игры и методы критического анализа технологий

Teachers:

Alexander Lenkevich

Alina Latypova

Critical Thinking in Practice (in Russian)

More information you can find here Критическое мышление в практической деятельности

Teachers:

Yury Nechitailov

Olga Shapiro

Ksenia Kapelchuk

Critical Thinking Skills (Offline course)

What is the course about?
Can we teach somebody to think critically if we just tell him or her how to do it? One can hardly believe it, that is why during this course practical skills in critical thinking are obtained through the process of learning, doing, reading and writing.

Learning format:

self-paced asynchronously online in Moodle
five online meetings on Zoom
workbook for self-practive
course chat in Telegram
group work in Telegram small groups chats

Key questions covered by the course are:

How is our thinking organized?
How our thinking changes in digital epoch?
What is cognitive distortion, and why do people tend to believe in conspiracy theories?
How do we know something?
How do we invent new ideas?
How do we estimate others’ ideas and our own?
When a decision is an ethical one?
How to construct a solid argument?
How to recognize manipulative argumentation?

The design of the course implies a big amount of independent work. You will develop skills of argumentation, learn how to spot cognitive disruptions, fakes and logical mistakes, see what is taken for granted in a text or a media piece, cultivate creative and metaphorical thinking. During the course you will use private writing, group discussions, AI-based practices, debating and other tools to enhance your thinking, figure out your own thinking patterns and start dealing with the world in a broader context, sometimes from unexpected perspectives. The course is based on specific unconvetional tasks so you are expected to engage consciously.

How you will get your grade?
Points are earned during the course which include exercises in Moodle, working collaboratively in small groups in Telegram, providing a number of commentaries in collaborative google docs. The final exam implies two tasks: one theoretical and one practical (analyzing argumentation). You can choose either one of two questions or both.

Olga Davydova

PhD in Cultural Studies, junior professor at Smolny College (Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Saint-Petersburg State University) and ITMO University. Teaches academic writing at Skolkovo. Writes articles on cinema and photography.

Critical Theory of Modern Society (in Russian)

More information you can find here Критическая теория современного общества

Teachers: