Title:	COLLABORATIVE ARGUMENT DIAGRAMS BASED ON DYADIC COMPUTER CHAT DISCUSSIONS
Author(s):	Timo Salminen , Miika Marttunen , Leena Laurinen
ISBN:	978-972-8924-48-5
Editors:	Kinshuk, Demetrios G. Sampson, J. Michael Spector and Pedro Isaías
Year:	2007
Edition:	Single
Keywords:	Argument diagram, collaborative argumentation, computer chat, structured chat, visualization
Type:	Full Paper
First Page:	197
Last Page:	204
Language:	English
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Paper Abstract:	Skills in analysing and evaluating the power and relevance of information on a personal basis are needed in today’s knowledge-based society. This article focuses on whether visualization of argumentative discussion promotes critical argumentative knowledge building. The study is based on an experiment in teaching the Mother Tongue carried out in a Finnish secondary school. The students discussed a topic, presented as a claim, in pairs using both a free chat and a structured chat tool. In the former the students freely composed their arguments to the chat interface. In the latter the students constructed arguments by selecting and completing partial sentences provided by the computer software. Next they jointly constructed argument diagrams on the basis of their previous chat discussions either freely with an Internet tool in the case of their free chat discussions, or by modifying a diagram constructed automatically by computer software during their structured chat. The students prepared themselves for the chat discussions by reading articles containing arguments both in for and against the claim. The data consisted of eight free and eight structured dyadic chat discussions, and eight freely constructed and eight modified diagrams based on their discussions about Vivisection and Gender Equality. The data analyses focused on the argumentativeness of the chat discussions, the quality of the diagrams (breadth, depth, balance of argumentation, counterargumentativeness), and the similarity in argumentation between the contents of the chat discussions and the contents of the diagrams. The results suggest that visualization of argumentation is an appropriate way to practice argumentation skills and transform argumentative knowledge in pairs. Thus, visualization of argumentation can support collaborative argumentation-based learning.
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