Facilitating classroom argumentation with computer technology

In the last two decades or so, argumentation has become a prominent topic of educational reform and psychological and educational research. It has been recognized as an important competence to be developed and practiced in classrooms, to lie at the basis of thinking and reasoning within and across different disciplines, and to foster thinking skills and complex learning processes. Unfortunately, however, when compared to normative criteria and models of good argumentation, most people demonstrate only rudimentary argumentation competencies. The question then is how educational activities and experiences can be designed to foster these competencies effectively? In this contribution, I will review developments from a number of research strands that have addressed this question, with a specific focus on the use of computer-technology to foster dialogic argumentation for educational purposes. Based on theoretical distinctions and recent empirical findings, the affordances and limitations of computer technology for dialogic argumentation are reviewed. Finally, I will outline some of the unresolved issues and new challenges in this relatively new field of research.