Argument mapping is a technique for visually mapping out arguments and the relationships between different ideas. It can help clarify complex debates and make the various positions and supporting evidence more understandable. Research suggests it may improve learning, though not always. Tools now exist for mapping arguments on the web in a collaborative manner. This allows learners and analysts to jointly build argument maps by directly annotating websites. Mapping has been applied to topics like climate change, science debates, and political discussions to untangle complex arguments and analyze different perspectives.

1. Young Foundation, The Open University, 1st March 2012
Argument Mapping
Simon Buckingham Shum
Knowledge Media Institute
The Open University
W: simon.buckinghamshum.net
E: s.buckingham.shum@open.ac.uk
T: 0770 212 5734
Tw: @sbskmi
1

2. Argument Mapping is part of a broader research
programme …
Developing 21st Century capacities in children and adults
Our capacities to cope with Applied to…
complexity… • Future of school/uni/
• Deep Learning societal learning
• Sensemaking • Participatory urban
• Resilience planning
• Complexity Thinking • Climate change
• Critical Thinking • Evidence-based policy
• Collective Intelligence • E-Democracy
…and how to spot the above through web analytics
2
http://people.kmi.open.ac.uk/sbs/tag/learning-analytics

3. In a nutshell…
Argumentation is tough:
• hard to learn for children and adults
• hard to grasp the arguments in complex debates
(critical for engaged citizenship)
Arguments can be visually mapped in order to
clarify who is saying what and why
Web tools help make this an interactive experience
and a collective endeavour
The evidence is that argument mapping can
improve learning (but not always) 3

4. Mapping the UK election TV debates
http://people.kmi.open.ac.uk/sbs/2010/04/debate-replay-with-map 4

5. Mapping a nuclear power debate on a blog

6. Mapping a nuclear power debate on a blog
Thanks to Anna De Liddo for mapping this Mark Lynas blog debate

7. Mapping a nuclear power debate on a blog
Thanks to Anna De Liddo for mapping this Mark Lynas blog debate

8. Journalist mapping a public policy science
debate in Germany
http://news.kmi.open.ac.uk/rostra/news.php?r=55&t=2&id=47

9. Mapping Queensland’s environmental public
consultation
http://news.kmi.open.ac.uk/rostra/news.php?r=55&t=2&id=26

10. Mapping community views for participatory
urban planning
http://www.sevensigma.com.au/what-we-have-done/case-studies.html

11. Example: a scientific argument on National
Front website
What are the facts? Over almost seventy years, in study after study, conducted by
scientists and educationalists in numerous countries, studies conducted by such bastions of
racial rationalism as the Inner London Education Authority, the US Army, and Harvard and
on every measure of intellectual
Oxford Universities,
ability and educational attainment Blacks
perform significantly worse, on average, than
Whites. In the case of average IQ, for
example, the average Negro figure is only
85% of the White average. In fact the higher the proportion of
White genes the higher the intelligence: a pure-bred Negro fresh
out of Africa scores nearer 70%.
Readers can consult Race by Dr. John R. Baker, former Reader in Cytology at Oxford University, published by the Oxford University
Press, or The Testing of Negro Intelligence, an exhaustive review of hundreds of studies demonstrating racial differences in intellectual
ability by Dr. Audrey M. Shuey, and of course there is The Bell Curve by Herrnstein and Murray. 11

12. Analysing the NF negro intelligence case
using argument mapping http://bit.ly/aP4M0P (View in Safari)
Red link=
challenges
Green link=
supports
Hyperlink to evidence on
a website
12

13. 13
http://bit.ly/aP4M0P (View in Safari)

14. http://bit.ly/aP4M0P (View in Safari)

15. Refuting the NF negro intelligence argument
using argument mapping
http://bit.ly/aP4M0P (View in Safari)

16. Mapping the Iraq pre-emptive strike argument
Mapping the ideas, themes
and arguments in a
complex debate (Iraq)
An overview map of pro-
invasion authors
www.kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/compendium/iraq
16

17. Mapping the Iraq pre-emptive strike argument
Detailed argument map of
an author’s article
www.kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/compendium/iraq
17

18. Teaching Yr 8’s evidence-based scientific deliberation
through Dialogue Mapping
Okada, A. and Buckingham Shum, S. (2008). Evidence-Based Dialogue Maps as a Research Tool to Investigate the Quality of School Pupils’
18
Scientific Argumentation, International Journal of Research and Method in Education, 31(3), pp. 291–315 (Special Issue: Coffin, C. and O’Halloran,
K.A, (Eds.) Researching Argumentation in Educational Contexts: New Methods, New Directions). Article PrePrint: http://oro.open.ac.uk/11773

19. 19

20. Once the structure of
the argument is clear
(even if the answer isn’t)
students produce an
argumentative text
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21. Argument Mapping meets Web 2.0
http://cohere.open.ac.uk
Convergence of…
web annotation
social bookmarking
concept mapping
structured debate 21

22. directly annotate any website to serve as
evidence in an argument map
Highlighted text becomes
a new source for an idea,
annotated in the margin,
which becomes a node in
an argument map
(private or shared)
De Liddo, A., Sándor, Á. and Buckingham Shum, S. (2012, In Press). Contested Collective Intelligence: Rationale, Technologies, and a Human- 22
Machine Annotation Study. Computer Supported Cooperative Work. Eprint: http://oro.open.ac.uk/31052

23. — multiple learners/analysts building a map
De Liddo, A. and Buckingham Shum, S. (2010). Cohere: A prototype for contested collective intelligence. In: ACM Computer Supported Cooperative Work 23
(CSCW 2010) - Workshop: Collective Intelligence In Organizations, February 6-10, 2010, Savannah, Georgia, USA. http://oro.open.ac.uk/19554

24. ConnectionNet visualization: 11 Apr 2011
After about a month’s work, a set of islands...
“This is indicative of the
stage I've got to — I
haven't seen the other
connections yet”

25. ConnectionNet visualization: 31 May 2011
A few weeks later, and more connections are visible…
“I ve gradually managed to
make more connections
between different ideas”
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26. ConnectionNet visualization: 01 June 2011
It’s now a complex network of interconnected ideas…
“I began looking for
‘nexus points’ by
which I mean those
ideas/concepts around
which there is a cluster
of connections ”
26

27. Mapping the Deeper Learning literature
‘Learner autonomy emerges as a key idea (strongly connected)
“‘Learner autonomy’ represents a
variety of overlapping and
effective learning practices, and
implies the learner can give
meaning to learning and create
new learning tools”
Webcast: http://olnet.org/node/610 27

28. Evidence Hubs: based on Cohere, but tuned for a
community of inquiry, e.g. the OER movement:
ci.olnet.org
28

29. Evidence Hub concept now being generalised to other communities (e.g. Vital)
29

30. LearningEmergence.net
http://
International network of researchers and practitioners working on deep
learning, leadership, complex systems thinking and knowledge media
30

31. Educational
Futures
Thematic Research Network
ork
A
new
OU
network
connec-ng
researchers,
prac--oners,
futures
analysts
and
other
stakeholders
to
envision
and
create
be<er
educa-onal
futures

32. Articles, books, news, movies, software,
user/developer community…
http://projects.kmi.open.ac.uk/hyperdiscourse
Compendium
Institute
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