Kialo

While argumentation is an important critical thinking skill, students often struggle with it. Sometimes they think argumentation is a fight they need to win or they become so enamoured with their opinion that they are unable to understand the counter argument. 

Kialo is a free web-based tool that scaffolds argumentation by providing a graphical organization of arguments and counter arguments. Students can collaboratively make claims, include links to support their claims, discuss each other’s claims, and vote on the strength (or not) of the various claims.

Take a tour of Kialo to see sample discussions and assignments, as well as a short video.

Ideas for integrating:

• Group Discussions: Assign Kialo discussions for students to work on outside of class, over a week or the whole term. Use Kialo for group discussion to carefully evaluate an argument and/or conclusion in a research paper, article, novel, or other publication.
• Individual: Ask students to organize their arguments and research for a paper in Kialo and hand in as a draft or with the paper.
• Professional: Map the argument for a pre-publication article in Kialo and invite colleagues to give feedback.

Try It:

• Try Out Kialo in University Classrooms with 5 Simple Steps, Kialo. Provides detailed directions for setting up a single-thesis discussion.
• Join a sample Kialo discussion from a Faculty Development lunch. Browse the discussion and play with the features. Offers single sign-on with Google account.
• Using Kialo in Class, Kialo. Page links to several how-to articles, assignments developed by faculty that can be used or adapted, and an assessment rubric.

To Learn More:

• Revolutionizing Teaching and Research with a Structured Debate Platform, Harvard Open Scholar 
• Teaching Argument: What Students Know (or Don’t Know) About Argument, Dartmouth Institute for Writing and Rhetoric
• Templates from the book, They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter In Academic Writing
• More Templates from the book, They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing
• Podcast: How Storytelling Turns Argument into a Positive Discussion, The Business of Story