Computer-Supported Collaborative Argumentation and Diagramming : Preliminary experimentation with Entity Relation Diagram

This paper presents pedagogical and technical considerations, as well as advances in development of a software for computer-based collaborative diagramming and argumentation. Confluence between diagramming and argumentation makes sense as divergent interpretations about diagrams can be made because of different readers' discernment, mainly during educational process due to heterogeneous levels of learning between them. The hypothesis explored is that, with support given by software to collaborative learning, each element included into a diagram is based on both support and refutation reasons, corroborated by evidence, which constitute arguments not only to explain the diagram as a product but to improve students' and teachers' competencies in deliberation process.