Debategraph (week 5 tool)

I went searching for a fun, interactive tool that could be used in secondary Social Studies classes and I found Debategraph.  Debategraph is an online collaborative program that can be used by students to debate topics.  Debategraph uses a cloud drive, so students can access their graphs from anywhere at any time and can also access others' graphs as well to contribute to any discussions they choose.  

Here is how it works:
- the students will create a main "bubble" that is their topic (issue)
- they can then (each on a different side of the issue) add bubbles off of the main one with their stance, response, ideas, etc.  (much like a web diagram) -- these branches will continue to grow and expand as the students add more details/arguments to support their stance and/or argue their opponent's ideas.

Example of a debate in progress:  http://debategraph.org/Stream.aspx?nid=3664&iv=05  (if you click on the bubbles, they change and expand to show more of the debate for each sub-topic/idea)

Here is a breakdown from Debategraph's website:
The basic building blocks of the mapsIn essence, building the maps involves three steps:

1. breaking down the subject into meaningful ideas;
2. figuring out the relationships between those ideas; and,
3. expressing the ideas and relationships visually.

(Explorer and Hub views)

Issues (or questions) are raised, Positions (or answers) suggested in response to these Issues, and Supportive and Opposing Arguments advanced for and against the Positions (and each other).

(Zoom view)

Each building block has its own color to make it easier to see the types of ideas and relationships at a glance.

There's a wider set of building blocks beyond the three core ones, but the core set of Issues, Positions, and Supportive andOpposing Arguments can be combined and recombined many times to build rich maps on any scale.


One of the main things I like about using debategraph is that, as opposed to a traditional debate, this allows students to organize and write out their ideas and viewpoints in an organized, less confrontational manner.  Also, others can add their ideas and support to the debate, making it more interactive and collaborative while remaining very organized.  

This program could be used as the debate itself or as a brainstorming and organization tool before a traditional debate.