Belvedere

Belvedere is software designed to help support problem-based collaborative learning scenarios with evidence and concept maps. With Belvedere, middle school and high school students learn critical inquiry skills that they can apply in everyday life as well as in science.

Resource Link: http://lilt.ics.hawaii.edu/lilt/software/belvedere/

Compendium

Compendium provides a methodological framework and an evolving suite of tools for collective sense-making and group memory. It is the result of over 15 years' continual research, deployment and development of a tool to support the real time mapping of discussions in meetings, collaborative modeling, and the longer term management of this information as organizational memory.

Resource Link: http://www.compendiuminstitute.org/tools/compendium.htm

Dialogue Mapping and the Cognexus Institute

Dialogue Mapping is a new approach to problem solving that centers on collective sense making. Dialogue Mapping is about creating the highest possible level of shared understanding and ownership about the issues, decisions, and agreements involved in a project. Unlike traditional problem solving approaches, Dialogue Mapping creates coherence in situations of high social diversity and complexity. The structure of the maps raises the intellectual integrity of the collective problem solving or decision making process. Dr. Jeffrey Conklin, director of the Cognexus Institute, developed the Dialogue Mapping facilitation technique.

Resource Link: http://www.cognexus.org

Dialogue Mapping: Building Shared Understanding of Wicked Problems

Jeff Conklin, Ph.D..

When an organization is confronting a wicked problem the familiar approaches don't work. For one thing, with a wicked problem there isn't even agreement about what the problem is, much less how to solve it. To make progress one must focus on creating maximum shared understanding and shared commitment among the stakeholders. Dialogue mapping is a proven technique that utilizes technology for building that shared understanding and commitment, as efficiently and effectively as possible. Dialogue Mapping presents an indispensable new approach to meetings and collaboration, in which collective intelligence is achieved through framing powerful questions and conducting a comprehensive and creative exploration of their possible answers.

Resource Link: http://cognexus.org/dm_book.htm

Fle3

Fle3 is server software for computer supported collaborative learning. With Fle3's Knowledge Building tool, groups may carry out knowledge building dialogues, theory building and debates by storing their thoughts into a shared database. Fle3 comes with two default Knowledge Type sets: Progressive Inquiry and Design Thinking.

Resource Link: http://fle3.uiah.fi/

Hermes

Hermes is an Argumentation System for cooperative or non-cooperative types of discussions on the Web. It provides means of expressing and weighing individual arguments and preferences in order to support or challenge the selection of a certain choice. Argumentation is performed through a set of discourse acts which call a variety of procedures for the propagation of information in the corresponding discussion graph.

Resource Link: http://www-sop.inria.fr/aid/hermes/table.html

Knowledge Mapping

Knowledge mapping offers a tremendous resource for deliberation about issues or problems. We can lay out what we collectively know, visually clarifying relationships among the relevant factors, actors, sectors, etc., involved with the problem being deliberated.

Meaning Map

Meaning Map is a new way for groups to make collective decisions. It can help large numbers of people put their heads together to democratically decide which problems most need to be solved and how best to solve them. The results of the process are two lists: one of the most important problems and one of the overall top solutions. Since solutions can solve more than one problem, the overall top solutions list can be used as the collective opinion of the group about what should be done.

TruthMapping.com

TruthMapping.com is a free online tool that provides a focused, rational method for adversarial discussion that overcomes the limitations of standard message boards, e-mail and even conversation; it is a site for persons who believe that reasoning should be at the heart of public debate. The goal of TruthMapping.com is simply to elevate the level of public discourse.

Resource Link: http://truthmapping.com