Within Computer Supported Collaborative Learning research, a theme has emerged termed "CABLE: Collaborative Argumentation-Based Learning" (Baker, Andriessen & Schwarz, 2020). Two main types of technologies have been explored: typewritten CHATs/forums for debates, and interfaces for co-creating argumentation diagrams at a distance (we can add the recent use of generative AI as a debating partner). Researchers have asked questions such as: What types of elements of argumentation diagrams are most conducive to learning? How do learners appropriate alternative CABLE technologies? How should these technologies be embedded in pedagogical activities and sequences (Lund, Molinari, Séjourné & Baker, 2007)?
We aim to go beyond a cognitive and technology centred approach, to reflect on how CABLE research relates to the dimensions of culture (with a small "c": alternative social milieux, discourse genres) and Culture (with a capital "C": alternative sociolinguistic communities). To what extent does CABLE research stand up to confrontation with alternative cultures, Cultures (cf. Muller Mirza, Perret-Clermont, Tartas & Iannaccone, 2009)?
We shall draw mainly on two published studies, carried out in collaboration. The first (Baker, Bernard & Dumez-Féroc, 2012) showed that well-established CABLE technopedagogies did not transfer easily to adolescents in schools in areas of socio-economic difficulty. Collaborating and arguing together with technology created a conflict between students' everyday discourse genres and technology-related practices, with those preferred in schools. The second study (Détienne, Baker, Vanhille & Mougenot, 2016) compared engineering students working on co-design in engineering schools in Paris and in Tokyo. It was found that the kind of confrontational debate in the Paris school was absent in Tokyo.
In conclusion, we discuss the following questions: how can CABLE technologies be adapted for use across cultures and Cultures? Could there be a genuinely cross-cultural theory of argumentative interaction in education?