A serious game for learning social networking literacy by flaming experiences

Abstract

In this study, we developed a serious game in which fifth and sixth grade elementary school students who have yet to use Twitter experience flaming in a fictitious setting, with the goal of teaching information literacy and online manners. In our system, elementary school children were able to see their Twitter timeline alongside concurrent real-world conditions. This virtual experience gave them an understanding of Twitter without actually using the service, as well as the opportunity to actively learn what types of posts lead to flaming and to cultivate crisis management skills. Upon evaluation of fifth and sixth grade test subjects, it was found that our system is an effective for information literacy and online manners learning.