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In this article we describe the CALSIUM framework to elicit children's contributions and perspectives in the design of an online game for enhancing social skills of children. This study advocates a participatory design approach that emphasizes the active involvement of users at the early part of the design process. The children play-tested the game prototype and participated in focus group discussions. Using storyboarding, a low-fidelity prototyping technique, they developed design concepts and ideas which were translated into design directions for the development of the game. The data collected were used to glean insights into the likes and dislikes of children and to analyze the opportunities and challenges in engaging children as users, testers, informants, and design partners. Besides stretching children's creativity and critical thinking on the game design, the children's cognitive understanding of social knowledge was enhanced, evident from the design artifacts produced.

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This chapter describes a game-based approach to teaching social problem solving skills. This chapter presents the background, literature review, development and evaluation of a social problem-solving game, Socialdrome, for use with primary school going children in Singapore. The game sought to intentionally teach children to identify and manage feelings, exercise self-control, solve social problems and negotiate conflict situations. This chapter has two objectives. First, we describe the design of Socialdrome, which is in alignment with instructional design and game design principles. In Study 1, we reported a formative evaluation of the game. This led to further refinements of the game. Second, we presented Study 2, an investigation of the learning outcomes and user acceptance arising from using Socialdrome. Here, a summative evaluation of the game in a formal classroom setting was reported. We concluded with directions for future work.

This chapter describes a game-based approach to teaching social problem solving skills. This chapter presents the background, literature review, development and evaluation of a social problem-solving game, Socialdrome, for use with primary school going children in Singapore. The game sought to intentionally teach children to identify and manage feelings, exercise self-control, solve social problems and negotiate conflict situations. This chapter has two objectives. First, we describe the design of Socialdrome, which is in alignment with instructional design and game design principles. In Study 1, we reported a formative evaluation of the game. This led to further refinements of the game. Second, we presented Study 2, an investigation of the learning outcomes and user acceptance arising from using Socialdrome. Here, a summative evaluation of the game in a formal classroom setting was reported. We concluded with directions for future work.