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BEM Feedback: it's all about interaction

Feedback is not a final step in learning—it’s the foundation of meaningful interaction. Through the BEM Framework (Behavior, Experience, Meaning), feedback is shown to be essential in shaping behavior, transforming experience, and creating purpose. In gamified learning, feedback creates a loop of action and response that drives motivation and growth. Effective feedback is timely, emotionally resonant, and bidirectional, guiding learners rather than judging them. Educators should use feedback to orient, empower, and include students, especially after failure. By shifting from action-driven to interaction-driven design, feedback becomes a tool for transformation, helping students grow with every attempt, mistake, and success.

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Empowering kids to unpack AI algorithms: a Vanderbilt researcher’s game-based approach

As AI becomes integral to daily life, Professor Golnaz Arastoopour Irgens of Vanderbilt University emphasizes teaching children the human influence behind algorithms. She leads a $1.5 million NSF-funded project to develop critical computing curricula for elementary students.

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Digital games may improve mental health in refugee kids

A study presented at BAU International University found that digital games can significantly improve both academic skills and mental health in refugee children. The research involved 147 Syrian children aged 9 to 14 and showed that game-based interventions helped teach language and cognitive skills while reducing symptoms of PTSD, depression, and hopelessness.

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Teacher's 'absurdist' video game set for release

Richard Brown, a special school teacher from Sheffield, began creating point-and-click adventure games after introducing his children to the genre. Inspired by classics like Monkey Island and Zak McKracken, his latest game, Brownie’s Adventures: The Final Resolution, is set in a quirky, post-apocalyptic version of North East Derbyshire.

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Health bars and power ups: The 'freaky and unpleasant' world when video games leak into the physical realm

Video games, the world’s biggest entertainment medium, can sometimes blur into real life through a phenomenon called Game Transfer Phenomenon (GTP). Psychologist Angelica Ortiz de Gortari coined the term after noticing gamers involuntarily perceive or react to the world as if still in-game—like seeing health bars or feeling urges to collect items.

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