Can video games help you improve your organization level?

Video games are electronic games which provide interaction between a human and a virtual character or characters in a virtual world and you have to do something with the character(s) to win. (1) There are a lot of different types/ genres of video games and each have different characteristics to how they are made and played. The different types/ genres of video games are:(2 and 3)

• Shooting: Where you take the role of a character and you shoot objects with/ other characters with what looks like a gun and bullets
• Fighting:Where you take the role of a character and each button on a controller forces a movement on the character and you fight another character using your character.
• Driving: You take control of a car and you steer and accelerate it using the controller.
• Platform: This is where you take control of a character and you use him/ her to jump from platform to platform in the game.
• Simulation: Where a game simulates real things to you like driving a plane or car and you have complete control over it.
• Adventure:Where the game takes you through an adventure with a character, like watching a movie but you are in control.
• Role-Playing: Where you take the role of a character and based on your actions and what you choose to do in the game different events occur.
• Strategy:Where you hav control of a group of something (e.g Army) and you must develop a strategy to help you win a battle.
• Sports: You take control of a sports athlete or team and then you use the controller to win a game against a computer or another player.
• Puzzle: Where the game is a virtual puzzle that you have to solve.
• Parlor Games: A card game that you play using your controller.

There are many different techniques used when studying and trying to learn, some people learn by seeing something being done in front of them, some people learn by doing/ practicing what they are trying to learn, another way of learning is by seeing something being done in front of you and try to link it to what you are trying to learn. Some people believe that video games can be helpful in learning and improving a skill that somebody has. A well known and loved strategy game is Command and Conquer Generals created by "Electronic arts" (company) where you take control of an army and you develop tactics to win a battle. Command and Conquer Generals is a strategy game which has been used in an experiment performed by myself to see if it helps students increase their organization levels.

The first thing I had to do was that I had to find a way of measuring the student''s organization because to see if their organization improves I must have a way of measuring it. I searched on the internet and I couldn't find anything that would help me in measuring a student's or person's organization so I decided to come up with something similar to a quiz that will help me in measuring somebody's organization. I came up with the following quiz that gave me an organization level out of ten:
For the five students to play Command and Conquer Generals They had to have the game so I went and bought six original and legal copies of the game (one for myself to make sure it works) and I decided if I the students would participate in the project well I would give them each the game to keep.

If I were to give students the games only and just tell them to play they would not learn anything from it and would come back with worse organizations than before. I created some instructions for the students to follow and I included in the instructions some critical thinking questions that would help the students increase their organization levels. The instructions given to the students are to the right:

Every question on the organization level quiz would give me an answer out of 10 so then I average each answer out to get the final organization level out of 10 also. I gave the students each an exam to take before and after they play the game to see if there is a change in the organization level. The organization level change is shown in the table below:
The table shows that almost every student's organization level increased and that means that my theory that Command and Conquer Generals does actually help improve a student's organization. I wanted to see if a video strategy video game helps improve a student's organization and I was proven correct that a a strategy video game does actually improve a student's organization level because as you can see from the results table above 4 out of 5 student's organization increased and one student's organization was already very high so there wasn't a big chance for him to improve.
Bibliography:

1. "Video game - definition of video game by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia." Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary. Web. 31 Jan. 2010. .
2. "Video game genres@Everything2.com." Welcome to Everything@Everything2.com. Web. 31 Jan. 2010. .
3. "Platform game@Everything2.com." Welcome to Everything@Everything2.com. Web. 31 Jan. 2010. .

By: Ali Al Kuwari