A ban on a range of so-called legal highs came into force today.

The ban covers GBL, BZP and manmade chemicals sprayed on herbal smoking products such as Spice, which are now classed as controlled substances under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

The crackdown comes after the high-profile case of medical student Hester Stewart, 21, who died in Brighton in April after taking GBL.

Her mother, Maryon Stewart, said the new rules did not go far enough because GBL had been classified only as a Class C illegal drug. “In America, it is schedule A, which is the equivalent of a Class A drug here,” she said.

The home secretary, Alan Arthur Johnson, said: “We are sending out a clear message to anyone who is thinking about experimenting with [the drugs], particularly over the festive period, that not only are they putting themselves in danger, they will also be breaking the law.”

Fifteen anabolic steroids are also to be controlled as class C drugs, alongside two growth promoters.

Well, they haven’t banned all legal highs, that’d be just stupid. Yes, I know “they” (the government, I guess) are stupid; but that’s not really relevant. Anyway, doesn’t that tile seem a bit paradoxical? If they’ve banned legal highs, then the highs aren’t legal, are they? So they’re not legal highs. So I guess they haven’t banned legal highs…

Okay, allow me to stop being a jerk. What I’m actually trying to tell you is: from today (23 Dec 2009) a ban comes into effect on the previously legal highs GBL, BZP, and various chemical products that users spray onto cigarettes (such as “Spice”).

According to the Guardian, “The crackdown comes after the high-profile case of medical student Hester Stewart, 21, who died in Brighton in April after taking GBL.” Which is a pretty crap reason to ban these substances. One death?! Thousands of people die each year from the effects of alcohol, which remains legal. Yet they ban GBL because one person died after taking it… and that was probably an allergic reaction or something similar…

Yeah I know what some of you are thinking: “Just because alcohol remains legal, that’s no reason to allow the sale of other harmful drugs.” But that’s a load of crap. Governments should ban drugs only if it is demonstrated that the substance in question is truly dangerous. And one single death does not demonstrate that GBL is dangerous. More people die from eating peanuts – shall we ban nuts too?

Of course, Hester Stewart’s mother Maryon thinks the ban doesn’t go far enough. GBL has been classified a class C drug in the UK, whereas “In America, it is schedule A, which is the equivalent of a class A drug here.” A fatuous argument – we should copy the insane Americans with their prohibitionist drug laws and warehouse prison system? I thought we were better than that.

Actually, that’s a lie: I’ve never thought that we in the UK were better than the dumb Americans. I’m aware that, generally speaking, the UK is a little brother to Big USA. And this new drug law just reinforces the fact: the prohibitionists and the moral police are still in power on both sides of the pond. The election of Obama has changed nothing over there, and when we vote Gordon Brown out of office it won’t change a thing over here. All the available politicians are the same: a bunch of control-freak, moral nazi thought police. Screw ‘em all.

Tom Barrett asks if the label “Games Based Learning” is useful and posts some preliminary thoughts on the topic.

In short, he points out that game-based learning (GBL) might be useful a) to those who know what it means and b) to compartmentalize it for those who don’t. But he also worries that putting it in a separate box might not allow viewers to see the big picture.

I am not worried about putting it in the box. I am more worried that teachers don’t take it out of that box (or don’t know that it exists) and don’t use it appropriately. This is why I get my trainee teachers to experience and evaluate educational gaming.

I also have two more thoughts to add to the pot (or box as might be the case). First, teachers, particularly those in physical education, have been using game-based learning for the longest time, so it is not new. The term GBL seems to have evolved to mean computer and video game-based learning now.

Second, you don’t have to play video games to apply game-based learning strategies. GBL is about providing experiences and even tests before providing content (if any). GBL is about making learning fun, interesting and self-propelling. GBL is about giving learning a clear purpose by constant problem-solving and learning content as and when needed.

So what’s in a name like GBL? A lot more than meets the eye.

I found Seamonsters under recommendation from @digitalmaverick and bought both the Wii game and the DVD produced by National Geographic.

The DVD is typical of the quality one comes to expect from National Geographic with a mixed timeline of prehistoric marine dinosaurs and the different discoveries of their fossils by archeologists. The game allows the user to access the game as a marine dinosaur and perhaps doesn’t have the elegance of Endless Ocean but it is still an alluring game.

I have drawn up a curriculum map – this is deliberately not demarcated by UK National Curriculum subjects but I think that it will be easy to make the links.

I have made links that are slightly Anglo centric with a focus on Mary Anning (she of Mary Mary Quite Contrary fame) who was based on the Jurassic coast to the west of Poole. The DVD also places to investigate across the globe including Holland, the USA and Australia.
I have tried put in some web 2.0 opportunities including the use of voicethread, collaborative writing using google doc (although this could be one of many collaborative writing tools such as etherpad.)

This is hopefully a starting point and I would love to hear any comments which may inspire further developments.

I found Seamonsters under recommendation from @digitalmaverick and bought both the Wii game and the DVD produced by National Geographic.

The DVD is typical of the quality one comes to expect from National Geographic with a mixed timeline of prehistoric marine dinosaurs and the different discoveries of their fossils by archeologists. The game allows the user to access the game as a marine dinosaur and perhaps doesn’t have the elegance of Endless Ocean but it is still an alluring game.

I have drawn up a curriculum map – this is deliberately not demarcated by UK National Curriculum subjects but I think that it will be easy to make the links.

Any comments would be gratefully received.

If you are interested in Game Based Learning then check out this article from The New York Times Magazine here

From a tweet by Elan from BrainPop UK

Today on October 31st I’ll present my paper Process Control in the Development of Game-Based Learning Environments in the Advances in Computer Entertainment Conference 2009 here in Athens, Greece.

I’ll post an article about different approaches to process control (or managing the project if you like) in GBLE development projects after the talk in this blog. My paper will also be published in the conference proceedings.

I put this look together and built it around the dress from Sugar & Spice.  Since buying this hair yesterday from Truth, I haven’t taken it off yet, so it was natural for me to keep it as part of my look.  I went through all my accessory folders and pulled out some old favorites, like this headband and necklace from GBL, I’m not sure if these items are still available but you can contact Babyhoney Bailey and find out for sure from her.  I also pulled out new favorites from Skream.  Skream has become one of my favorite stores for jewelry because of the unique pieces that are created.  I finished this outfit off with leggings from Aoharu, and ankle boots from Bax Coen, these boots have quickly become one of my favorite boots to wear.  Also pictured is the new skin from Dutch Touch, which I feel in love with but couldn’t decide on a makeup style, so I went with the smoky look.  All I’m going to say about this skin is that I love it and its definitely worth checking out.  Enjoy!

Credits:

Hair: Truth – Lauren in Walnut

Skin: Dutch Touch – Jolie – Caramel in Smokey

Eyes: Silhouette – Malachite

Lashes: Glow Studios – Rain

Headband: GBL – Braided Headband in Silver (not sure if still available)

Necklace: 1.) GBL – Sorority in Nior (not sure if still available)

2.) Skream – Botted Up Pain Necklace

Bracelet: Skream – Cuffed Armband

Ring: i-Candy – Keyboard 4 Finger Ring

Dress: S & S – T-Dress in White

Leggings: Aoharu – Hard Crash Leggings in Black

Boots: Bax Coen – Ankle Boots in Patent Black

I have set up this blog to disseminate the results of my (still on-going) dissertation work in the development of game-based learning environments.

The focus is on describing the results from a practitioner’s point of view. The aim is to produce articles that game-based learning practitioners can take, discuss and use in their work.

This means that this blog should not be regarded as academic evidence of my work. For that I will publish the dissertation itself.

I will publish articles on findings made during my research work. These will range from summaries of literature reviews to concrete guidelines on how to arrange parts of the development process of GBLEs. I will occasionally point to work done elsewhere also when appropriate.

As of now I’ll leave you with info on myself and my dissertation work as well as descriptions of the case projects that were the material and focus of my research.

Apparently the Pentagon is considering repealing the DADT policy which has been in place for over a decade.  For those who do not know, DADT stands for “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, and this policy stipulates that GBL troops can serve so long as their orientation does not become public knowledge; hence the idea that the military doesn’t ask, and you don’t tell. The “erudite” policy-makes in Washington have finally realized that openly gay troops would not result in a mass exodus of heterosexual troops, and would not detrimentally affect troop cohesion, can anyone else say duh!
This policy is ridiculous and has been since its creation in ‘93; a decision to repeal could not come soon enough.  God bless ALL of our troops.  Different opinions?

The Wanderings of a Law Student had a look at legal highs following a BBC documentary on them presented by George Lamb and has produced a very interesting report on the rationality of criminalising them. I also saw this program, I found it slightly disheartening as I find all shows which seek out and interview teenagers who smoke drugs in car parks. I don’t exactly think I was better for not spending my teenage years doing this but at the same time that’s basically it.

The main thing that I took from the show was that some people will consume unbelievable substances. I personally won’t eat homemade mayonaise that’s been left out of the fridge so a lot of the products going under the umbrella of legal highs really don’t stand a chance.

WLS divided legal highs into two categories – natural and man made chemicals. I personally prefer to consider legal highs as broadly “serendipitous” or “deliberate” – there are many things which get you high, but some are deliberately sought out, things like salvia, peyote etc,and others just happen to do that while actually being intended for something else. My main issue lies with the proposed criminalisation of these serendipitous legal highs.

Deliberate legal highs do include the changing of chemical structures to produce a molecule with similar effects but falling outside of drug prohibitions. Banning the remixing of narcotics sounds fair enough but I do urge caution in pursuing this too closely, for example this:

is dimethyltryptamine, it’s a potent psychedelic drug sold under the name “DMT” and is considered a “Class A” substance in Britain. It can be changed to, say:

5-methoxy-dimethyltryptamine which has much the same effect. This, for colour, is the chemical produced by a certain species of toad and so if you hear of anyone attempting to lick toads (literally, licking toads) this is the substance they’re after. Or maybe they just really like toads. This example is as illegal as all get out in the US but I can’t actually find any reference to it being illegal in the UK, even though regular DMT gets the class A rating. However, this

is 5-hydroxytryptamine, it’s a very similar chemical from the same functional group as the previous two- the indole group of alkaloids generally and the tryptamines more specifically. It’s mood altering and in excess can be linked to severe mental illness. The thing is it’s more commonly known as the neurotransmitter serotonin and is naturally found in humans and animals and actually mostly regulates digestive function. I don’t think anyone wants it criminalised.

Serendipitous legal highs are dual use, GBL being quite a good example. GBL is “liquid ecstacy” or, in its day job, an industrial paint stripper. I have great sympathy for the mother of Hester Stewart, the medical student who died after consuming a lethal cocktail of GBL and alcohol, but don’t support her call to have GBL turned into a Class A narcotic. You really shouldn’t be drinking industrial solvents, particularly not as a medical student which just makes it ironic as well as tragic. Stewart’s death sounds more like misadventure to me. She didn’t overdose on drugs, she drank paint stripper. She drank it because it has narcotic effects but that doesn’t change what it is.

WLS and I come to the same conclusion about these products but we differ on the working.

To summarise WLS he argues that drugs (especially these) should not be criminalised, as there is no inherent moral wrong. He makes the claim that criminalisation implies strict moral wrongness and I do not agree — I think many crimes are just bad because we say so. Tax offences, for example, are wrong simply because the tax code says they are. I would be perfectly comfortable considering this as a case of malum prohibitum should the legislation go through even though I don’t agree with the effect, which would include a maximum 2 year custodial sentence for possessing paint stripper. I argue that the fact that something is not inherently morally wrong is no bar to it being criminal. The big crimes are morally wrong, yes, but little crimes disrupt society too.

Physical harm is a fair reason to ban something but I suggest that it should be the harm to other people which is the main determinant. I would see no problem with arresting people attempting to drive under influence of these products even if not necessarily arresting people for having a packet of them in their pocket. This does not take into account possible longer term consequences such as increased NHS demand which is a genuine and dramatic cost on society. The psychological effects are undeniably strong and no one should consider the risk to the public less just because they are not criminalised. Sky diving is not criminal and yet very dangerous. The law doesn’t and shouldn’t eliminate all risk in the world. Part of living in an adult world is avoiding doing things like snorting (as seen on the George Lamb documentary) bath salts. It should be noted that the link shows you a 1 gram packet of bath salts, it will probably make a suspiciously unsatisfying bath but they are balt salts and they shouldn’t be snorted up your nose.

The issue of criminalisation is being driven by some high profile cases – the death of Hester Stewart being the one which appears to have received most visibility. The problem of deciding law based on hard cases raises its head here – the law cannot apply differently to situations which make it to the Daily Telegraph.

My main problem with legal highs, and the same concern I have with herbal medicines, is the lack of testing and consistency. I would much rather have other people explore the risk of unknown compounds before I consume them. Pharmacology is something I know just enough about to know not to mess with.

The mutating hydra of legal highs is a real problem for those using them and unless you are dealing with seriously high quality products in any sphere of industry you are going to experience considerable variation along the line, from competing products and even from within the same wrapper. These are all serious concerns and regulation would start to fix quite a bit of this and I think that’s why it’s a more practical approach. These are legitimate businesses, they aren’t mixing their Columbian pure with gasoline and trying to kill James Bond while pretending to be a religious retreat, and we assume they will respond to regulation. If they didn’t they’d presumably be selling regular drugs.

Lack of consistency is not, however, why I think legal highs should not be criminalised. This is because I believe that if we make legal highs illegal there will be no end to what cannot be considered an illegal narcotic. These products are, perhaps slightly nefariously, sold as air fresheners, bath salts and solvents. They are not suitable for human consumption not due to arbitary packaging guidelines but as an inherent result of what they are.

I am against using legislation to gain some vengeance for mistakes after the event, I think this impinges on the rest of humanity’s right to self determination. If someone is snorting bath salts or smoking pot porurri the problem isn’t drugs, it’s insanity. There are people who drink white spirit and windscreen washer because they’ve got tons of alcohol in them but that’s not enough to make them illicit drugs. It’s a thoroughly illjudged thing to do with your time but it’s not a drug offence.

The chemical solvent GBL and ‘party drug’ BZP will be banned by the end of the year, the Home Office announced today.

GBL has been labelled as a ‘legal high’ and is often used at parties and in nightclubs. It is a colourless, oily liquid, with a weak odour. Once inside the body, GBL is converted into GHB, also known as the illegal ‘date rape’ drug.

Photo from Talk to FRANK

The substance reduces inhibitions and can cause vomiting and serious heart problems. When mixed with alcohol, GBL can be fatal and has been linked to a number of deaths.

BZP, which can be found as a pill or a powder, is taken as an alternative to amphetamines. It can cause a rush of energy, agitation, vomiting and headaches. The Government plans to classify both GBL and BZP as Class C drugs, based on advice by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD).

Professor David Nutt, chair of the ACMD, said: “It is important to highlight that these are in fact dangerous drugs, especially when mixed with alcohol.”

The Government also plans to ban synthetic cannabionoids, which are chemicals that are sprayed on herbal smoking products. These man-made chemicals mimic the psychoactive effects of cannabis, but can be far more potent, the Home Office said. These chemicals will be classified in Class B, alongside cannabis.

The Home Secretary Alan Johnson said: “There is a perception that many of the so called ‘legal highs’ are harmless, however in some cases people can be ingesting dangerous industrial fluids or smoking chemicals that can be even more harmful than cannabis.”

The Home Office is launching a campaign to educate young people on the dangers of these substances to coincide with Freshers’ week in September.

I attended a CPD session today with Tim Rylands as part of a Leeds Literacy Project and below are the results of an attempt to blog live whilst I was taking part.
Tim is working with teachers from a range of schools who will be looking to use Games Based Learning in their literacy teaching. My role will be to support the schools during the project with the intention of ensuring its sustainability.

I apologise for the poor grammar and writing but I tried to get everything and then posted as quickly as possible.

Notes from the day

Initial attack on powerpointlessness of too many presentations – the day will be based around single words / phrases and images

Introduction of Myst games with a disclaimer that it is not necessarily about being a gamer. The beauty of the images is brought to the fore.
Myst III and Myst IV – games recommended for new users.

“It’s about inspiring children to become writers.”

“Writing floats on a sea of speaking and listening”

Teachers bring their experience of the world into their description  of the initial screen.

Discusses giving a sign to the children that the teacher will listen (non verbal language)

Teachers absolutely mesmerised by the use of the background music and the positive messages permeating through each section
Suddenly we have moved into discussion of writing and the modelling of oral rehearsal.

Paragraphing indicated by a new experience in the game.
Tim demonstrated vocabulary collection through meeting different aspects of the game.
There is a  strong message around maximising the impact of small amounts of game playing rather than relentlessly marching through the game. This is about taking time and allowing the speaking and listening to come to the fore. There are links between the use of time in film literacy with Games Based Learning.
More awe and wonder than shock and thunder – this ties in with previously discussed work on using boy friendly approaches with girl friendly texts. The gaming is as girl friendly as boy friendly.
Atrus’ book shown to the delegates and the importance of it being a quality text stressed to the delegates.
Writing journals recommended – hoping that teachers see links to current agendas with LA training.

• Speaking and listening
• Writing journals
• Fiction thieving / Magpieing ideas
• Scribbling (writing constantly)

Film shared of the children playing the game and reading their writing

• Wind chimes were singing their song
• …there were unfinished books lying on the floor
• It looked nothing I had seen before

Recommended cue prompter to support reading on film or in assemblies.
Quicktime VR library at panoramas

Examples from Special Schools
Sarah and Tim shared examples of work with pupils in Special Schools with description of the game’s impact on the children.

Moving back to images of children writing – “It is about children perceiving them as writers” – this is something that we have been battling with for many years (editor)
The work shown covered a huge range of forms of writing from postcards, writing their own worlds, explanations, persuasive writing to justify the use of computer games in the literacy lesson.

End of first session
What do you think you will take back to work? Thoughts from my table (editor) Emphasis on speaking and listening, time to think, time to rehearse, emphasis on quality of teaching of text structure and pupils taking control of the production of work.
Quote of the morning “There’s no point in doing a day like this, if it doesn’t have an impact on what is happening in your classroom.”

Session Two
The delegates launched into playing the game for this session
This means that I have had time to think through the implications of the morning’s input and I have come up with the conclusion that the morning has been about the breaking down of silos.
What I mean by this is that too many teachers in our country are confronted with an approach to CPD which can be sumarised by the beloved Jesse on the fast show.

How many teachers hit a different CPD focus every week? The net result of this is often that we often see the Primary curriculum in silos or blocks. This is also true for simply the teaching of literacy where teachers try to orchestrate the use of film literacy, speaking and listening, reading comprehension, boy’s writing strategies, use of gaming, multiliteracies, visual literacy and so the list goes on. The morning has really reinforced the message that this is not about engaging with blocks of experience or silos of pedagogy rather that it is all about blending these into a clearly thought out approach. This is intuitive to many but it is still a vital message to give that the use of games or films will invigorate children to talk at length if the teacher plans for it and models it to the children. It will be key for the success of this project that teachers give themselves and, more importantly , the children time to develop talk around their experiences before moving into any writing.

Afternoon session
Tim and Sarah talked the delegates through a range of applications to be used in the classroom to support the teaching of writing. I am aware that some people reading this blog will know each of these applications but many won’t so I will add some details when I get home.
wordle – a brilliant site which creates a word cloud based upon the frequency of words in an extract pasted into the programme
word sift – similar to wordle (although with less eye catching visuals) which allows the user to research the meaning of specific within the word cloud
dabbleboard – an online collaboration tool
etherpad - collaborative writing tool which includes the ability to review the writing process upon completion using a time slider which replays the authoring as a movie.
Tag galaxy – after entering an initial tag the site creates a tag galaxy with terms related to it. When the user selects a tag it creates a tag planet populated with flickr images associated with the selected tags.
Voicethread – a web based application which allows pupils to post work or images and then comment upon it in writing, using video or audio.
Rich chart – a we based data programme which produces flash files of your data.
Gadwin – a really cool alternative to using print screen

Reflections
So as we near the end of the day was this about games based learning, Myst, speaking and listening, writing or engagement?
Being simplistic it was about all of them – sure enough Tim is in the position where people will expect to see work based around Myst but the use of the game is almost incidental to the main message. I am sure Tim won’t me mind saying that he could have used almost any different game and put over the same message. There were many messages given today which were identical to those given on training for development of oral rehearsal or Talk for Writing. There was plenty of advice about new opportunities in ICT, drama, talk and moving towards a piece of quality piece of writing.

So what was the day about? On two levels (pupils and teachers) it was about creating a motivating and engaging approach to the teaching of literacy.
More importantly it was about breaking down the different silos of approaches for teachers so that they don’t see each of the areas as being distinct and different.

So at the end of the day what did the delegates feel?
At the end of a very long day covering a myriad of opportunities and examples the teachers were fired up and incredibly keen to get to the school on the 2nd day to work not only with Tim but also with children.

A great day – I will keep you updated with the progress of the project over the next year.

I have now returned home and tidied the blog up. Tim’s blog has some interesting photos of the day (you may spot me on one!) the comments from the delegates are impressive but what is important is the impact on practice and children’s work is what ultimately matters.

Wordle of this posting

Okay another rant but how silly are people, GHB, better known as the date rape drug is another favourite with clubbers!!! Another ‘legal high’ causing trouble, it’s the word a association really isn’t it,  it’s legal so therefore it’s very easy to be mislead and think it must be okay. My fave line at the mo…’don’t be a lab rat it’s not worth it!’

GHB stands for Gammahydroxybutrate, it’s also known as liquid ecstasy (GBL), GBL enters the body an then transforms to be GHB. The drug basically acts as a sedative or an anaesthetic, today it’s used for partying or as an accessory to a nasty crime such as rape even murder.

When mixed with alcohol and other drugs this drug is even more dangerous than it is when taken alone. The drug can induce comas, unconciousness and death.

I know people who do it and I always try and preach them about how they shouldn’t do it, I know it’s their choice but that stuff is evil. People seem to think that if they have the right amount that suits their body weight etc. they will be fine but this isn’t true and peeps you’re foolish if you believe this, you could have ten cap fulls and be ok and then you could have one cap full and find your self in a very very scary place. Please click on this and this.

Some discussions on drug forums such as bluelight have made me realise just how silly people are, I didn’t wish to leave comments as I didn’t want to stir up arguments. People were laughing and joking about the case a few years ago where a couple had an addiction, they decided to have one last blast before saying good bye to the drug forever this last one they would live to never forget and be scarred in more ways than one, the very first link above this paragraph takes you to a more in depth read of the case. Anyway if you have read the comments left on Bluelight I’m sure you will agree with me these people are clearly ill educated, self experince is one thing but there is a bigger picture, we have to research and compare to be able to have any idea. This article takes a bit to get into but please continue with it, it’s anwful account of how another individual couldn’t get away from the drug it had a real grip of him and in return for his loyalties to it he enured a long, slow and horrific death. This is just one article that I would like to flag up to those commenters on the drug forum, keep researching and you will be shocked.

I hope this is useful to someone ou there and I hope strong word can spread about this drug.