Wednesday 19 January 2011

EMA - Easy Money Acquired or a deserved study reward?

So, today's the day the Government are due to make a decision on whether or not to scrap Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA).

For students, today has the potential to be disastrous. If your annual household income is less than £30,810 and you are aged 16,17 or 18 about to leave compulsory education for a further education course at a college or Sixth Form, you receive £10, £20, or £30 per week (depending on your family's circumstances) for attending all your lessons punctually. Essentially, its money or nothing!

Actually, its blackmail! The idea behind EMA is that students have financial help in order to pay for all the books, stationary and transport costs associated with going to college. In reality, students are being paid for going to each lesson at college. How much does a few textbooks and pens cost? No more than £100 surely – meaning three weeks worth of money should cover it; why continue being paid EMA for every other week of your term?

I myself benefited from EMA during my time at Sixth Form, whilst studying my A-Levels. Honestly, my decision to study A-Levels was not spearheaded by a desire to be gifted £30 a week of government money, more to gain the qualifications that I would need in order to be successful in life. Unfortunately for me, many students at my college were only there to pick up £30 a week of taxpayers money. They had no desire to learn or achieve anything and would come to college each day, mess around and go home every week £30 richer. Did the fact that they had no qualifications bother them when they left? Of course not, they could just walk into another college or go straight into a low-paid job where they could earn enough money to survive.

For me, I did not need EMA for travel. I lived only 20 minutes away from college. As far as books were concerned; yes I should have perhaps bought a few but why bother spending money on something that I could borrow for free from a local library (remember those old fashioned things?) As far as stationary was concerned, I only needed a notepad and a pen and I was good to go, meaning my EMA was spent on my social life.

Dire Straits sang about Money for Nothing
- does EMA follow the same principle?
Whilst it is easy to generalise and tarnish all students with a money-grabbing brush, it is true that some students do travel to college and travel costs these days are far from cheap! However, it is only around £80 for a student to purchase a termly discount (with that infamous student discount tag), which means that again, they only need to use up three weeks worth of money.

At the risk of not only insulting and shocking every student in the country, but also sounding hypocritical, I believe that to scrap EMA payments is no bad thing. However, for those that rely on it for transport costs and textbooks, why not replace it with a start-of-term loan of around £150 that should cover students for the whole term. Whilst EMA has the benefit of being an incentive for students to attend each lesson, why not make the start-of-the-year loan non-repayable for those that achieve excellent results throughout the term and for those that don't, ask for the payment to be returned. At least that way those that are only attending college to pick up some money for nothing will have no reward for their idleness. For those wanting to achieve, they get money to spend on resources they need that they do not have to pay back – its win-win for both the student and the taxpayer.

Yes, students who do not have rich parents need some money to go out and let their hair down but this does not need to be at the expense of government money. Why not do the unthinkable and get a weekend job somewhere to support yourself through your time in college? That way, we are teaching our youth the benefits of working and getting them used to being self-sufficient. That's my view, but then......I'm no government minister.....

Students, please feel free to rant and rave below.....


Friday 7 January 2011

Foursquare: four better or four worse?

It's finally happened. While the world has been busy talking about the upsurge of question and answer based social networking website Quora , fellow social networking site Foursquare has hit the headlines as the first ever case of cyber stalking has impacted upon the online world.

Reports from various national newspaper titles, including Metro and Scotsman, are detailing the account of a 26-year-old man who was cyber stalked by a 22-year-woman tracking his location constantly through location-based social networking site Foursquare.

It took me a while to sign up to the location-based website, that asks you to 'check in' at venues from your mobile. Facebook was my first social networking guilty pleasure and then when that lost its charm, I turned to Twitter. In fact, only late last year did I finally succumb to Foursquare. Why did it take so long for a self-confessed social media addict to sign up? For the very reason it is hitting the headlines now.
The victim states that they were "left under siege for nine months by dozens of e-mails, calls and texts every day from a woman he only met for a matter of minutes." The alleged stalker is reported to have started showing up at a number of places the victim checked in at and harassing him as she took up the pretence that she was interested in employing him.

I saw the dangers associated with Foursquare from the very beginning. Surely letting everyone know where you are will leave you vulnerable to potential stalkers? Just like the furore over Facebook places (which, like Foursquare, asks you where you are situated in the world) which erupted over the statement that to share with everyone when you are away from home can leave you vulnerable to burglaries, there is a lot of privacy leakage within Foursquare.

Originally, I didn't particularly want anyone to know where I was and equally did not think many people I knew really gave a damn either way but the added incentive of achieving Mayorships and unlocking badges each time you check in at a destination makes the website strangely alluring and it was upon this basis that I signed up.

Before you ask, no I have not been stalked or burgled as a consequence of using Foursquare (touch wood!) and neither am I likely to be purely for the fact that I am careful how I use it. Only a fool would put their own home and full address onto Foursquare and repeatedly check in (believe me, I have seen some full addresses on there, which would have been very useful had I been a thief!) and even to check in to your local area is a risky business for those that like to keep their privacy. However, to check in elsewhere surely poses no risks?

Foursquare: Is it really a dangerous website?
In truth, it is actually incredibly difficult to stalk someone on Foursquare. The only people that see your check-ins are those that you have requested to be your friend on there, or whose friend request you have accepted, (except the handful of updates on the site's homepage, which, due to the amount of users signed up, are only there for a few seconds before changing!) beggaring the question why our victim accepted his stalker in the first place. OK, so he did not know she would turn out to be a complete obsessive but when she kept turning up at the same places he visited, did the thought never occur to him to delete her as a friend? (A resource that Foursquare offers with very simple instructions!) Just as with Facebook Places, it is nigh on impossible to stalk someone you are not 'virtual friends' with, even if you are their friend in real life.

Of course, no web developer is going to bear in mind of the risk of a complete nutjob stumbling across your online profiles when creating a new social networking website for in reality, there are few and far between. However, as with any social networking site the need for careful use by the user is of paramount importance. I'm sure you wouldn't put the dates of your holiday on your Facebook status, even if it is just 'friends' that can see (as long as your profile is set to private!) just as you would not paste your entire address on Foursquare in the knowledge that when you checked in somewhere else everyone knew you weren't home.

More than simply a bit of fun, Foursquare also offers significant benefit to businesses, as there is an option within the site to leave tips on check-in points, such as 'try this particular coffee bar for cheap, great-tasting espressos.' Furthermore, as the Wetherspoons trade once tried themselves, a business can offer exclusive deals to their Foursquare mayor as an incentive to keep visiting the establishment (Foursquare works on GPS so it is almost impossible to cheat the network.)

Foursquare is not a dangerous website and although the idea of it can potentially breach privacy, it is down to the individual user to filter the information they share themselves. Just like any other social networking site, Foursquare must be used with a pinch of common sense in order for it to become a fun and safe medium for expressing your views. In this particular case, it would not have taken a genius to work out how is was possible that the alleged cyber stalker kept turning up at the same places as the victim! When using social networking, you are putting yourself at the helm of the public domain and must reserve some dilligence at all times. If something is suspect, act to bring it to a halt or report it to the relevant authorities before it cascades out of hand!

Last year, the Crown Prosecution Service announced that cyber stalkers who harass people on social networking sites could face jail under a new crackdown. Restraining orders are available that can ban offenders from posting ‘any material relating to a victim on sites including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter’. Social networking is beginning to hammer away at your everyday life and as such, is being treated seriously by the authorities but at the end of the day there is no better way of securing privacy than by monitoring your own online activity.