Institutional perspectives on the implementation of disability legislation and services for Spectators with Disabilities in European professional football

Contemporary national and international football governing bodies and professional football clubs are expected to comply with stadium accessibility laws and regulations. They are also required to demonstrate that they are responsible to all their customers, including those who experience impairment and/or disability as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies. One strategy to address stadium accessibility and wider-equity issues for spectators with disabilities (SwD) and their companions, is through appointing the ‘incipient managerial position’ of the Disability Liaison Officer (DLO). This exploratory paper is motivated by a paucity of studies examining impairment and/or disability within sport management. Drawing on institutional theory (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983, Friedland and Alford, 1991) this paper seeks to address this gap by examining the implementation of disability legislation in professional football within England, Germany and Spain. This paper critically reviews both the actions of the governing bodies and clubs to interpret and implement services for Spectators with Disabilities (SwD). Our findings revealed a significant variance in the depth of policy implementation between these countries. This variation was due to the relationship between the prevailing institutional logic and the management of accessibility which resulted, or did not result in isomorphism occurring. The article concludes with implications for the management of sport and a call for further research into the implementation of equity policies.     

Diary-based strategy assessment and its relationship to performance in a group of trainee teachers

Our work is based on the study of learning strategies used by a group of trainee teachers in a real learning situation, and how this use of strategies influences the results of the learning process. We use a diary as a tool to assess the learning strategies and compare the results obtained with those using an inventory. Our findings indicate that the deliberate use of strategies (measured by diaries) has a positive effect on knowledge acquisition, with the qualitative analysis method of the verbal protocols noted in the diaries proving more valuable than the use of traditional inventories.     

Adding automatic evaluation to interactive virtual labs

Automatic evaluation is a challenging field that has been addressed by the academic community in order to reduce the assessment workload. In this work we present a new element for the authoring tool Easy Java Simulations (EJS). This element, which is named automatic evaluation element (AEE), provides automatic evaluation to virtual and remote laboratories built with EJS by using the server application Goodle grading management system (GMS). The integration of both tools entitles a professor to create interactive virtual and remote laboratories and automatically evaluate the work of their students. As a test bed two case studies are presented; a non-linear controller design virtual laboratory used in an advanced control master course and a servomechanism virtual laboratory used in an undergraduate basic control course.     

Molecular thermodynamics for cell biology as taught with boxes

Thermodynamic principles are basic to an understanding of the complex fluxes of energy and information required to keep cells alive. These microscopic machines are nonequilibrium systems at the micron scale that are maintained in pseudo-steady-state conditions by very sophisticated processes. Therefore, several nonstandard concepts need to be taught to rationalize why these very ordered systems proliferate actively all over our planet in seeming contradiction to the second law of thermodynamics. We propose a model consisting of boxes with different shapes that contain small balls that are in constant motion due to a stream of air blowing from below. This is a simple macroscopic system that can be easily visualized by students and that can be understood as mimicking the behavior of a set of molecules exchanging energy. With such boxes, the basic concepts of entropy, enthalpy, and free energy can be taught while reinforcing a molecular understanding of the concepts and stressing the stochastic nature of the thermodynamic laws. In addition, time-related concepts, such as reaction rates and activation energy, can be readily visualized. Moreover, the boxes provide an intuitive way to introduce the role in cellular organization of "information" and Maxwell's demons operating under nonequilibrium conditions.     

Inequality of opportunity for educational achievement in Latin America: Evidence from PISA 2006–2009

We evaluate how far away six Latin American countries stand from a normative goal of equality of opportunity for educational achievement in PISA 2006–2009. We work with alternative characterizations of types: gender, school type (public or private), parental education, and their combinations. Following Checchi–Peragine's (2010) non-parametric method, we find that inequality of opportunity for educational achievement in Latin America ranges from less than 1% to up to 25%, depending on the year, the country, the subject and the specification of circumstances. These magnitudes are substantial with respect to what is found in comparator countries. Parental education and school type prove to be important sources of inequality of opportunity, contrary to gender. By means of sensitivity analyses, while most results show small to moderate variation in terms of magnitudes, in ordinal terms (rankings) they remain quite stable. Brazil stands out as the most opportunity-unequal country of the sample.     

PGDnet: a new problem‐solving virtual learning environment

The purpose of this paper was to provide information about the virtual learning environment known as PGDnet (the Spanish acronym for Plataforma de Gestión Docente or Educational Management Platform in English), which was developed by the innovative education group at the Technical University of Madrid known as “Nuevas metodologías docentes en ingeniería mecánica y fabricación” (New Teaching Methodologies in Mechanical Engineering and Manufacturing). This tool has been created on an ad hoc basis to cover specific teaching requirements for some engineering courses, which would be difficult to implement on general educational platforms such as Moodle or Blackboard. PGDnet was essentially created as an online engineering problem‐solving tool. These exercises are checked and corrected automatically, providing students with their final and partial scores, and with the solutions to these various sections. A stochastic programming model selects different exercises each time that an activity is performed and attaches the tables, graphs, figures and annexes that are needed for their resolution in each case. As is common with these types of tools, PGDnet provides effective management of publication and delivery dates for the proposed work, and contains records and databases, which allow the stored information to be processed. Its main features include ease of use, reliability and great versatility as a specific tool in the area of technical university education.     

Towards a multidimensional model for evaluating electronic government: Proposing a more comprehensive and integrative perspective

The use of information and communication technologies has been a key strategy for government reform. It offers diverse benefits, ranging from efficiency and effectiveness to transparency and greater democratic participation. Governments in many parts of the world have invested vast resources into electronic government projects with the expectation of achieving these and other outcomes. However, the results in many cases are limited and there is no comprehensive way to evaluate these initiatives at the aggregate level. A method for measuring and evaluating electronic government that identifies its advances and problems is needed. Previous efforts to do so are limited in terms of scope and dimensions being considered. Based on a review of current literature and the analysis of international best practices, this paper proposes a multidimensional model for measuring and evaluating electronic government. It also includes examples, a proposal of how to operationalize it, and several recommendations for practical use.     

Understanding risks,benefits, and strategic alternatives of social media applications in the public sector

Social media such as blogs, microblogs or electronic social networks can transform the ways in which we relate to other people and organizations. Government organizations are experimenting with social media to communicate with their constituents, and many analysts see in these media a powerful set of tools to reinvent government–citizen relationships. In this paper, we present the perceptions of risks, benefits and strategic guidelines about social media applications gathered from 250 public servants from Central Mexico, most of them working in information technology, as web masters or responding to Freedom of Information Act requests. The conclusions of the analysis are 1) that governments' participation in social media may result in improved communication and citizen participation, more transparency, and transfer of best practices among government agencies; 2) that a good implementation strategy is necessary to realize these benefits and to avoid risks; and 3) that the implementation of social media highlights the importance of updating laws and regulations, and of promoting changes in government culture and organizational practices.