Proselytism and the right to freedom from improper irreligious influence: the example of public school education

Jurisprudentially speaking, proselytism is a concept within the larger genus of the protection of religious rights and freedoms. The word lends itself to differing opinions. However, there is a popular school of thought that proselytism has to do only with influencing people to adopt a particular religion. Such an understanding relies on the view that only the religious can be insidious and bear the potential to improperly proselytise, and thus excludes the possibility of improper irreligious forms of influence. In referring to the example of public-school education, it is argued that as much as the religious has the potential for improper proselytising, irreligious teachings or expressions also run the risk of improper proselytising. Not only are irreligious beliefs in many instances diametrically opposed to religious beliefs; they are a belief in themselves and cannot be seen as necessarily harmless or without the potential to proselytise improperly. Consequently, this article introduces an equitable and accommodative understanding of proselytism, which places the potentially harmful effects of both religious and irreligious beliefs on an equal footing with each other (something befitting to plural and democratic paradigms). This article therefore also cultivates further debate on improper irreligious proselytism in religious rights and freedoms jurisprudence, a scant topic in human rights jurisprudence

A probabilistic voting model of progressive taxation with incentive effects

The purpose of this work is to show under what conditions a marginally progressive income tax emerges as the result of political competition between two parties when labor is elastically supplied and candidates are uncertain about voters' decisions on election day. Assuming a decreasing wage elasticity of labor supply, if we follow Coughlin and Nitzan (1981), only marginal-rate progressive taxes are chosen by both candidates in equilibrium. If, instead, we adopt Lindbeck and Weibull’s (1987) probabilistic voting model, the equilibrium tax schedule will be progressive as long as the political power of the rich voter is sufficiently low. The degree of progressivity decreases with population polarization.Political economy, progressive taxation, elastic labor supply

A Probabilistic Voting Model of Progressive Taxation with Incentive Effects

This paper shows conditions under which a marginally progressive income tax emerges as the outcome of political competition between two parties, when labor is elastically supplied and candidates are uncertain about voters' choice at election day. Assuming the elasticity of labor is decreasing on marginal wage; following Coughlin and Nitzan (1981) only marginal progressive taxes are played by both candidates in equilibrium. If; instead, we adopt Lindbeck and Weibull (1989) probabilistic voting model, the equilibrium tax schedule will be progressive as long as the political power of the rich voter is sufficiently small. The degree of progressivity decreases with population polarization.Political economy, progressive taxation, elastic labor supply.

How can exploratory learning with games and simulations within the curriculum be most effectively evaluated?

There have been few attempts to introduce frameworks that can help support tutors evaluate educational games and simulations that can be most effective in their particular learning context and subject area. The lack of a dedicated framework has produced a significant impediment for uptake of games and simulations particularly in formal learning contexts. This paper aims to address this shortcoming by introducing a four-dimensional framework for helping tutors to evaluate the potential of using games- and simulation- based learning in their practice, and to support more critical approaches to this form of games and simulations. The four-dimensional framework is applied to two examples from practice to test its efficacy and structure critical reflection upon practice

Evaluating the development of wearable devices, personal data assistants and the use of other mobile devices in further and higher education institutions

This report presents technical evaluation and case studies of the use of wearable and mobile computing mobile devices in further and higher education. The first section provides technical evaluation of the current state of the art in wearable and mobile technologies and reviews several innovative wearable products that have been developed in recent years. The second section examines three scenarios for further and higher education where wearable and mobile devices are currently being used. The three scenarios include: (i) the delivery of lectures over mobile devices, (ii) the augmentation of the physical campus with a virtual and mobile component, and (iii) the use of PDAs and mobile devices in field studies. The first scenario explores the use of web lectures including an evaluation of IBM's Web Lecture Services and 3Com's learning assistant. The second scenario explores models for a campus without walls evaluating the Handsprings to Learning projects at East Carolina University and ActiveCampus at the University of California San Diego . The third scenario explores the use of wearable and mobile devices for field trips examining San Francisco Exploratorium's tool for capturing museum visits and the Cybertracker field computer. The third section of the report explores the uses and purposes for wearable and mobile devices in tertiary education, identifying key trends and issues to be considered when piloting the use of these devices in educational contexts