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Thursday 10 October 2013

WHO PUTS THE EDUCATION INTO OPEN EDUCATIONAL CONTENT?

By: Emmanuelomobhude On: 11:41
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  • Andy Lane The concept of open content was first mooted by David Wiley in 1998.1 Although he was referring to all types of content, he was mainly thinking of educational content because of his interest in enabling easier construction of educational materials from a repository of learning objects. When MIT decided in 2001 to make freely available on the web, under an open license, much of the content used or produced by its faculty to support their teaching, it chose the term OpenCourseWare for that content (see http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Global/AboutOCW/our-story.htm). In 2002, the term open educational resources (OER) was adopted at a UNESCO forum2 and is becoming the term used most often for this phenomenon. What Is Open Educational Content? Whatever term may be applied to this phenomenon, open content is largely digital stuff (music, images, words, animations) created by somebody who has attached an open license to it. (I recognize that analogue versions of open content can exist and be used by people but the reuse of such content under the open license is extremely curtailed by their analogue format.) In other words, the content is openly available (it can readily be found or discovered), is openly accessible (it is in a form in which others can take it away), and is openly reusable (the user can easily modify it and is allowed under the license to do certain things with it without having to ask the creator’s permission first). This is in contrast to full-rights-reserved copyright, where reuse is always closed to users unless they seek and are granted permission, and where rights holders normally restrict the content’s availability and accessibility in many different ways to avoid illegal use of the material. That is almost all I will say on the rights issues around open content because I am more interested here in exploring the conditions under which any content, open or closed, may be educational, before looking at the additional implications of open content. Who Creates Educational Content? The creators of any digital stuff (my wider term for content) will have had in mind at least two purposes for the stuff: what they expect users of the stuff will use it for (entertainment, information, education, and so forth) and what they themselves want to achieve through creating it (personal fulfillment, reputation, income, influence, and so forth). The users of the stuff also have at least two purposes for it: what they personally want to gain from it as it stands (entertainment, information, education, and so forth) and what else they might want to do with it for themselves or to share with others (which may be the same set of purposes that the primary creator had in mind). While this same argument applies to closed, or fully copyrighted, stuff, the effect of an open license is that users are not just primary consumers of the stuff, they are also enabled to use the stuff as feedstock for creating their own stuff (as secondary creators) without seeking the direct permission of the primary creator. This principle of a community of users, all creators and consumers at different times, underlies the whole philosophy of the creative commons, where everyone (in theory) can build upon the work of others for the greater benefit of all by creating more stuff that helps the wider economy and is not locked away or underexploited. It follows that open content becomes an open educational resource for which the creator, most likely a teacher in some form, had education as a major purpose or intent for that open content. It also follows that users of open content, learners or teachers, can declare it to be an open educational resource if they also are primarily using it for educational purposes, even if the primary creator did not have that in mind. In principle, all stuff can be given an educational purpose. So, what makes it effective at educating or enabling someone to learn from it as it stands—whether as a learner, to learn the subject matter, or as a teacher, to learn how that subject matter has been structured or presented as educational material? To explore this further I will use the simple idea that content is a mediating object between a teacher and a learner, with each interacting separately with it. In many open or distance learning situations, and especially with OER, all the mediation occurs through the content as object. In face-to-face or computer-mediated-conferencing teaching and learning situations, there is the added benefit of interactions between the teacher and the learners and between fellow learners around that content as a mediating object. Teacher–Content Interaction The first aspect to consider is the degree of meaning associated with the content. Thus, content can be primarily concerned with simple data or information (for example, that dogs have fur), through more complex information or knowledge (for example, why dogs have fur and why different dogs have different types and amounts of fur), to the drawing out of generalizations from the particular (for example, the conceptual reasons why all mammals have fur and the general models or hypotheses that enable predictions to be made for new examples of mammals). This external knowledge, where information and experience taken from the world have already been transformed, analyzed, tested, evaluated, and stored in some form, is the basis of education. An educational resource is one in which the creators have made sense of the existing public information and experiences of others to create something that embodies their own interpretation of that information and experiences in a structured way. An effective educational resource is one in which the structure or design of the resource is aimed at increasing the chances that inexperienced or less knowledgeable learners can both internalize that external knowledge and be able to demonstrate their own interpretation of that knowledge (I deal further with the learner’s capabilities below). The second aspect is the degree of engagement and interaction that learners are encouraged to have with the structured digital content (detailed reviews of interaction in online learning or computer-mediated higher education are given by Wallace3 and Godwin4). This engagement and interaction can be achieved by the creator’s inclusion of specified learning outcomes (that is, statements that set out what the creator is expecting the learner to learn from engaging with the educational resource) as well as inclusion of activities within the resource that are aimed at getting the learners to demonstrate (to themselves at least) that they have probably learned what was expected of them. This is a basic tenet of learning design that has been well explicated by Dyke and his colleagues,5 but it is important to recognize how limited are the opportunities for creator-designed learning activities if the interaction is solely by the learner with the content, and not also by the learner with a teacher and the learner with other learners, as explained by Moore.6 Of course, more knowledgeable and sophisticated learners are able to instantiate their own “learning activities” by which they internalize new (to them) knowledge. The major limitation for learning activities that a teacher embeds within educational resources is that any feedback to the responses that learners make to an activity has to be either predetermined or left to the learners to judge for themselves. This is even the case with many “intelligent” computer-based systems, because such sophisticated feedback systems are still based on predetermined responses to the learner’s behavior, albeit a greater range and more styles of responses. In this sense there are no direct opportunities for the learners to use dialogue with someone else to help recommunicate or negotiate their own interpretation of what they have learned. This can hinder less confident and inexperienced learners who have yet to develop their metalevel skills in learning to learn and managing their own knowledge in a specified field. This distinction in the way educational content is structured for different purposes can be clearly seen in the differences between OpenCourseWare in the style provided by MIT (http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html), consisting largely of educational resources without pedagogic structure or learning design that require sophistication in the user (which can be expected in other educators and graduate-level students, who are their primary targets) as compared to many of the open, distance, and e-learning style resources seen on OpenLearn (http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn) from the UK Open University (UKOU), where the resources are designed to help less sophisticated learners readily engage with them (which matches the UKOU’s aims to widen participation in higher education). The majority of OER developed so far have been of the MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) type. These are basically resources derived from and supporting a classroom-based approach to teaching, where there is a single teacher or tutor involved in teaching a course. This approach (which I have called OER 1.0) has many entailments. First, it is interesting to other teachers and lecturers because it relates closely to what they have to do, providing lesson plans, reading lists, and so forth from acknowledged leaders in their field. Second, it is of interest to current MIT undergraduate students choosing their next course, prospective undergraduate students who can more clearly see what they will be signing up for, and students from other higher education institutions who can compare these resources with what their institution provides. Third, however, OCW is not as readily accessible and understandable by those lacking confidence and formal qualifications and is not ideal for self-study unless you are a skilled self-studier or independent learner. OCW constitutes a set of resources, not pedagogically designed open learning materials. Fourth, while OCW is translated, used, and adapted by others, it is largely on a bilateral basis between individuals and the originating institutions and between two institutions. The software support environment does not easily facilitate the collaborative development of OER because each wants to have a highly localized version rather than work on a single common version. In a similar vein, there is no supporting environment for learners to engage with each other over the study of these resources. The second major approach to OER (OER 2.0) is that of creating self-study materials whereby the content has been designed to be more accessible to study without significant prior educational experience or qualifications in that subject and has been placed in a learning environment that does encourage some learner–learner interaction and possibly learner–teacher interaction, thus adding to the range of activities and tasks that can support learning. This approach brings in additional entailments that I deal with below. Learner–Content Interaction The abilities and motivations of learners are much influenced by their previous educational experiences, often measured by their success in gaining educational qualifications, the value placed on learning by their families and social/cultural group, and the amount of time and space that can be afforded to learning within their work and home commitments. Further, there is the distinction between formal learning, where achievement is recognized through assessment practices and has value in the labor market, and nonformal learning, where self-assessment is a bigger feature and provides self-gratification but where it is harder to demonstrate that “success” to others, particularly employers. All these features can influence how much time an individual learner will take to achieve the given or self-set learning goals. With educational materials, the presumed level of understanding involved in terms of the complexity and sophistication of the ideas presented and need for prerequisite knowledge is mixed up with the form in which such material is presented to the learner, in particular the levels of interactivity and integration.7 To some degree, where there are stated learning outcomes, these provide another measure of knowing when learning has been achieved; where there are not learning outcomes, the task becomes more open ended. Even so, different media influence the style and amount of information that can be absorbed and then processed by the learner.8 Learning can arise from the interaction between the learner and the content and is a property of the learner, a change in their “knowing” about the world as they interpret it. Whether the content is static (for example, text) or dynamic (for example, animation), is linear (for example, audio) or nonlinear (for example, a concept map), it becomes interactive only when a learner engages with it. It is through interaction that learners make sense of what they are interacting with, reconfiguring their mental map of how things fit together and the nature of the links between them. The degree of sense making resulting from these interactions, whether it is surface learning or deep learning, depends on the abilities and capabilities of the learner. With content that is designed for educational purposes, then, the creator has already provided a sense making structure to the material and learners are either accepting this given sense making structure or adding new sense making structures of their own, that is, providing a new interpretation or formulation, either internally as part of their mental map or externally in the form of a new piece of content (most obviously as their own notes or as the product of a given assignment). Teacher–Learner and Learner–Learner Interactions It is this testing or assessment element that can most enhance the educational effectiveness of content, because it is the testing of the meaning of new knowledge against existing knowledge within a learner’s mental map that is a key aspect of learning. That is why assessment activities (show me what you know and can do) need to be tied to learning outcomes (what I want you to know and do) and often why less experienced learners benefit a lot from discussion with teachers or other learners, as they test their understanding of new knowledge against the understanding of the teacher and other learners. Until recently, open educational materials tended to be print based, but the essence of digital OER is that computer- and web-based technologies provide greater scope for learners to be able to interact with more than just the content if they are informal distance learners and not part of a structured, taught course. There is a greater opportunity to shift from informal learning being a private, individual activity to a public, more social activity. Thus, a key feature of open educational resources is that they have the capability to be dynamic rather than passive in nature, are supportive of communication between users rather than simply information sharing, and move away from just individual interaction with the content to more social engagement with a shared discourse.9 A consequence of the increased opportunities for sharing and creating new content, whether that is new versions of existing content or new material supplementing or augmenting the existing content, is not only that the creators (teachers) need to think carefully about the learning design of their materials but also that users (learners) need to think about or be helped to understand their own learning processes as well as collaborate or cooperate in that learning design. In effect, both creators and learners need to realize that content is merely a mediating object between all those involved in education and is not itself the repository of learning. Individual learning lies in the minds of people and is demonstrated in the sense making that lies within the content they produce by themselves, but social learning10 can be expressed through the collective, additional sense making that user-generated content by a community of practice enables.11 Ensuring Quality of Open Educational Content I have articulated some basic design principles that teachers can use for creating effective educational content, but how do I know it is good quality teaching material as a (naïve) learner (or even teacher)? Building upon what I have said already, there are three main features of quality that need to be considered when answering this question: Is the material academically sound in that it appropriately covers the body of knowledge and meaning for that topic? Is it pedagogically robust in that the way the material has been structured matches a stated pedagogical model and sets out appropriate learning outcomes and ways of assessing those outcomes? Is the way the material is presented through the chosen media helpful in enabling learners to meet the learning outcomes? For many OER the quality assurance is carried out by the originating institution since the materials are derived from mainstream teaching activities that are already subject to quality assurance processes. Some aspects, such as academic and presentational quality, may be left to other authorities to manage, for example, publishers of textbooks. In essence, the overall quality of OER sourced from universities comes from existing procedures of small-scale peer review within the university community and the institution acting as a gatekeeper. This is different from those OER that are derived from the efforts of either individuals (as in the Connexions site) or a broader community (as in Wikiversity), where the overall quality of such OER is judged using open peer-rating or -reviewing mechanisms. In some cases the nature and form of the authoring and publishing environment means that the presentational quality and some parts of the pedagogic quality can be reasonably assured. It is the academic quality that has to be earned, either through the existing authority of the originator or by proving oneself to be an authority by the ratings of this broader peer community. What Makes Open Educational Content Effective (Again)? I have argued above that the effectiveness of open educational material is usually improved where there is a clear sense making structure, a narrative that relates to explicit learning outcomes. It also helps to have formal or informal assessment tasks or learning activities linked to those learning outcomes. A single image or video clip will usually lack an explicit narrative or learning outcome and therefore places much greater demands on the users to construct their own narratives and implicit learning outcomes without the help of a mediator (teacher). Ideally, OER should be presented in an environment that allows different users (learners and creators) to communicate with each other, to develop a discourse that adds another sense making layer to that present in the original material. Evaluating the effectiveness of just the assets cannot be done without taking into account the context in which they are used. First, OER can be a replacement for closed educational resources, that is, ones developed by teachers for their own use. Second, they can also be a supplement where educational resources are scarce. In both cases they can make a difference to teachers because in principle, institutionally quality-assured and/or collectively developed resources should be much better than those individuals can develop on their own (the wisdom of the crowd). This will free the teacher from being a major developer of resources (teacher-centered) to devoting more time to being a supporter of learning (learner-centered). This may lead to greater levels of achievement by the learners, but a more significant measure will be teacher and student satisfaction levels with both the learning resources and the teacher support. The happier they are, the more conducive will be the learning environment. Some learners can still achieve whatever the environment, but others need support. Open educational resources do not ensure that overall standards will be higher, that a greater proportion of students will achieve the highest grades, but they can increase the absolute numbers of people participating and provide a greater range of ways for people to learn, to give them more control of when and how they learn rather than having to fit in with selective, predetermined opportunities. So who puts the education into open educational content? At the moment the teachers do most of this, but they also need the learners to play their part. And if we accept that there is a large informal and nonformal side to education that can be nurtured by OER, then in theory, and hopefully in practice, everyone can be a teacher as well as a learner and put the education into their own open educational content.

    Actress Foluke Daramola & Kayode Salako share holiday photos

    By: Emmanuelomobhude On: 09:20
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  • Actress Foluke Daramola & her husband Kayode Salako are currently on holiday in Toronto Canada. The couple were photographed in some PDA in a mall in Toronto. Sweet. See more exclusive photos after the cut...
     
     










    Singer Maheeda still sharing raunchy photos on instagram

    By: Emmanuelomobhude On: 08:57
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    Wetin concern me, my own job is to share what celebrities are sharing of themselves online...waiting for the day Maheeda will go all out...as in, everything on display. I know she's capable. Hehe. See more photos after the cut...










    Celine Dion talks Miley Cyrus, new album

    By: Emmanuelomobhude On: 08:13
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  • Celine Dion
    PALM BEACH, Fla...

    Celine Dion is more into the show than the business.
    This admission comes as the Quebec pop diva re-enters the English language music market with her first album in six years, Loved Me Back To Life, out Nov. 5.
    "I haven't been resting for six years, I've been working really hard," says Dion, 45, in a oceanfront hotel penthouse suite near her Jupiter Island mansion, which was recently listed for $72.5 million.
    "But I feel like the work that I do at the Colosseum in Caesars (as artist in residence) is very off show business totally. It's in my house, it's my home. 'Come and see me sing, I'm home!' When you're back in the industry it's crazy. Not my favorite thing. I love recording. I love to sing. But every time I have to talk about me -- ugh..."
    Still, Dion, who has been performing in Las Vegas on and off since 2003 in a theatre especially built by Caesars for her, is clearly excited about the title track from Loved Me Back to Life - co-written by Australian singer Sia, who co-wrote and sang on DJ David Guetta's Titanium and rapper Flo Rida's Wild Ones.
    In a slick video presentation featuring seven of the album's 13 tracks, Dion is seen falling off a couch in a recording studio as she listens to the song after recording it.


    "When I hear something that comes from me that makes me fall down off my chair, it's not often," says Dion, whose last release was 2012's French-language album, Sans attendre.
    "When the young generation offers me a song - Sia - that writes for Rihanna, that my (teenage) kid thought it was a mistake that she sent me that song. 'That's not true! That's not possible! Sia wrote you a song? I mean c'mon really?' It's such a powerful, powerful song and its edgy."
    Other than promoting Loved Me Back to Life, Dion's also busy with that house sale.
    The married mother of 12-year-old son Rene Charles and twins Eddy and Nelson, who turn three years old on Oct. 23 - a birthday that will bring her and manager-husband Rene Angelil to Montreal in a couple of weeks to celebrate with her family - admits when you're dealing with that level of wealth it's a whole different scenario.
    "When you sell a mansion like this - it's a big property, and it's very expensive - you're not going to have people in line," says Dion, who has no tour plans beyond seven shows in Paris and two shows in Belgium, along with her ongoing Colosseum dates.
    "When you're about to spend that much money, you can't just say, 'Do you want it?'  They have to check other things as well to compare. So it takes a little bit, a while. But I'm amazed we've already had offers! And it's sad because we don't want to leave the property. It's just that we don't want to leave it alone and empty for so long. And we're rebuilding in Vegas a little bigger home because we're going to spend a little bit more time there."

    CELINE TALKS MILEY

    Celine Dion's making her English language comeback with the Nov. 5 album, Loved Me Back To Life, in a fall crowded with huge female artists.
    Among them: Miley Cyrus whose album Bangerz is out Tuesday.
    So what does the Quebec-born married mother of three think of the 20-year-old Cyrus and her recent antics?
    "I don't have a problem (with her) but I feel sorry for a lot of young kids today that they have to go that far to express themselves that way, or to get the attention, I don't know," says Dion.
    "I think it's sad for me when you go that far. As a mom, as a parent, I look at it like this: You go to the movies and you can't even see a Casino Royale or a James Bond movie because there's a love scene in it and you need to be 16 years old. You're like, 'Oh, okay.' And you open the television and it's in their face. So it's a lot. I feel like it's hard for the parents to raise the children because it's like the reality of the society of what's going on, there is so much. Is it going to be something surreal to dress now? Normally it's supposed to be the other way around. It's like wow. I mean, I'm going to start looking like a nun or something. I'm glad that I'm not starting my career now because I feel for those kids ... And that's why I'm not competing with the world. Because that would be (me as) Nun Dion. Sister Dion!".

    Ethiopia Nigeria-anology of a rivalry

    By: Emmanuelomobhude On: 07:45
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  • Coach Sewnet Bishaw was smiling after Ethiopia’s workout yesterday. Despite reducing the team’s workload in fear of over training them, he must have been still happy at what he saw from his sweating foals.
    Happy as well as confident because the normally reserved helmsman, now issued his sternest of warnings to the African champion when he told supersport.com "We don't only want to beat them in Addis but we want to give them a football lesson and kill them off."
    It’s as if there exists bad blood between the two nations and to some it actually does. Let’s go down Memory lane.
    Ethiopia costing Nigeria two valuable points in Addis the last time the two teams met there - to many an expert - is the real reason Nigeria did not make it to the Equatorial Guinea/Gabon Afcon. That draw put the Eagles in the precarious position of not just beating Guinea, but doing so by a certain number of goals in her last game. She failed and for the first time in three decades was not invited to Africa’s biggest party. To return the favour, two late penalties by Victor Moses now saw Nigeria expel Ethiopia at the last Afcon in South Africa herself, leaving many an Antelope fan furious and bitter.



    Nigeria fans Getty Images 

    But even before then there was commotion. This brings us to the notorious “bread game” that involved Paul Hamilton's Flying Eagles, who eliminated their Ethiopian counterparts en route USSR '85 U-19 World Cup finals. The story is that during pre-match formalities before the first leg of this African qualification tournament semi-final kicked off in Lagos, the Ethiopian lads offered The Flying Eagles a live chicken each. While it was a gesture of open warmth as we now know, fearing black magic then, the hosts turned the offer down flatly and proceeded to hammer the East Africans 3-0. The Ethiopians were embittered by the rejection and returned home with tales of wicked Nigeria fans taunting them with loaves of bread throughout the match - in cruel reference to the ongoing famine in the rebellious Oromo and Tigre regions of Ethiopia which the Dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam's scorched earth policies had created. The incident is yet to be substantiated locally and till today is denied vehemently by the NFF.
    What can be substantiated is that the Addis Ababa crowd exacted vengeance on Paul Hamilton's team during the return leg when they not only entered the stadium with loaves of bread themselves, but also assaulted the players after the match, which ended 1-1. Monday Odiaka and Mark Anunobi talked about having crouched into fetal positions while being beaten. In fact Nigeria was trapped in the dressing room for several hours and had to barricade the dressing room doors against attempts at forcible entry, and were unable to leave until the crowd had dispersed.
    And that is how things have been left smoldering till now.

    John Dumelo visits less privileged school children in Cameroon

    By: Emmanuelomobhude On: 07:36
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  • By Amaka Ojo

    John Dumelo Foundation recently visited St. John Of God Catholic School in Bonadikombo, Cameroon and donated school supplies which included pencils, exercise books and erasers to over 100 pupils in the school. Photo: Facebook
    The actor, through his non-profit organization, the John Dumelo Foundation recently visited St. John Of God Catholic School in Bonadikombo, Cameroon and donated school supplies which included pencils, exercise books and erasers to over 100 pupils in the school.
    Dumelo’s visit to the school in Bonadikombo is his second charity visit to countries outside Ghana as the actor had earlier visited Sierra Leone, where he made similar donations
    .
    Check out for more pictures…
     

    PHOTOS: M.I.C shuts down to mourn boss, son and staff

    By: Emmanuelomobhude On: 07:30
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  • By Ngozi Obiwulu

    MIC boss, Tunji Okunsanya and P-Square during their mum’s burial
    The management of Magbamawo Industrial Company (M.I.C) Funeral Services has suspended business activities in order to mourn the passing away of six staff members including their boss, Olatunji Okunsanya and his son, Olatunji Okunsanya Jr.
    When NET paid the family a condolence visit at their office, 17 Odunlami Street, Lagos Island, the arena was filled with relatives, staff, friends and onlookers who gathered to sympathize with them.
    One of Okusanya’s niece, Damilola Okunsanya spoke of her uncle’s attitude to work ‘Uncle Tunji was a very nice man and humble man. He doesn’t just leave the work for his staff but stays in front of them always. He also dresses to suit any occasion so you will see him wear Igbo, Yoruba, Delta, Hausa and other attires’.
    Damilola also expressed how cheerful the late Okunsanya was especially with people ‘He plays with everyone. He likes dancing and also snapping pictures. If you look around, you will see that he appears in almost all the pictures here. He even poses for a snapshot here in his office’ she said.
    In addition to the boss and his son, other workers who died on the ill-fated Associated Airline plane crash of Thursday, October 3, 2013 are Chijioke Duru, Kings Amaechi, Samson Hassan and Abdul-Hakeem Akintunde (who was buried on Tuesday morning according to the Islamic rites).
    We are told that the other five bodies (including the Okusanya’s) are being held by the Lagos State Government for DNA tests which would likely take three weeks after which the date for the burial proper will be fixed.

    Charly Boy poses in one of MIC Caskets




    Members of the Lagos Island East Council Development join in mourning the late Okunsanya, son and staff





    MIC and crew on duty



    MIC boss, Tunji Okunsanya and King Sunny Ade
     
    MIC boss, Tunji Okunsanya and son
     
    MIC Caskets and some pictures inside the office
     
    MIC Funeral limited handled the burial of King Sunny Ade’s mum
     
    Pictures of the late Chijioke Duru, Kings Amaechi, Samson Hassan and Abdul-Hakeem Akintunde
     
    Picture of the late Tunji Okunsanya at work










    Some of MIC Caskets

    The condolence register


    The front of MIC Casket office at Odunlami street, Lagos IslandTunji Okunsanya and son's burial poster

    R.I.P

    Who Rocked It Berra? Dambisa VS Dillish Vs Beyonce

    By: Emmanuelomobhude On: 07:20
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  • Which of these fierce ladies looks much more hotter in this outfit?

    Madonna, John Mellencamp, Cyndi Lauper and More Nominated for Songwriters Hall of Fame.

    By: Emmanuelomobhude On: 07:14
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  • Madonna
     
    By MESFIN FEKADUAssociated Press
     
    NEW YORK (AP) — Madonna, John Mellencamp and Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and Robert Plant are among the nominees for the 2014 Songwriters Hall of Fame.
    They are joined by a number of top acts, including Ray Davies, Cyndi Lauper and Linda Perry.
    The Songwriters Hall of Fame gave The Associated Press a list of nominees in advance of the official announcement, set for Thursday. The gala will be held June 12 at the New York Marriott Marquis.
    Also nominated are Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson, Vince Gill, Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, Donovan, Cat Stevens and Harry Wayne Casey.
    Nonperforming songwriter nominees include “Midnight Train to Georgia” writer Jim Weatherly, Motown songwriter William “Mickey” Stevenson and country music songwriters Bobby Braddock and Bill Anderson.
    Mark James, the writer behind “Always on My Mind” — covered by Elvis Presley and Willie Nelson — is also nominated alongside Don Robertson, Graham Gouldman and Tony Macaulay. Writing duos Hugo & Luigi, Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell, and Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham will also compete.
    Eligible voters can select two nominees from the list of songwriter-performers and three nonperforming songwriters. Voting ends Dec. 16.
    RYOT NOTE: There is no doubt that all these nominees are incredible musicians, but they’re also humanitarians too. Madonna is a supporter of Amnesty International, an organization dedicated to protecting  people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied. They investigate and expose abuses, educate and mobilize the public, and help transform societies to create a safer, more just world. Click the gray box to learn more, donate and Become the News!

    Lagos State Govt shuts down Lord’s Chosen Church Headquarters

    By: Emmanuelomobhude On: 07:03
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  • The Headquarters of popular Lagos church Lord's Chosen and Charismatic Revival Church, founded by Pastor Lazarus Muoka, has been sealed off by the Lagos State Government for allegedly defacing and constituting environmental nuisance to its environment.

    The church, located in Ijesha on Oshodi-Apapa Expressway in Lagos, was shut down on Sunday Oct. 6th by officials of the Ministry of the Environment and prevented thousands of worshipers from having their Sunday service that morning.

    The Commissioner for the Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello, explained why the Church was shut down

    The Church does not have proper sanitary system and they discharge their wastes into the canal. Most of their members trade on the expressway and we don’t want that"he said
    The commissioner also said the church had a habit of burning its refuse inside the church, an action that is against the environmental and sanitation law of the state. He said the church will be re-opened only after it builds new toilets, build a sewage septic tank for the treatment of waste water, remove all illegal attachments built on drainage channels, keep the environment clean and ensure that none of its members trade on the expressway.

    NEW VIDEO - INTERNATIONAL BABY_BRACKET.

    By: Emmanuelomobhude On: 07:00
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  • Question of the day: What's the most important thing in a marriage?

    By: Emmanuelomobhude On: 06:49
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  • What's the most important thing in marriage, love or financial stability?

    Kanye West appears on The Jimmy Kimmel Show after epic fight

    By: Emmanuelomobhude On: 06:44
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  • Two weeks after Kanye West blasted Jimmy Kimmel on twitter for poking fun at his BBC Radio One interview on his show (see it HERE) the two have buried the hatched. Kanye appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel Show last night and the two men resolved their issues... see the videos after the cut...



    Seven-year-old leads police to smash Lagos kidnap syndicate

    By: Emmanuelomobhude On: 06:36
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  • According to a report by Punch, a 7year old boy led police to the smash of a Lagos kidnap syndicate that specializes in the kidnap of little children, weeks after he was kidnapped and released by them...

    Punch reports

    A university graduate and two other suspects were on Wednesday paraded by the Lagos State Police Command, following their arrest, by a tip off from a seven-year-old victim.
    The graduate of Economics of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Gbenga Sholaja; Olalekan Benjamin and Samson Shomorin, who specialise in kidnapping little boys, were arrested by men of the Igando Police Division and the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Ikeja, Lagos.
    The victim (name withheld) was said to have been held hostage at Benjamin’s father’s house at Ikotun, Lagos.
    The child, who was later released after ransom was paid by his parents, was said to have memorised the house address where he was kept. It was the child who led police officers to the same house where Benjamin was arrested.
    Sholaja, who wept profusely during his interview, told PUNCH Metro that he was pushed by unemployment into kidnapping. He said, “I have a Second Class Upper (Division) in Accounting and have completed my National Youth Service Corps programme.
    “I went into kidnapping because since I finished my NYSC in 2011, I have been unable to get a job.”
    An ex-convict, who was remanded in prison for kidnapping three years ago, Benjamin, said he met Sholaja at OOU while he was trying to gain admission into the school.
    He said, “I was a casual worker at a factory in 2007 before I was sacked; I earned N300 per day. After staying idle for some months, I met a friend, Muyiwa, we were carriers of frozen fish at Apapa. He introduced me to Taofeeq.
    “One day, Taofeeq brought a small boy to my house and asked me to take care of him. He claimed that the boy was his younger brother; he was about seven years old. The boy stayed in my house with my family and was well taken care of for four days. Taofeeq even sent money for his upkeep.
    “When Taofeeq went to collect N150, 000 ransom, he was arrested by SARS and he led them to my house. We were charged and sent to prison in November 2009. In September 2010, we were released because the complainant refused to show up in court.”
    Benajmin and his wife, upon his release, then moved to his father’s house at Ikotun area of the state. In 2010, he was said to have met Sholaja in OOU, where he went to write the post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
    The 30-year-old claimed that Sholaja invited him to take part in another kidnapping; he said Sholaja had read about Benjamin’s arrest in the newspapers.
    Benjamin said, “We would kidnap one boy and we would keep the boy in his (Sholaja’) mother’s house at Owode Ijako.
    “After a week, the boy’s parents paid the money. We were given N100,000 and my share was just N40,000.”
    Describing their modus operandi, Benajmin said they usually kidnapped children while on their way to or from school. All suspects were said to have collected a total of N260,000 on two separate occasions, to secure the release of two boys.
    Benjamin told PUNCH Metro that he befriended potential victims by buying them biscuits on their way to school, thereby earning their trust.
    He said, “It was the last kidnap that got us into trouble. I drove away not knowing that the boy memorised my father’s house address, where he was kept.
    “After he was released, he led policemen to the house and I was arrested along with my dad but my dad was later released on bail.”
    Shomorin, on his part, confessed to kidnapping three boys. He urged the government to pardon them, promising not to go back to crime.
    Lagos Deputy Police Public Relations Officer, Damasus Ozoani, said the suspects were arrested on September 29, 2013.
    Ozoani said, “They confessed to have kidnapped three children -one from Omole Phase 1; one Kola at Alagbado area and the last one in Owode Ijako, Ogun State, and various amounts of money were collected as ransom.”

    Prison Break's Wentworth Miller (micheal Scolfield) Gone Fat

    By: Emmanuelomobhude On: 06:15
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    toned hunk that set thousands of female pulses racing when he burst out of jail and onto our screens in the hit U.S. drama Prison Break.

    But we suspect Wentworth Miller may find it hard to flutter those hearts today - let alone escape - after letting himself go a tad.

    The British-born actor, 37, was snapped out in Los Angeles yesterday and was almost unrecognisable as he went for a hike with a friend.The sexy shaved head, flat stomach and defining jawline have been replaced by a fuzzy head of hair, a rounder face and a bulging gut.

    But Miller didn't appear to be too concerned about his fuller figure as he laughed and joked with his friend, all too aware that the cameras were on him.

    The actor, who was brought up in the States but was born in Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire and retains duel citizenship, was dressed casually in a baggy red T-shirt, tracksuit bottoms and trainers.







     




     

    Miller shot to fame in Prison Break which told the story of two brothers - Lincoln Burrows, played by Dominic Purcell, who was sentenced to death for a crime he didn't commit and Miller's Michael Scofield, who gets himself jailed to save his sibling.

    Scofield creates a tattoo - which took five hours to apply each time onto Miller's body - which also had hidden within it, the blueprint of the prison.

    At the height of his Prison Break fame, he starred in two Mariah Carey videos for her songs It's Like That and We Belong Together, singles from her 2005 album The Emancipation of Mimi.But since Prison Break, which ran from 2005 to 2009, Miller has kept a fairly low profile, and has only had a few minor roles.

    He appeared in an episode of the hit series Law and Order: Special Victims Unit last year and stars alongside Milla Jovovich and Ali Larter in the upcoming 3D horror film Resident Evil: Afterlife, due out this September.

    Last month, he landed a role in upcoming thriller The Mourning Portrait, which is inspired by post-Morten photography that was popular at the end of the 19th century when many people would photograph their recently deceased as a keepsake.

    Chioma Chukwuka Akpotha Will Play In Her Upcoming Movie

    By: Emmanuelomobhude On: 06:09
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    Chioma Chukwuka Akpotha, born in 1980 in Lagos state, is a graduate of banking of finance from the lagos state university. She married when she was 17, and tries to keep her family out of spotlight.
    Chioma has over 50 movies to her credit, and often plays a woman who has to endure hardship, and thus, her characters are always emotional.
    In her latest movie, she plays the role of a village girl.
    Do you think she, as always, will make the movie real and interesting?

     chioma_chukwuka_akpotha_2

    Davido gives $3, 000 to the winner of the Skelewu dance competiton

    By: Emmanuelomobhude On: 06:02
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  • A good day for Mr Kiddy Mizzy. Congrats to him…meanwhile a 20 year old is calling someone a kid. ..lol, Mr Davido! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF15wchQdzw

    Kris Kardashian-Jenner & Bruce Have Separated After 22 Years of Marriage

    By: Emmanuelomobhude On: 05:59
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  • According to E! News, the Kardashian matriarch Kris Jenner has separated from her husband of 22 years, Bruce Jenner.

    They’ve been living apart for a while but officially announced their separation today.
    E Online.com Reports:
    We are living separately and we are much happier this way,” the pair exclusively tell E! News.
    But we will always have much love and respect for each other.
    Even though we are separated, we will always remain best friends and, as always, our family will remain our number one priority.”
    Kris and Bruce are parents to two children together, Kendall and Kylie, and each have four kids from previous marriages.
    And oh, momma Kris has already started making money off her separation from Bruce by giving an exclusive cover story to Us Magazine.
    “Poor Bruce! OK, so Lamar’s gone, Bruce’s gone, Scott is a Kardashian so he ain’t going nowhere…only remains Mr West.”

    Hilarious Photo Of The Day: Afrocandy Swimming in dollars

    By: Emmanuelomobhude On: 05:50
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  • I Bet This is her Entire Life Savings Heheheh!! The superpornstar shared this pic with caption “You wanna know why you don’t see me in pictures posing with other celebs? It’s cos I don’t do GROUPIES. I’m a one man squad kind of BOOS !!  Lol

    Ruggedman ft. Reminisce – 8 Figures

    By: Emmanuelomobhude On: 05:44
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    “For those of you who thought he was going into retirement, that’s not the case. Ruggedman has come back harder than ever in this hard hitting Rap track ‘8-Figures’.
    It’s good to see that Ruggedman is still able to deliver each and every time he comes back. I guess this is what he meant in his monster classic hit “Baraje” when he said “I blend with the trend/stay forever like Vulture”, because in this collabo with Reminisce produced by Beniesmusic, Ruggedman again shows he can kick it with the reigning trend of music. This track is definitely set to put Ruggedman back in tough with his fans.
    When asked ‘Why the title 8-Figures?’ his reply was simple. My bank account is 7 but I’m tryna reach 8-Figures!!!”


    Victor Moses Becomes Globacom’s Sports Ambassador

    By: Emmanuelomobhude On: 05:40
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  • The Nigerian footballer who also plays for Liverpool is now a Glo ambassador. This was made known to the
     public on Tuesday. Big congrats to him.

     

    Terry G Attacked by Armed Robbers

    By: Emmanuelomobhude On: 05:37
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  • Hip hop singer Terry G, also known as GZUS, was recently attacked by armed robbers on his way to perform at an event. Sources close to the singer disclosed that he was not harmed, but made away with some of his valuables including, phones, money, and jewellery among others.

    “We tried to keep it secret, but we have to say it out now! GZUS was attacked on Sunday by heavily armed robbers on his way to an event, we thank God they just collected his valuables. Though they later recognized him, but they did not return the valuables. We thank God for life, protection and guidance,”

    Photos: Kcee ‘Limpopo’ Spotted With Gov. Adams Oshiomole & Former Cross River State Gov. Donald Duke

    By: Emmanuelomobhude On: 04:20
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  • Musician, Kcee and Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole and former Governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke were spotted in Abuja… See another photo below…


    PHOTOS: Tuface Idibia Smoking

    By: Emmanuelomobhude On: 04:17
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  • And he calls it spiritual healing, things are looking good….. #InspirationThings