Nur Ahmad Furlong

Category: Education

  • WordPress Super Survival Skills Course Cape Town

    My First Independent WordPress Course – Cape Town

    I’ve finally mustered up enough motivation to launch my own independent Public WordPress Course in Cape Town. I’ve been wanting to do this for ages since I’ve been teaching WordPress Development since 2008 privately, within companies and on behalf of Friends of Design Cape Town.

    It a litte, ok maybe alot of prodding from Faye Elliot, one of the delegates who attended my WordCamp Cape Town Presentation last year. I have to say a big thank you to Faye as I was making up all kinds of excuses why now wasn’t the right time. It’s amazing what an enormous effort it can be to get a small little course up and running especially when you have to find an additional 4 or 5 hours in an already jam packed schedule.

    Lot’s of Interest in the WordPress Course

    I hosted a Free Introductory Presentation to the course this evening at my favourite Coffee Spot, Escape Caffe in Bree Street Cape Town. We has a few people attend, not massive turnout but everyone present registered to take the course so it’s starting off with a bang already.

    We’ve secured a great venue at 200 on Main Claremont. Appropriately at the Executive Wellness Centre’s Gym Studio so I’ll be putting the WordPress students through their paces. There’ll be a few punching bags lying around when the code starts getting to your head.

    A Quick Outline of Course Modules:

    WordPress Newbie Bridging SessionDate: April 121 SessionR350
    WordPress Site AdministrationDates: April 16,192 SessionsR600
    HTML & CSSDates: April 23, 26, 30 & May 3, 75 SessionsR1600
    WordPress Theme CodingDates: May 10, 14, 17, 21, 245 SessionsR1600

    Venue

    200 on Main Building, 198 Main Road, Claremont, Cape Town – (Executive Wellness Centre Studio)

    Times

    6pm – 9pm

    You can tell your spouse you’re going to gym and you won’t be lying

    For Full Details & Registration Visit the Course Info Page – http://www.the-colab.com/wordpress-course-survival-skills

  • Quirk goes Open with their new E-Marketing Textbook

    following in the spirit of open education and with a firm commitment to the Open Education Declaration, one of the star online Marketing outfits in South Africa, Quirk eMarketing, has released a comprehensive e-book detailing the ins & outs of online marketing from their wealth of experience in the field.

    They haven’t forgotten to follow a few simple rules though and by first collecting your email address and asking if u’d like to subscribe to their newsletters, they’re definitely taking their own advice and using this great resource to build their own database.

    I’ve got great respect for the Quirk way of doing things and for many of the guys who form part of their sterling team. they’re a truly community focused Agency always around, chipping in and showing their faces when anything online goes down.

    Download the entire eMarketing textbook for free, or per chapter and learn holistic and integrated eMarketing tactics from the team at Quirk.

    The table of Contents Include:

  • VeloCITI Session #1: Getting our Values in order

    For the 15 start-up businesses chosen to be on the VeloCITI 2008 program, today, March 18, was a truly inspirational and profoundly introspective day.

    See more about What VeloCITI is?

    We started off at 9 waking up to cups of coffee and a round of congratulating each other for making it onto the program. It was great seeing the familiar faces from the bridging course 2 weeks ago and re-connecting. I feel this year will unlock some really special relationships and it seems it already has.

    We were introduced to Judit from PeerPower, our facilitator and mentor for the day who was later joined by Mignon(PeerPower). I think I can speak for all when I say we were rearing to go and eager to find out what the topic of focus for the day would be.

    Introducing ourselves

    First off we completed a quick introductions/interview exercise in which we each interviewed one of our VeloCITI peers and had to introduce them to the team. We then focused on setting some guidelines going forward in terms of rules of engagement and how we as a group think we would need to work together to produce the best results within the team over the next 7 – 8 months.

    (more…)

  • VeloCITI 2008 – I’m officially on the programme. Yeah!!!

    velociti-hereicomeMy head is spinning completely after attending the bridging course of the VeloCITI program. Out of all the companies applying (20 odd) who were short listed to attend the bridging course, I’ve made the cut with 14 other exciting new companies who will be given the chance to build their businesses from the ground up with professional help.

    If you don’t know what VeloCITI is all about, it’s the business incubation program sponsored by local government and run by CITI (Cape Information Technology Initiative). It aims to take start-up technology based companies and grow them with the hope of increasing employment and growing the local economy.

    A well known graduate of the programme, Rafiq Phillips was recently seen on Carte Blanche discussing web 2.0. Rafiq made a name for himself with his start-up venture, i-drive and is still out there creating buzz and achieving great things. Other companies like Red Button, one of the winning companies from the 2007 program are making it big with their wireless hotspots.

    (more…)

  • One Laptop for every child

    One of the very promising projects out there aimed at growing a brighter future for children worldwide is the “One Laptop” project.

    One Laptop Per Child


    �It’s an education project, not a laptop project.�

    � Nicholas Negroponte

    Our goal: To provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves.
    The project’s origins go back more than four decades to the early days of computing, when most machines were still the size of small dinosaurs, and almost no one dreamed they would ever be suitable for children. But pioneering thinkers like Seymour Papert disagreed sharply, and over time led the long march from radical theory to reality proving the immense power of the personal computer as a learning tool for children.

    The project is open to involvement on all levels if you are someone who has skills or knowledge which can be of benefit. They have comprehensive wiki which keeps us up-to-date on developments as they take place. As someone who is very interested in e-learning and using new technologies to benefit those who are in need, this project ranks up there in the top ten for me. I hope to be working on projects of similar nature in not too distant future. I’ve signed up to volunteer my services with “The One Laptop” project.

    Pay them a visit and find out more, or, if you’re up to the task offer some assistance toward brightening the future of the next generation.

  • The 3 Bulls and the Lion

    There is a legend about a lion and three bulls who were in the jungle. One of them was white, one was yellow, and one was black. The lion was not able to eat these three bulls because if he came near them, they would all stand up together, and each one of them would face the lion, so he could not eat them. The lion began to think about how he could get them to become divided.

    He saw the bulls grazing once, and he approached the black and the yellow ones, and he said, “You know that white one over there” He kind of looks like the people around here. He’s different from us. Why don’t you let me eat him?”

    The two bulls said, “Yeah, go ahead. Get rid of him.” So, the lion went and ate the white one.

    Then, the next day, the lion came to the yellow bull, and he said, “Haven’t you noticed that you and I look the same? We have the same color. We’re really cousins! And this black one over here-he’s different from you. So, why don’t you let me eat him?” The yellow one said, “Yeah, you’re right. Go ahead.”

    So, the lion went and ate him. Then, on the third day, the lion came for the yellow bull and said, “I’m going to eat you.” The yellow one replied, “I was eaten the day you ate the white one.”

    – sourced from http://www.jannah.org