Radebe, Thato

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Thato Radebe is a Johannesburg-based jewellery designer and lecturer working at the University of Johannesburg. His passion in academia and research lies in multimodality in jewellery.

Thato believes that jewellery occupies multiple spaces, two of which are ‘personal adornment’ and ‘visual artefact’. The work he produces functions as traditional, wearable pieces but also as contemporary artworks that have an autonomous identity when they are not worn. In his teaching, Thato encourages his students to be conscious of their reasons for designing so that it is clear what message they are trying to convey.

Thato Radebe

Lost connection: Reflections on online jewellery design teaching

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Discipline: 

Fashion, Jewellery & Textile Design

In this paper, four educators teaching undergraduate jewellery design and manufacture recount our adaptations to online learning during the COVID19 lockdown, and how this impacted our ideas about lecture content and delivery. We look at the possibilities for online study in jewellery design in relation to the developments of the fourth industrial revolution, such as blended learning, simulations and computer-aided design and manufacture. We share adaptations that may serve educators in distance or blended learning scenarios. However, the lockdown created difficult learning circumstances in South Africa in which we often ‘lost connection’ due to high data costs and inequalities in students’ living conditions.

DEFSA conferences

DEFSA promotes relevant research with the focus on design + education through its biennial conferences, to promote professionalism, accountability and ethics in the education of young designers. Our next conference is a hybrid event. See above for details.

Critical skills endorsement

Professional Members in good standing can receive a certificate of membership, but DEFSA cannot provide confirmation or endorsement of skills whatsoever. DEFSA only confirm membership of DEFSA which is a NPO for Design Education in South Africa (https://www.defsa.org.za/imagine).