Methodology

2.2 Methodology

I worked in conjunction with Xtine Stepcic, the design lecturer in the Jewellery Design and Manufacture department at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. She is responsible for the first-year student’s sketch book format design diary, in which the students have to include and discuss two examples of design each week. One design must be an item of jewellery by any designer. The other can be any form of design of their choice – architecture, a photograph, advertisement etc. Xtine allowed me to teach the students to covert their diaries into blog form.

I introduced the students to the concept of blogging and to the uses and benefits of blogs. I wrote and presented them with a brief detailing how to create their own blogs and instructed them to continue with their design diaries in blog form. They began this on June 1, 2010 in the class time that I had been assigned and were given two days to complete the task. I was very fortunate in being given class time to work with the students. This was very important to my study as it allowed me to work hand in hand with the students, observe their reaction at being introduced to other designer’s blogs and their responses to creating their own blogs.

As each student expressed themselves differently, it also played a larger role in showing how different people tackle blogging, allowing me to further understand the blogs I included in my body of work. Overall this allowed me to further demonstrate the importance of blogging as a multi- functional tool.

I have included three examples of student blogs to show how different the structure and content is of each, despite the fact that they were all given the same brief and the same amount of time to complete the task.