Mobile Literacy in South Africa
Mobile Literacy in South Africa refers to a range of informal education projects and initiatives that support the development of literacy and enable digital fluency while using mobile devices, especially mobile phones. Mobile literacy is also known by the abbreviation mLiteracy. The mobile Literacy ecosystem in South Africa was mapped at the mLiteracy Network Meeting hosted by the Goethe-Institut Johannesburg in January 2015. The starting point for meeting was the UNESCO study "Reading in the Mobile Era" (2014), which takes a closer look at the implications of reading on mobile devices in developing countries. Ecosystem of mLiteracy in South Africa The mobile Literacy ecosystem in South Africa has developed organically through the work of several stakeholders who use mobile platforms to encourage access to text, stories and reading materials. Role players within this ecosystem include content providers, platforms, mobile networks, funding agencies, training facilities (including schools and libraries), authors and users. Several organisations working within or based in South Africa have links to and synergies with projects across Africa. Most of the projects use open licences, specifically Creative Commons licences. Historically, the target group of most projects has been children, teenagers and young adults. Recent data from the South African Department for Basic Education showed that 53% of all Grade 3 children and 70% of all Grade 6 children scored less than 35% on the Annual National Assessment language test. With high mobile penetration in South Africa (some claims as high as 128%) there is potential to engage with learners and young adults at every stage of their development via mobile devices. Content providers African Storybook. Founded in 2013, the African Storybook has published numerous openly licensed illustrated children's stories for 2- to 10-year-olds in a variety of African languages and English. The site has tools for the creation, translation and adaptation of stories. The project, an initiative of the South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE) (an NGO based in Johannesburg), is funded by the UK organisation Comic Relief. The African Storybook publishes stories in over 40 different African languages. Book Dash. Founded in 2014, Book Dash creates new, African storybooks for young children, published under a creative commons attribution licence. Their sponsors and partners include the Central Library Cape Town, The African Storybook, Rock Girl and many others. On Book Dash Days, volunteer writers, illustrators and designers work together to create complete books in just one day. These are then made available as print-ready and mobile-ready files. Bookly, founded in 2011 by Cover2Cover Books was launched in 2013 by NATIVE VML. It encourages teenagers to read some of the 450 stories available via the Mxit platform (now defunct) and write their own short stories. FunDza aims to encourage teenagers to read for pleasure. The FunDza Literacy Trust was. As of January 2015, 50,000 teenagers were reading FunDza stories via their mobile phone every month. Additionally, readers are encouraged to comment on what they read, and to write their own stories. FunDza publishes stories in all of the eleven