{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,16]],"date-time":"2026-02-16T16:34:36Z","timestamp":1771259676039,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":67,"publisher":"IGI Global","issue":"2","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2017,4]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>In the countries of the global South, the challenges of fixed infrastructure and environment, the apparent universality of mobile hardware, software and network technologies and the rhetoric of the global knowledge economy have slowed or impoverished the development of appropriate theoretical discourses to underpin learning with mobiles. This paper addresses one specific and fundamental component of such discourses, namely the role of language and literacy as they interact with mobile technology. The paper makes three points, that mobile technology is culturally and linguistically specific, not universal or culturally-neutral; that mobile technology does not merely store and transmit language(s) and literacy within communities, it disturbs and transforms them, and that the digital literacy agenda that might underpin learning with mobiles has not yet been developed in relation to mobile technology or in relation to the global South. These are the foundations of understanding learning with mobiles in the global South.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.4018\/ijmbl.2017040101","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,3,10]],"date-time":"2017-03-10T17:08:54Z","timestamp":1489165734000},"page":"1-15","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":19,"title":["Learning with Mobiles in Developing Countries"],"prefix":"10.4018","volume":"9","author":[{"given":"John M.","family":"Traxler","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Education, University of Wolverhampton, Walsall, UK"}]}],"member":"2432","reference":[{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-0","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-7660.1995.tb00560.x"},{"issue":"1","key":"IJMBL.2017040101-1","article-title":"Enabling Complex Asian Scripts on Mobile Devices. Localisation Focus","volume":"10","author":"W.Ahmad","year":"2011","journal-title":"The International Journal of Localisation"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Aker, J. C., Ksoll, C., & Lybbert, T. J. (2010). ABC, 123: The Impact of a Mobile Phone Literacy Program on Educational Outcomes. CGD Working Paper 223. Washington, D.C.: Center for Global Development. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.cgdev.org\/content\/publications\/detail\/1424423","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.1694142"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Aker, J. C., & Mbiti, I. M. (2010). Mobile phones and economic development in Africa. Center for Global Development Working Paper 211.","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.1693963"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-4","unstructured":"Anokwa, Y., Smyth, T. N., Ramachandran, D., Sherwani, J., Schwartzman, Y., Luk, R. & DeRenzi, B. (2009). Stories from the field: Reflections on HCI4D experiences. Information Technologies & International Development, 5(4), 101."},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-5","unstructured":"Asino, T., & Mushiba, M. 2015) Afrikan Pedagogy and Technology Supported Learning. In N. Bidwell & Winschiers-Theophilus, H. (2015). At the Intersection of Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge and Technology Design (pp. 135-151). Santa Rosa, CA: Informing Science Press."},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-6","author":"H.Beetham","year":"2010","journal-title":"Review and Scoping Study for a cross-JISC Learning and Digital Literacies Programme: Sept 2010"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s12130-006-1023-5"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/13556509.2013.10798850"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-9","article-title":"Learning a supervernacular: textspeak in a South African township","author":"J.Blommaert","year":"2012","journal-title":"Heteroglossia as practice and pedagogy"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1368431008099642"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chetty, M., & Grinter, R. (2008). HCI4D: How Do We Design for the Global South? In User Centered Design and International Development Workshop at CHI (Vol. 28).","DOI":"10.1145\/1240866.1241002"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/1240866.1241002"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-13","unstructured":"Colls, T. (2009, October 19). The death of language? BBC Radio News. Retrieved from http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/today\/hi\/today\/newsid_8311000\/8311069.stm"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-531-92133-4_8"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Dodson, L., Sterling, R., & Bennett, J. (2013) Minding the Gaps: Cultural, Technical and Gender-Based Barriers to Mobile Use in Oral-Language Berber Communities in Morocco. Proceedings of ICTD,the Sixth International Conference On Information And Communications Technologies And Development, Cape Town (pp. 79 \u2013 88). ACM.","DOI":"10.1145\/2516604.2516626"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-16","author":"L.Dodson","year":"2011","journal-title":"Ethics of Participation: Research or Reporting"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-17","unstructured":"Eloff, K. (2011, June 8-9). Mobile devices in education. Presented at the e-Learning environment: future trends and impact on library services, Sanlam Auditorium, Conference Centre, Hatfield Campus, Pretoria, South Africa. Retrieved from http:\/\/repository.up.ac.za\/handle\/2263\/16963"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Fehn, A. M. (2013). Phonology of hunting signs in two Kalahari Khoe-speaking groups (Ts\u2019 ixa and|| Ani). LSA Annual Meeting Extended Abstracts, 4, 29-1.","DOI":"10.3765\/exabs.v0i0.616"},{"issue":"3","key":"IJMBL.2017040101-19","first-page":"3","article-title":"Emerging technologies mobile-computing trends: Lighter, faster, smarter. About","volume":"12","author":"R.Godwin-Jones","year":"2008","journal-title":"Language Learning & Technology"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-20","unstructured":"Gordon, C. (2011). From Speech to Screen: The Orthography of Colloquial Arabic in Electronically-Mediated Communication [PhD Thesis Bryn Mawr College]. Bryn Mawr, PA. Retrieved from http:\/\/triceratops.brynmawr.edu\/dspace\/bitstream\/handle\/10066\/10143\/gordon_thesis_2011.pdf?sequence=1"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-21","unstructured":"Guardian, The. (2013) African children learn to love their Kindle in a reading revolution even parents join. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/2013\/dec\/22\/african-children-e-reader-revolution"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-22","unstructured":"Hall, B. (2015). Beyond epistemicide: Knowledge democracy and higher education. Retrieved from https:\/\/dspace.library.uvic.ca\/bitstream\/handle\/1828\/6692\/Hall_Budd_BeyondEpistemicide_2015.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-23","unstructured":"Halvorsen, T. A. (2008). Developing Digital Literacy in Higher Education in Tanzania- In Whose Language? In M. Qorro, Z. Desai & B. Brock-Utne (Eds.), LOITASA reflecting on Phase I and entering Phase II (Ch. 11, pp. 210 \u2013 222). Michigan State University Press."},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-24","author":"G. H.Hofstede","year":"2001","journal-title":"Culture's consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions and organizations across nations"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-25","author":"D.Kane","year":"2006","journal-title":"The Chinese language: Its history and current usage"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijedudev.2007.11.002"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-27","author":"A.Kirby","year":"2009","journal-title":"Digimodernism: How new technologies dismantle the postmodern and reconfigure our culture"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-28","author":"W.Le Roux","year":"1999","journal-title":"Torn apart: San children as change agents in a process of acculturation: a report on the educational situation of San children in southern Africa"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-29","unstructured":"Mason, P. (2016) Ebooks are changing the way we read, and the way novelists write. The Guardian. Retrieved from https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2015\/aug\/10\/ebooks-are-changing-the-way-we-read-and-the-way-novelists-write"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Merritt, S., & Bardzell, S. (2011, May). Postcolonial language and culture theory for HCI4D. In CHI'11 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1675-1680). ACM.","DOI":"10.1145\/1979742.1979827"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-31","unstructured":"Mulder, J. (2008). Knowledge Dissemination in Sub-Saharan Africa: What Role for Open Educational Resources (OER)? Unpublished thesis, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam."},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mwendia, S. N., Wagacha, P. W., & Oboko, R. (2014). Culture Aware M-Learning Classification Framework for African Countries. In Cross-Cultural Online Learning in Higher Education and Corporate Training.","DOI":"10.4018\/978-1-4666-5023-7.ch005"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-33","unstructured":"Ndemo, B. (2014). Is Modernity destroying African education? In H. Elletson & A. MacKinnon (Eds.), The eLearning Africa Report 2014. ICWE: Germany."},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-34","unstructured":"news24 (2013). Mxlish the 12th official SA language. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.news24.com\/Technology\/News\/Mxlish-the-12th-official-SA-language-20130328"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-35","author":"R.Newnham","year":"1987","journal-title":"About Chinese: 2"},{"issue":"2","key":"IJMBL.2017040101-36","first-page":"14","article-title":"Mobile perspectives: On teaching mobile literacy.","volume":"46","author":"D.Parry","year":"2011","journal-title":"EDUCAUSE Review"},{"issue":"2","key":"IJMBL.2017040101-37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"133","DOI":"10.1080\/00664677.2012.694170","article-title":"Zombie Linguistics: Experts, Endangered Languages and the Curse of Undead Voices","volume":"22","author":"B. C.Perley","year":"2012","journal-title":"Anthropological Forum"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-38","author":"E. M.Rogers","year":"1995","journal-title":"Diffusion of innovation theory"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-39","unstructured":"Rosenberg, T. (2011, December 9). Ancient tongues meet digital age. New York Times (p. 15). Retrieved from http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/12\/11\/magazine\/everyone-speaks-text-message.html?pagewanted=all"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-40","author":"S.Saugestad","year":"2001","journal-title":"The inconvenient indigenous: remote area development in Botswana, donor assistance and the first people of the Kalahari"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-41","author":"L. M.Semali","year":"2014","journal-title":"Postliteracy in the digital age: The use of mobile phones to support literacy practices in Namibia and Tanzania, Prospects"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-42","first-page":"41","article-title":"Development as Capability Expansion","volume":"19","author":"A.Sen","year":"1989","journal-title":"Journal of Development Planning"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-43","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.intcom.2005.11.014"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-44","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/21507716.2012.714838"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-45","first-page":"2","article-title":"Revoicing TXT: Spelling, vernacular orthography, and \u201cunregimented writing.\u201d","author":"T.Shortis","year":"2007","journal-title":"The Texture of Internet: Netlinguistics in Progress"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-46","author":"L. T.Smith","year":"1999","journal-title":"Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-47","unstructured":"Stabinsky, D., & Brush, S. B. (Eds.). (1996). Valuing local knowledge: indigenous people and intellectual property rights. Washington, DC: Island Press."},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-48","first-page":"46","article-title":"Constructing informed consent in ICT4D research.","author":"S.Sterling","year":"2010","journal-title":"Proceedings of the 4th ACM\/IEEE International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-49","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/1107458.1107466"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-50","unstructured":"Thurlow, C. (2003). Generation Txt? The sociolinguistics of young people\u2019s text-messaging. Discourse Analysis Online, 1(1). Retrieved from http:\/\/extra.shu.ac.uk\/daol\/articles\/v1\/n1\/a3\/thurlow2002003-paper.html"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-51","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/713684114"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-52","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-4471-0665-4_5"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-53","unstructured":"Traxler, J. (2009). Mobility, Modernity, Development. In J.S. Pettersson (Eds.), Proceedings of 1st International Conference on M4D Mobile Communication for Development, Karlstadt, Karlstadt University Studies."},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-54","author":"J.Traxler","year":"2012","journal-title":"Context as Text in Mobile Digital Literacy in Proceedings of mLearn2012"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-55","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Traxler, J. (2013a) Mobile Learning \u2013 Shaping The Frontiers of Learning Technologies in Global Contexts. In R.H. Kinshuk, & M. Spector (Eds.), Reshaping Learning - The Frontiers of Learning Technologies in a Global Context. Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-32301-0_10"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-56","author":"J.Traxler","year":"2013","journal-title":"Mobiles for Learning in Africa.... The Elephants in The Room in S. Marshall & W. Kinuthia, On the Move: Mobile Learning for Development"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-57","author":"J.Traxler","year":"2013","journal-title":"Mobile Learning for Languages - Can The Past Speak to the Future? TIRF Mobile Language Learning (MLL) Papers"},{"issue":"2","key":"IJMBL.2017040101-58","first-page":"7","article-title":"Policies for Research: Learning with Mobiles in the Global South","volume":"3","author":"J.Traxler","year":"2016","journal-title":"Journal of Learning in Development"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-59","unstructured":"Unterhalter, E., Vaughan, R., & Walker, M. (2007, November). The Capability Approach and Education. Retrieved from https:\/\/www.nottingham.ac.uk\/educationresearchprojects\/documents\/developmentdiscourses\/rpg2008walkermclean9.pdf"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-60","author":"J.Urry","year":"2007","journal-title":"Mobilities"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-61","author":"D.Wagner","year":"2013","journal-title":"M4R: A Landscape Research Review of Mobiles for Reading"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-62","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/0305792990290102"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-63","unstructured":"Wicander, G. (2010). M4D Overview 1.0 (working papers). Karlstad University."},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-64","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/2141512.2141527"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-65","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1515\/abpr-2013-0001"},{"key":"IJMBL.2017040101-66","first-page":"13","article-title":"Chinese Pinyin Input Method for Mobile Phone.","author":"F.Zhang","year":"2006","journal-title":"Proceedings of International Symposium on Chinese Spoken Language Processing"}],"container-title":["International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.igi-global.com\/viewtitle.aspx?TitleId=179603","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2022,5,6]],"date-time":"2022-05-06T06:04:30Z","timestamp":1651817070000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"http:\/\/services.igi-global.com\/resolvedoi\/resolve.aspx?doi=10.4018\/IJMBL.2017040101"}},"subtitle":["Technology, Language, and Literacy"],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2017,4]]},"references-count":67,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2"},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.4018\/ijmbl.2017040101","relation":{},"ISSN":["1941-8647","1941-8655"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1941-8647","type":"print"},{"value":"1941-8655","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2017,4]]}}}