On 30 September 2009, the world’s first mobile novel — or m-novel — published in both English and isiXhosa was launched. Kontax, a teen mystery story, was created for the Shuttleworth Foundation’s m4Lit project, which I lead. Standing for “mobiles for literacy” the project aims to explore whether teens are interested in reading stories on their cellphones, whether and how they write using their cellphones, and whether cellphones might be used to develop literacy skills and a love of reading.
The hope behind the m4Lit project is that by researching the role of cellphones in teen reading and writing, teachers and publishers can better understand the opportunities and challenges for literacy practices presented by the most popular communication device used by any teen today.
The idea for the project came about after we repeatedly heard the complaint that teens don’t read enough, they don’t write enough, and that they can’t keep their noses out of their darned cellphones. The truth is that they are reading and writing — not formally, but through chat and SMS on their phones. A question we then asked was: can we publish a story that teens engage with, where they read longer pieces of text written in conventional English and isiXhosa? And can we invite them to write their opinions on the characters and events in the story? If teens can’t be separated from their cellphones, then maybe that’s the medium through which we need to reach them.
To answer our question we commissioned Kontax, a short story about the adventures of a group of graffiti loving teens living in Cape Town. The story is aimed at a broad range of South African teenagers, aged 14-16 years. A mobisite, which is really just a website that is specially formatted to look good through a cellphone browser, is where the story is published. It can be accessed via a WAP-enabled cellphone or from a regular PC web browser at http://www.kontax.mobi.
To make the story interesting, we are publishing a chapter every day for 21 days — a sort of youth soap opera. Teen readers will be invited to interact with Kontax as it unfolds on their cellphones: they can vote on and discuss the progressing plot, leave comments, download wallpapers and finally submit a written piece as part of a competition, with airtime prizes available for winning submissions. The prizes for daily comments and the ideas for a Kontax sequel are there to incentivise teens to write.
We believe that one of the main advantages of using cellphones as e-book readers is that because they are so pervasive, they may represent a way to alleviate the chronic shortage of books in South Africa. To publish an m-novel is extremely low cost when compared with printing a book. It is important to note, though, that we do not see m-novels as replacing books — there is, and I believe always will be, room for both. We are exploring m-novels as a compliment and in some cases alternative to printed books.
One potentially negative impact of mobiles for literacy is around text speak — or “txtspk”. Most of the comments on the Kontax mobisite so far have been in txtspk. The jury is out on whether txtspk is responsible for the degradation of spelling and grammar amongst today’s youth, or whether it encourages writing that is economical, inventive and playful — and even improves phonetic awareness — thus making it a positive practice. I have previously written about the texting debate on The Teacher (see Txt savvy 4 2morrow). For now I’m more than happy that teens are reading the story, engaging with it, forming an opinion and writing it down. The spelling and grammar are something to work on next. Here are two examples of comments on the site:
If sbu [one of the main characters] strongly believez that this is the way to go then he shud go for it. Its not everyday one fallz in love so he … shud take a chanc as to nt regret it later..perhapz ths is hs last chanc of seein the love of hs lyf again
I think kontax is a lifesaver because it has been a long time since i have read a short story or a novel …
As part of the research component of this project, interviews with teens in Cape Town before and after the publishing of Kontax will be conducted. The response so far has been positive, with 15Â 000 unique visitors to the mobisite. It will take some time to fully analyse the site usage and activities — which will be written up in a project report to be released in December 2009.
For now, please do tell your learners about the story — hopefully they will read it, write into it, and provide some feedback on the experience. The story is free to read. Learners will have to pay their cellphone network operator for data charges, but this is very cheap. On average it will cost only 6c to read a chapter. To access Kontax, they should go to www.kontax.mobi.