Facebook, Social Media & Education

Reading the New York Times, I came across a little news blurb about how Facebook was acquiring the e-book publisher Push Pop Press.  Normally, I avoid things having to do with Facebook, but I have been keeping an eye out for multiliteracy related stories, and I had actually already posted about Push Pop Press’s technology last week.

So why would Facebook buy an e-book publisher?  I really appreciated Push Pop’s approach because it came from an educational inspiration, and their first publication really reflected that.  The thought of Facebook diverting these talented software engineers from the education field to the ‘social networking’ field sort of made me sad.  The NYtimes article pushes some theories, but we don’t know the real motivation.

In an effort not to become more of a Facebook-hater than I already am (lol), I decided to do some searching on Facebook and Education.  Clearly, the role of Facebook in delivering multiliteracies to students (for educational purposes or not) is huge, and I was wondering if a) Facebook recognized this and b) what teachers were saying about it.

Africa 2.0 & African Literacies

In an article titled ‘Africa 2.0: Myth or Reality’ from Pambazuka News (www.pambazuka.org) the author brings together various perspectives on the role of technology in Africa at a moment when discussing its potential has become popular.  While the concerns of the various contributors are quite diverse, some important points are made that can help us to think critically about multiliteracy in a global context.  One author writes:

“In many contexts, new media does not have the same pervasiveness or reach as mediums such as newspapers, radios and mobile phones. At the local level, the tools required for change are often already in people’s hands; the challenge is making them work effectively to meet the needs of the context.”

This means that it may not be necessary for African or other non-Euroamerican countries to pursue the proliferation of new media in same way as the West, and that if we are focusing on setting priorities for improving quality of life via cooperation and communication, perhaps we should not valorize new western literacy technologies before we consider the potentials of existing technologies and literacies.  This is further complicated by existing realities on the continent, as pointed out by another contributor:

‘The literacy divide. I’ve blogged here before about the fact that slowly growing rates of literacy and rapidly growing rates of mobile internet access might mean that inability to read, rather than lack of access to the technology, will soon become the key barrier to accessing the internet. There are lots of great examples of how mobile communications can be used to promote literacy, but the point still stands. And again, it’s largely up to governments to make sure that literacy expands fast enough to keep up.”