Media is taking Africa by storm. Cellphone use has exploded over the last few years. Recent numbers put countries like Kenya and Tanzania in the absolute forefront of mobile phone usage. In Kenya now, there is more than one active phone for each adult in the country. And yet it grows.

Media in Africa doesn’t look much like it does for the West, though. The small screen rules all else. I’ve had Maasai show me videos of elephants on their Nokia not-very-smart phones, and I’ve watched people record a live performance with their cassette deck (yup, in this day and age). Many people buy ringtones over SMS, and I get regular Friendster invites from acquaintances. But it’s still SMS and voice calling that rule the day. But that’s soooo today. Tomorrow is coming.

Very soon, the African media scene will explode online, following in the wake of the incredible growth in cell networks. BlackBerry phones are proliferating rapidly and more and more Androids and iPhones walk the streets.  Music videos are already a hot commodity, and there is every reason to believe that video, animation, and music will be hugely pervasive over the coming years.

As a Christian in this context, it means thinking carefully about discipling cultures through media. It means taking an active approach to understanding the unique use cases in Africa and it means finding ways of making African media stand out in Africa. That’s the challenge that we’re tackling here at Pamoja Ministries (@pamojamin | www.pamoja.info). There are a billion people in Africa today, and the onus is on the Church to engage with the technology that is fast developing. This requires a new approach in our thinking – getting outside of our local communities even – and collaborating on projects that are bigger than we are. It means focussing on both the big issues and the small issues. It means finding the good and celebrating it, and not just allowing the bad to dominate the discussion.

Yesterday afternoon we shot a little piece of a music video for a Congolese artist. Today we worked on a project proposal for a financial literacy curriculum that we are hoping to produce using animation. Tomorrow we’ll get ready to show a Swahili movie we shot here in Tanzania at a secondary school, and work on plans for a full-length feature film to be set in Maasailand. Maybe on Monday I’ll be able to spend a bit of time planning the next tour we’re doing in Canada and the USA with a Maasai choir (www.en-kata.com), and hopefully we’ll get out next week to see a school that media has built in a town that still has no phone coverage (except if you climb the right tree).

Africa is changing. The opportunity for digital discipleship has never been greater. The potential impact if we succeed is impossible to measure. But we need you to come and help! We need people to help us with web dev, mobile apps, animation, videography, sound editing, publishing, facilities maintenance, copyrighting, tour coordination, graphic design, curriculum development and many many other things too. Could you do that? Would you?

ITV Website

So a dog won Britain Got Talent! I have only watched part of one episode but as I checked in on Twitter on Saturday night the talk seemed to be of a dog winning #BGT.

Twitter has fast become the number one source for news and views on everything. From latest news stories to winners of Britain’s Talent Skate on Thin Ice Singing Y Factor (or whatever the latest talent show is) Twitter is the place to go.

God has destined us to be alive at this time in history – a time when the world is smaller than ever before, when something that happens hundreds of miles away is instantly shared on social media. These are days of fantastic opportunity. Over Easter New Life Church in Hull was tweeting amazing reports of God healing people on the streets of the city – it challenged me again that we need to tell God’s story in as many places as we can. Maybe God inspired people to create Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, etc for that very reason?

On Wednesday’s on Twitter there is a #YorkshireHour – between 8pm and 9pm people share good things about Yorkshire. Maybe we need a #GodHour – an hour of sharing the amazing things God is doing in our lives, our communities, our churches, our nation…. Let’s try it this Friday and every Friday, 9am – 10am #GodHour – let us get God trending on Twitter!!!

Staff are:

• AD Anna Drew, Methodist Media Officer
• AG Andrew Graystone, former BBC producer, Director of Churches Media Network
• BL Bex Lewis, Lecturer & Technology Enhanced Learning Fellow, University of Winchester; Blended Learning Project Manager, CODEC, University of Durham
• CS Carl Stiansen, Media Relations Officer, Durham University
• KB Kate Bruce, Chaplain, St John’s College; Fellow in Preaching and Communication
• LK Leighton Kitson, Media Relations Officer, Durham University
• PMP Pete Phillips, Director of Research, CBLC, CODEC, St John’s College, Durham
• RW Rich Wyld, researcher with CODEC
• TH Tim Hutchings, researcher with CODEC
• VB Vicki Beeching, researcher with CODEC

Check the CODEC site for the latest information.

It considers that all youths are digital natives in the modern age. However, this is not the case. It is primarily based on cultural differences and not by age. According to Henry Jenkins (2007), “Part of the challenge of this research is to understand the dynamics of who exactly is, and who is not, a digital native and what that means.” There are underlying conflicts on the definition of the term “digital natives” and it is wrong to say that all modern age youths are placed in that particular category or that all older adults can be described as digital immigrants. Some adults are more tech savvy than a lot of children, depending on socio-economic standings, personal interests, etc, but as teachers we must include the world outside with which the children are familiar and use it inside the classroom. Wikipedia.

In many ways it appears to let the older generation off the hook when it comes to ‘digital literacy‘, when it is something we all need to engage with. More recent theory has defined the idea of the ‘digital resident’ and the ‘digital visitor’, which takes away the age restrictions – and sees it more about an attitude:

• Visitor = sees the web as a set of tools
• Residents = sees the web as a space Dave White

Aleks Krotoski’s latest programme on Radio 4 ‘The Digital Human‘ refers also to this idea, picked up in this blog.

I wrote this post at the weekend, but on Monday got engaged in another conversation:

Pete then referred us to some bedtime reading by @daveowhite (2011).

‘Digital Literacy’ is also a term that can scare some, but the core meaning of it, is in learning to use digital technologies, and in learning to use them well/appropriately.

What do you think? Do you think the term ‘digital native’ still has legs? Do you think digital is something only the ‘younger generation’ should concern themselves with?

See the tweet archive for #nmtrain (it sometimes takes a while to catch up on itself)

The Big Bible Project was created in Autumn 2010 to encourage ‘bigger Bible conversations’. We have run The Big Read 2011, and The Big Read 2012, and have plans for online/interactive events for Advent, and are about to start planning for The Big Read 2013.

For those of you who noticed the newsletter missing a fortnight ago, yes, the website took that time, so this newsletter will attempt to cover the last month of posts, and we’ll then return to fortnightly, giving a round-up of stories on the site.

Blog-Post Round-Up

April 15 – May 14 2012

Our #digidisciple(s) have continued to provide excellent content, and below, we’ll attempt to summarise by theme.

#BigBible

The Biblefresh content can all be found via ‘The Best of Biblefresh‘, for whom the 2011 report can be found online. Further Bible resources are offered on Free Bible Images. Bex Lewis offered a review of ‘Whole Life Whole Bible‘ by Antony Billington of the LICC. If you’ve ever struggled to read the whole Bible, try The Bible in 66 Tweets. If you’re interested in apologetics, check out the Unbelievable conference, or consider the different Bible translations.

Tim Hutchings gave us the second part of his series encourage us to look at the ways that mobile can transform our Bible reading, something Darren Hill also engaged with in questioning whether digital has devalued the Bible. Emma Major took this a step further as she considered how each of our generations has engaged with the Bible. Fittingly, YouVersion celebrated 50million installs this month.

Paul Blakey used the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking to encourage us to think about whether we listen to the warning voices, whilst Dot Gosling encouraged us to listen out for God’s voice in all we do. Ned Lunn gave us a deeply personal look into our emotions, faith and death, whilst Ernie Feasey drew upon a range of Biblical texts to tackle the question of ‘Why Suffering?‘. Nancy Wallace continued her insightful series on looking at ‘Women of the Gospels’ with Mary Magdalene.

#BigRead12

The Big Read finished on 14^th April, but we hope that it has a lasting legacy. A report written by Bex remains online, and we’re starting to think about #BigRead13. We have also clarified the material we have provided for housegroups, and would love more to enable to engage fully with effective housegroups.

We’re still pulling together prize winners for all those who blogged, tweeted, commented on #bigread12, but we pray that the real value was in participation.

#DigiDisciple

A survey by YesHeIs.com questioned 700 Christians about their attitude to online evangelism. Bex Lewis considered whether online community offers ‘real’ community, highlighted later through a Twitter debate with Hannah Mudge. Questions of engagement with those communities were raised by Holly Poulter as she demonstrated life: augmented, and which Anna Blanch also highlighted in the use of prayer online, and Pam Webster demonstrated in appreciation of the range of voices in The Big Read. The podcast ‘Something Beautiful‘ celebrated 5 yers sharing a range of stories, whilst Bryony Taylor encouraged us to think about what we can learn from #prayformuamba. The website that calculates your ‘slavery footprint‘ encourages us to think about our part in a global community.

Sally Coleman questions whether churches are bringing too many of their offline practices into the online world, with Simon Sutcliffe wresting with the real issues of effectively becoming a digi-pastor. Lucy Mills is considering how our memories have changed, when we have so much information at our fingertips. Thomas Mathie emphasised how we have a responsibility online to curate faithfully, whilst Joanne Cox encourages the church to return to grassroots level thinking. Helen Nicholls celebrated the launch of The 2012 with a podcast, whilst Dave Roberts gave us insights to his visit to Australia, and how social media has facilitated that.

James Poulter questions whether constant connectedness necessarily indicates progress, and some of the issues that arise from it. Richard Littledale questions whether we’re too quick to fire off ‘banter‘, whilst Kevin Goodrich wonders in an age of instant responses, whether we remember the need to be persistent in prayer. Steve Blundell offered advice as to how to be missional online, whilst the hot topic of whether communion is possible online was raised again, picked up the following week by George Morley and Pam Smith.

#DigiLit

As we seek to encourage people to use the tools well, we have ensured that all the links on #digilit are up to date, and are starting to collate further materials. We were going to create a wiki, but instead will work with strong tagging. Digital Fingerprint has been pulling together a number of infographics to inform us as to the changes happening within the digital world.

Andrew Salt considered whether Pinterest is really a ‘tool for girls’, and how we can use it for God. Ali Gledhill attempted to provide his #digidisicple post via video, documenting why it didn’t work this time, but emphasising the importance of why we need to get to grips with video, as re-emphasised by Robb Sutherland in his look at Wakefield Cathedral’s video. James Robinson encouraged us to think more creatively about how we enage – let’s have a hacking event, as do The Church Sofa as they encourage us to think about how we generate excitement for church events. Jenni Osborne offered great advice as she seeks to engage with Twitter, whilst Tony Whittaker gives links to materials encouraging visual storytelling.

You still have an opportunity to sign up for your FREE place in Manchester or Newcastle on ‘Reaching out in a Digital Age’!  The event is run by Premier Christian Media in partnership with CODEC, and is designed for those in church leadership, or desiring to get their church online, so please do encourage your church leaders to come along and find out how to engage with this important mission field. You can see information from the inaugural Leeds event on Storify. Another event to look out for is Open Source (London) on 23rd May.