Mobile phones are becoming an integral part of the literacy curriculum in two South African primary schools, thanks to work by the M-Ubuntu project, a winner in the 2009 Digital Media and Learning Competition.

Fellow winner DevInfo Gameworks collaborated with M-Ubuntu to send kids out into their neighborhoods with camera phones. The kids then used the media they created to build interactive games about the most important issues in their communities.

“It really drove home the power that these young people have to tell the entire world what’s happening right there in their backyards,” says Jeff Kupperman from DevInfo.

The Digital Media and Learning Competition is an annual effort designed to find—and to inspire—the most novel uses of new media in support of learning. Read more about the work being done by past competition winners here: hastac.org/dml-competitions/2009.