Pre-paid Literacy: Negotiating the Cost of Adolescent Mobile Technology Use

The financial cost of mobile communication plays a central role in emerging literacy practices associated with mobile technology use. However, the popularity of mobile technologies among Australian teenagers presents a challenge because most adolescents have limited financial resources, their management of costs associated with mobile technologies is increasingly important. Drawing on research into youth 'mobile literacy' practices, this paper explores the relationship between financial cost and mobile technology use. Whilst this use is understood within the general framework of 'literacy as social practice', the concept of 'financial literacy' is also used to understand student practices. Drawing on the voices of students, strategies for cost-minimisation will be explored. As mobile technologies are adopted more actively for teaching and learning - as 'm-learning' emerges - bridges need to be built between in- and out-of-school literacies.