Peer-reviewed article
DLMA_NEU: Digital Literacy Mobile Application for Children
Muhammad Bello Nawaila, Sezer Kanbul, Umar Mohammed Kani, Mohammed Mukhtar Magaji ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This paper describes the design and development of DLMA_NEU, a mobile application for Android that teaches digital literacy to children aged 7–18. The app was developed through three phases: literature review and expert interviews, smartphone app development, and testing of functionality and usability. The application educates children about safe online interaction through videos, text, cartoons and jokes, allows them to report cyberbullying, and enables peer communication. The app is the first digital literacy mobile application in Turkish and currently supports English and Turkish languages.
Key points
- DLMA_NEU targets children aged 7–18 and is designed for Android devices
- The app educates children on online safety and interaction through multiple media formats (videos, text, cartoons, jokes)
- The application includes features for reporting cyberbullying and other online issues
- The design involved 30 students and 5 experts throughout the research process
- The app currently supports English and Turkish languages and is in testing stage
Limitations
The document is a design and development paper that does not present evaluation results or evidence of effectiveness. It does not report outcomes of the testing phase or compare the app against any comparison condition.
Abstract
This paper presents the design and implementation of DLMA_NEU, adigital literacy mobile application for Android that targets children between ages 7 and 18. It is a developmental study aimed at designing a digital literacy mobile application the study conducted in the following three phases: Phase 1. Literature review; mobile application store search, and interviewing experts in children’s digital literacy, Phase 2 Smart phones app development and Phase 3 Accessing the functionality and usability of the app. Thirty students from Near East College and 5 experts were used throughout the research process. The App is the first digital literacy mobile application in Turkish.DLMA_NEUemploys children’s opinions and also adds the interactive option. To use the application, a child is required to register first.And to provide representation, the application currently supports two languages (English and Turkish). The application supports chatting with friends, and educates children (via videos, text, cartoons and jokes) on how to interact online. The application also serves as an avenue for children to report cyber bullying and other online issues as well assimultaneously acquiring informationon internet usage habits. DMLA_NEU is currently at the testing stage by children from TRCN.