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In this chapter, we discuss initiatives that aim to improve children’s literacy in low- and middle-income (LMI) countries through m-learning. These projects, predominantly introduced by governments and international aid organisations, often involve the provision of e-books and apps including game-based apps, to be used either inside or outside school. In some cases, lesson plans and content for teachers in poorly resourced schools are also delivered via mobile devices. After a general overview, we briefly describe a selection of projects with reference to m-learning and literacy theory and research. It is indicated in this chapter that the use of mobile devices to improve literacy opportunities for children in LMI countries has a great deal of potential but that, in many cases, there are limitations in pedagogical design and implementation practices, not to mention restricted views of what literacy is and might be for children in these locations.

More and more older adults begin to use the mobile internet to obtain information. However, the quality of information obtained through mobile internet by older adults is hard to be guaranteed. The purpose of this paper is to study the role of family support when older adults obtain information from mobile internet.

This study conducted a survey of 263 older adults who owned mobile internet devices such as smartphones or tablet PCs. The theory hypotheses are tested using partial least squares techniques.

For older adults, family support is the influencing factor of mobile internet literacy improvement. Family emotional support has stronger impacts on the improvement both of mobile internet skill literacy and of mobile internet information literacy than family cognitive support has. Furthermore, the improvement of both mobile internet skill literacy and of mobile internet information literacy hs positive impacts on the quality improvement of obtained information by older adults.

This paper gives advice on how family members can support older adults during their obtaining information from mobile internet to improve their mobile internet literacy and quality of obtained information.

This study examines the factors that influence mobile internet literacy and quality of obtained information among older adults from the perspective of family support in the Chinese mobile internet context. The research results enrich the internet literacy theory and the information quality theory.

The main purpose of this study is to test for the interaction effect of digital literacy in the relationship between financial technologies (FinTechs) of biometrics and mobile money and digital financial inclusion among the unbanked poor women, youth and persons with disabilities (PWDs) in rural Uganda.

Covariance-based structural equation modeling was used to construct the interaction effect using data collected from the unbanked poor women, youth and PWDs located in the four regions in Uganda as prescribed by Hair et al. (2022).

The findings from this study are threefold: first; the results revealed a positive interaction effect of digital literacy between FinTechs of biometrics and mobile money and digital financial inclusion. Second; the results also confirmed that biometrics identification positively promotes digital financial inclusion. Lastly; the results showed that mobile money positively promotes digital financial inclusion. A combination of FinTechs of biometrics and mobile money together with digital literacy explain 29% variation in digital financial inclusion among the unbanked poor women, youth and PWDs in rural Uganda.

The data for this study were collected mainly from the unbanked poor women, youth and PWDs. Further studies may look at data from other sections of the vulnerable population in under developed financial markets. Additionally, the data for this study were collected only from Uganda as a developing country. Thus, more data may be obtained from other developing countries to draw conclusive and generalized empirical evidence. Besides, the current study used cross sectional design to collect the data. Therefore, future studies may adopt longitudinal research design to investigate the impact of FinTechs on digital financial inclusion in the presence of digital literacy across different time range.

The governments in developing countries like Uganda should support women, youth, PWDs and other equally vulnerable groups, especially in the rural communities to understand and use FinTechs. This can be achieved through digital literacy that can help them to embrace digital financial services and competently navigate and perform digital transactions over digital platforms like mobile money without making errors. Besides, governments in developing countries like Uganda can use this finding to advocate for the design of appropriate digital infrastructures to reach remote areas and ensure “last mile connectivity for digital financial services' users.” The use of off-line solutions can complement the absence or loss of on-line network connectivity for biometrics and mobile money to close the huge digital divide gap in rural areas. This can scale-up access to and use of financial services by the unbanked rural population.

This paper sheds more light on the importance of digital literacy in the ever complex and dynamic global FinTech ecosystem in the presence of rampant cyber risks. To the best of the authors' knowledge, limited studies currently exist that integrate digital literacy as a moderator in the relationship between FinTechs and digital financial inclusion, especially among vulnerable groups in under-developed digital financial markets in developing countries. This is the novelty of the paper with data obtained from the unbanked poor women, youth and PWDs in rural Uganda.

Children’s emerging conceptions about literacy and its functions are influenced by their experiences with a wide range of written and oral literacies, including the use of digital technology, in their homes and communities. Now that mobile technologies have become intuitive to use, relatively inexpensive, small and easy to move around and networked, they have provided an entry point for transformations in the creation and sharing of texts – they are changing the way young children ‘do’ literacy. In this chapter, the authors discuss the ways that children learn about multimodal texts; how mobile technology can facilitate the reading, creation and sharing of multimodal texts in preschool and primary classrooms; the literacy skills necessary for reading multimodal texts, and; strategies for planning instruction into which multimodal texts and mobile devices are integrated. Examples of how children may engage in multimodal reading and writing in and out of the classroom are also provided.

While visual arts, drama, dance and music have been used to enhance literacy learning for many decades in preschool and primary classrooms, engaging with mobile learning can also provide many opportunities for young learners to explore and develop language and literacy. The use of mobile devices is of particular interest as technology has an impact on pedagogy and the mobility of digital devices provides many opportunities for engaged and meaningful literacy learning when teamed with the arts. In this chapter, we define the arts and their relationship with literacy learning before exploring a number of resources and practices for integrating their use in early learning settings.

This paper aims to describe a case study illustrating the systematic approach librarians used to develop of an information literacy mobile application (app) prototype that aids students in performing research tasks “on the go”.

The initial findings from a student survey on technology use indicated the value of an information literacy mobile application. The analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation approach was used to develop the app. Alpha and small-scale usability testing was performed to evaluate the prototype’s readiness for deployment.

The survey analysis indicated that students were not using mobile devices as expected for library related tasks. Student suggestions for improving their library experiences included mobile access to the libraries’ digital collection, mobile reference support and an application that assisted them in effectively using these resources. Usability studies indicated a positive response to the app and its readiness for beta testing among the inclusive student population.

To the author’s knowledge, this is the first native information literacy mobile application whose aim is to help students with research on the go. The step-by-step approach used for each phase of development, as well as the implications for success, may serve as a model for libraries’ seeking to enhance their mobile resources.

This study explores digital transformation in the tea supply chain within developing economies, with a focus on smallholder tea producers in Sri Lanka. Tea is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world. Among the tea producers, smallholder tea producers account for a substantial portion of total tea production in several countries. Mobile phones play a significant role in providing smallholder producers with access to crucial agricultural information, markets and financial services.

This study adopts a deductive approach, analysing mobile phone ownership, literacy, experience and perception among smallholder tea producers. The chi-squared test of independence and hierarchical clustering methods were used to test the hypotheses and address the research questions.

The study identifies four clusters of smallholder tea producers as Basic Tech Adopters, Digital Laggards, Skeptical Feature Phone Users and Tech-savvy Adopters based on their characteristics towards mobile-based technologies. Approximately 75% of the surveyed sample, which included both tech-savvy and basic-tech adopters, showed a positive attitude toward adopting mobile-based agricultural technologies.

The study suggests developing targeted strategies and policies to enhance the productivity of the smallholder tea production process in developing economies. The study highlights the importance of awareness, access, affordability and availability when implementing digital services for businesses at the base of the pyramid, such as tea smallholdings in developing economies.

The present study aims to address the lack of data-driven empirical studies on the use of mobile phones in smallholder settings. The findings of this study enable the enhancement of entrepreneurship within the tea production supply chain, especially, within stakeholders who deliver digital transformation support services.

This chapter explores how the creation of multimodal texts using digital technologies, including mobile devices, augmented reality and the World Wide Web can engage, support and reposition primary school-aged literacy learners who have diverse needs. There is emphasis on how the creation of such texts can assist literacy learners in attaining reading comprehension, fluency and motivation.

The use of mobile devices by children and adolescents is increasing significantly; therefore, it is relevant to research the level of advertising literacy (AL) of parents who act as mediators between children and mobile advertising. This study aims to explore the conceptual, moral and attitudinal dimensions of AL and its relationship with different styles of parental control.

A cross-sectional survey was applied simultaneously to a sample of parents with children between 5 and 16 years old in three Spanish-speaking countries: Mexico, Spain and Colombia. Participants from the three countries were recruited via online social media networks and were asked to fill in an online survey. A questionnaire, which has been adapted from previous literature to suit the mobile advertising context and the population of interest, was designed. Cross-country samples of varying sizes, with a predetermined quota of 200 participants for each country, were used. The total sample consisted of 1,454 participants.

Four factors of mobile AL were found, which, to a greater extent, correspond to the dimensions of AL proposed in the literature. The following are the dimensions that were identified: cognitive, moral, attitudinal and an emerging factor is known as “children’s perceived mobile AL.” Differences in parents’ perceived knowledge of mobile advertising, parental control styles and AL levels in the three countries were identified. Parents with an authoritative style were identified to have more knowledge than those with an indulgent style. Differences were also identified between countries concerning the amount of exposure that children have to mobile advertising, while no significant differences were found in the moral dimension.

Marketing practitioners and public policymakers must consider that parents differ in some dimensions of AL. Parents also seem to lack adequate knowledge about the advertising tools available to announcers that affect children and adolescents in a mobile communication environment. Therefore, government agencies should consider developing mobile digital media literacy programs for parents.

This paper explores the dimensions of AL applied to the mobile context and identifies the level of parental mobile AL in three Spanish-speaking countries, as well as the differences between these sub-samples concerning parental mobile AL profiles and parental control styles, thus expanding the literature on AL with a cross-cultural approach.