Are Existing Mobile Writing Applications for Writing Difficulties Sufficient?

Abstract

Students who struggle with writing may also struggle academically. Mobile applications play a vital and supportive role in addressing this issue. The purpose of this research is to examine mobile writing applications and to gather the opinions of teachers and experts on these applications in order to support the writing skills of 1st and 2nd-grade primary school students. In this way, the strengths and weaknesses of the existing applications will be evaluated, and a projection will be kept on the mobile writing application that should be. The researchers applied qualitative and quantitative methods. In order to reveal the needs in question, a number of applications from the Android and IOS stores were reviewed using a rubric devised by the researchers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather opinions from primary school and special education teachers and subject matter experts in primary and special education. The study revealed the insufficiency of targeted applications to support writing skills, particularly regarding accessibility, audio, and visual elements. This finding emphasizes the need for new mobile applications to eliminate the limitations. This study provided vital insights into building a mobile application for addressing writing difficulties that might satisfy the needs. The results of this study include suggestions that will shed light on future research on mobile writing applications.