EDITORIAL article

Front. Educ.

Sec. Digital Education

Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1639857

This article is part of the Research TopicPatterns of technology-enhanced digital literacy of older adultsView all 5 articles

Editorial: Patterns of technology-enhanced digital literacy of older adults

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Department of Pedagogy, Faculty of Education, Psychology and Sports Sciences, University of Huelva, Huelva, Spain
  • 2Faculty of Business and Tourism, University of Huelva, Huelva, Spain
  • 3Facultad de Ciencias de la Computación, Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, Puebla, Mexico

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

In today's digital landscape, digital literacy among older adults has become a crucial issue to ensure 15 their inclusion and autonomy (Tirado-Morueta et al., 2021). As technology evolves, so too do the 16 methods and tools designed to facilitate access to and use of digital platforms by this population (e.g., 17 Sehrawat, et al., 2017). In this regard, technology-enhanced digital literacy involves the development 18 of digital skills through innovative strategies such as artificial intelligence, mobile education, and 19 active methodologies tailored to their needs (Gutiérrez-Ángel et al., 2022). 20The four studies included address various dimensions of this phenomenon, such as the impact of 21 educational smartphone applications on the independence of older adults, the use of artificial 22 intelligence for educational inclusion, the effect of active methodologies on the improvement of 23 digital competencies, and the assessment of digital security skills that support technological 24 autonomy in later life. 25The study by Woo, Shin, and Park (2024), on digital education and the impact of mobile applications, 26 highlights the effectiveness of an educational smartphone app in improving the digital autonomy of 27 older adults. Using an instructional design methodology based on the ADDIE model, an app tailored 28 to the needs of older users was developed and evaluated using eye-tracking technology and 29 observational studies. The results indicated that this technology not only enables learning without 30 time and place constraints but also fosters greater interest and confidence in using mobile devices for 31 daily activities such as booking transport. 32This approach shows that effective digital literacy for older adults can be enhanced through 33 technological applications that take into account their cognitive and sensory limitations. In other words, interactive tools that combine ease of use

Keywords: Digital Literacy, Older adult, learning technologies, Digital divide (DD), Active methodologies, Mobile education (mobile learning)

Received: 02 Jun 2025; Accepted: 04 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Tirado Morueta, Duarte-Hueros, Infante Moro and Gonzalez Calleros. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Ramón Tirado Morueta, Department of Pedagogy, Faculty of Education, Psychology and Sports Sciences, University of Huelva, Huelva, Spain

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