Bullying is
not a recent phenomenon. It has been present throughout the years within all
age groups, whether it takes place between children, teenagers or adults, into
the school or the workplace. The rapid evolution of technology and especially
the wider use of mobile devices has made it possible for more stories of
bullying to come into the spotlight and is forcing all individuals or groups to
honestly recognize the problem and take action into facing it. Actually,
technology is one of the tools that can and should be used in this front
against bullying, and the mobile app development industry has already chosen
sides.
An
organization that is active, conducting anti-bullying campaigns that try to
contribute as much as possible to this cause is the European Anti-Bullying Network (EAN). What the project is doing is unify the
different approaches to the phenomenon on a European level. The goal is, in a
sense, to have the experienced partners within EU coordinate with each other so
that the problem stops being focused on just one aspect and to address it in an
enhanced fashion, with common approach and activity.
As a
project coordinator, the nonprofit organization The Smile of the Child has decided to take radical action and take advantage of technology,
working together with Enterprise Mobility Management group Globo. The project’s goal was to develop
a mobile application that would contribute to the dissemination of
anti-bullying good practices. The project faced challenges from the very start,
and even more emerged throughout the realization of the project.
Firstly,
the target audience was wide, from students and educators to parents and state
agencies, but the goal was to be accessible to the public at large, so the main
challenge was to develop a mobile app that would be compatible with all popular
mobile platforms. Also parts of the bet were cost efficiency, fast app
development time and mobile app updates.
This is
where Globo’s mobile app development platform came into play. The mobile app was
created using GO!AppZone studio, which enabled development with just one set of
code and no need for separate development for all individual mobile operating
systems. Globo’s GO!Enterprise platform ensured secure integration with the
organization’s systems and at the same time reduced times of development. The
end result was that the application was finally delivered to iOS, Android,
Windows Phone and Windows 8 in a secure container with EAN’s label, providing
maximum reach.
Now, the
arsenal of the anti-bullying campaign involves yet another weapon in the form
of a mobile app. The application has 3 steps. The first is the choice of role
(students, teachers, parents etc) then choice of purpose (training, education
or awareness raising) and eventually the choice of content type (audio, video
etc). The respective content is delivered after submission.
This is one
of the attempts at fighting bullying that are worth the support of the public.
Modern times require modern measures, and as such mobile app development is one
of the tools that can be very useful in the fight against bullying. It should
also be noted that action is taken for the establishment of a global
anti-bullying date, for which everyone interested can contribute by submitting
a mobile form. Other ways of contacting and keeping up to date with EAN is
through email or their Facebook page.