This study aimed to develop a Chinese version of the Hungarian digital tool “Music
Island,” localized into an effective digital resource designed specifically for Chinese
elementary school students. Music Island app includes four main components: SoundForest,
RhythmDesert, MusicRepublic, and MusicFactory. The developmental process includes
two main steps: the adaption process and content validation for effectiveness. Edutainment
and gamification strategies were retained in adapting the Hungarian tool to its Chinese
version. The adapted application has validated and tested its content validity with
six experts from the musical education and curriculum development fields. Findings
showed significant revisions in translating and localizing texts, replacing audio
content with Chinese narration and songs, as well as integrating culturally relevant
learning materials. The authors revised the texts and rechanged the necessary audio
content based on the experts’ suggestions. Then, its content validity index (CVI)
is > 0.78, revealing that the adapted content is linguistically clear, comprehensive,
and relevant to Chinese culture and aesthetic preferences. The inter-rater reliability
also showed the representativeness of the Chinese primary school curriculum with the
value of Cohen’s kappa,k* = 0.72. The face validity (FV) of the Music Island app was
also verified with three primary school teachers. After revising their minor suggestions,
all teachers rated the FV of all four components as 4, reflecting their high level
of appropriateness. This study shows the importance of cultural adaptation in digital
education tools and highlights the Music Island app's potential to enrich music education
in China through
interactive and localized learning experiences.
