The School of Engineering (ESI) of the University of Cadiz (UCA) hosted its first local workshop of the ARIDLL (Augmented Reality Instructional Design for Language Learning) project on 19th of January 2024.

This workshop followed others held throughout 2023 at Evosmos Primary School (Greece), Open University of Oxford (UK), Cypress University of Technology, University of Cyprus (Cyprus), Technische Hochschule Augsburg (Germany) and Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway).

ARIDLL (2022-1-NO01-KA220-HED-000088034) is an Erasmus+ project that started in September 2023 and will end in September 2025. The project addresses the need for digital innovation in language teaching, focusing on enabling language professionals to use Augmented Reality (AR) in their teaching and to create educational materials adapted to their teaching needs. The UCA participates as a partner under the coordination of Professor Anke Berns, with a multidisciplinary team of professors and researchers from French and English Philology, Computer Engineering, and Statistics and Operations Research.

The first workshop just held at ESI and attended by language teachers and students marks the beginning of a series of events planned throughout the ARIDLL project, aimed at language teachers interested in the integration of emerging technologies.

One of the main objectives of the workshop was to familiarise participants with the use and possibilities of AR in language teaching, allowing them to try out different apps developed for this purpose. In addition, participants had the opportunity to get familiar with the use of MirageXR, a free software tool that allows the creation of AR content, which is currently being developed within the project.

ARIDLL’s key aspiration is to empower non-IT teachers to develop educational resources in AR, thus marking a milestone in the evolution of language teaching using emerging technologies.