Hackathon for the Creation of Digital Educational Escape Rooms (Spanish and French L2)
- Hosting organisations
- University of Klagenfurt
- Responsible persons
- Climent de Benito
- Start
- End
The project “Hackathon for the Creation of Digital Educational Escape Rooms” at the University of Klagenfurt is dedicated to developing innovative, game-based learning formats for foreign language teaching in Spanish and French. The aim is to enhance the motivation and language skills of young learners aged 12 to 17 by immersing them in interactive digital escape rooms. These formats target learners at the A2 level and combine written texts, audio elements, and dynamic storylines that are individually adapted using artificial intelligence. The project is embedded in the Digital Humanities Austria Strategy 2021+ and contributes to promoting open educational resources, innovative research tools, and teacher education.
Project Information
At the core of the initiative is a four-hour hackathon held on 5 April 2024 at the University of Klagenfurt, in the Lakeside Science and Technology Park and the “School of Education” facilities. Forty pupils from Klagenfurt and Villach will took part, divided into lower secondary and upper secondary students, ensuring gender balance. In teams of four, supported by pre-service language teachers as mentors, they developed creative scenarios for digital educational escape rooms. The goal was to produce at least ten completed concepts.
The project builds on previous research in which Spanish school textbooks were analysed using corpus linguistics to identify relevant core vocabulary. In June 2024, a thematic prototype was successfully tested with secondary school students. The project is organised by Dr. Climent de Benito (Department of Romance Studies, University of Klagenfurt) in collaboration with pre-service teachers of Spanish and French. In addition to innovative didactic approaches, special emphasis is placed on data protection, copyright, and gender equality.