Pedagogy 2025
Abstract
This paper argues that the boundary between STEM and the humanities is dissolving as human-centered AI reorients pedagogy toward real-world, problem-based learning that privileges process over product and skills over rote memorization. No-code and low-code tools, coupled with classroom agents, now let humanities students work directly with authentic datasets, document auditable reasoning, and assemble evidence-linked portfolios aimed at employability. The paper reports such an approach for Art History where students can use visual workflow builders, OCR for archives, ArcGIS StoryMaps, and/or agentic assistants to structure end-to-end workflows: scoping questions, curating city open-data, prompting for transparent justifications, and iterating through critique with external partners. A historic preservation module anchors the case: students integrated building-age and materials registries, code-violation and vacancy datasets, smartphone photogrammetry of façades, and noninvasive condition rubrics to produce preservation briefs with prioritized interventions, cost bands, and risk notes suitable for municipal review. The contribution is a portable, humanities-anchored process model that educators can adopt immediately to connect coursework to community needs and to cultivate durable literacies across dissolving disciplinary lines.
Dr. James Hutson is Department Head of Art History, AI, and Visual Culture at Lindenwood University and head of human-centered AI research. Research spans human-centered AI pedagogy, neurohumanities, and XR for cultural heritage. Author of Beyond Code and other books—Creative Convergence, The Algorithmic Researcher, and Generative AI in the English Composition Classroom—he co-developed Da Vinci AI, an AI-XR tutor for the humanities.