Teaching economic and political geography through GeoAI: lessons from the STEM4Humanities project and design-based pedagogies

The rapid growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and GeoAI technologies is changing the way we interpret complex geographical phenomena. Indeed, the use of automatic, reliable, and multimodal tools may act as a bridge to interpret the nature of information in the modern world, characterized by social, economic, and political instability and uncertainties. This creates novel opportunities also in education, enabling students to learn and investigate such complex events through the lens of AI. In this context, we here provide a first critical analysis of the use of AI and GeoAI tools within interdisciplinary courses in Economic and Political Geography. Using a design-based and reflective teaching-research approach, we integrated AI and GeoAI tools into a university-level geography course, applying a Problem and Project-Based Learning approach, drawing insights from the Erasmus+ STEM4Humanities project. We observed how such tools may create cognitive scaffolding for spatial reasoning, critical evaluation of data, and identification of socio-political meanings. Our observations indicate that AI can be effectively employed for educational purposes, but placed in a critical pedagogy framework. With this work, we lay the path for future AI-driven geography education, enabling students with geographical knowledge and digital literacy as well as critical spatial citizenship.