William R. Watson, director of the Purdue Center for Serious Games and Learning in Virtual Environments, delivered a keynote at the Future Ready Schools summit in Kokomo, Indiana, in July 2026. His address challenged school administrators to treat AI as a catalyst for overhauling outdated learning systems rather than a tool that simply digitizes existing practices.
The "Future Ready Schools: AI in Educational Leadership" summit, held July 20-21 at Taylor Community Schools, brought together Indiana school leaders to examine practical AI implementation. Watson, who chairs the College of Education's AI and Data Science Working Group, framed his talk around a central question: "Disruption or Replication? AI for Educational Change (or More of the Same) in the Disinformation Age." He also joined the summit's expert panel for a session on "Lessons from the Field."
The risk of replication
Watson argued that treating AI like previous educational technologies - using it to replicate existing methods - will produce negative outcomes. "If AI is treated like most of our past educational technologies and is used to replicate rather than change our approach to learning, it will have severely negative impacts on learning," he said. The danger lies in layering new tools onto a system still built around fixed calendars and comparison-based assessments.
His alternative centers on personalized, mastery-driven learning. "But if it is used to drive a change to a focus on developing critical-thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem-solving through a personalized and learning-centric approach, then its disruption could be just what we have needed to finally modernize our systems of learning," Watson said. This shift would require rethinking both what students learn and how that learning is measured.
Designing systems for change
Watson teaches in Purdue's online MS in Artificial Intelligence program and recently developed a course titled "Systems Thinking for AI-Driven Innovation and Change in Learning." The course will be part of the College's AI in Education Graduate Certificate. His work consistently pushes beyond surface-level tech adoption toward structural redesign.
Melissa McIntire, superintendent at Western Wayne Schools and a recent Purdue PhD graduate, organized the summit. "My doctoral work at Purdue strengthened my commitment to helping schools move beyond simply discussing AI and begin developing practical systems, policies, and strategies for responsible implementation," McIntire said. She described Watson's keynote as foundational for that shift, noting it pushed participants to examine their shared responsibility in shaping AI's role.
Why this matters for educators
School leaders face immediate decisions about AI procurement, policy, and professional development. Watson's framework offers a concrete litmus test: does a given AI tool reinforce an industrial model of schooling, or does it enable the kind of personalized, critical-thinking-focused instruction that research has long supported but schools have struggled to scale? For administrators building AI strategies, relevant training exists through programs like AI School Leadership Courses, which address the implementation gap McIntire identified. The summit made clear that the window for deliberate, systemic choices is narrow - and the cost of defaulting to replication is rising.
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