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Sophia Brueckner Discusses “Ready Player One” - EdSurge On Air

January 22, 2018
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Futuristic pictures by Jean-Marc Côté and other artists issued in France in 1899, 1900, 1901 and 1910. Housed at: Wikimedia Commons.

Stamps Assistant Professor Sophia Brueckner is featured in an EdSurge dicussion of Ernest Cline’s science-fiction novel, ​“Ready Player One.”

Humans living in abject poverty are warring over the few resources they have left. There’s an energy crisis, and fossil fuels are in low supply. The weather has gone to extremes.

This is the setting of Ernest Cline’s science-fiction novel, ​“Ready Player One,” where human civilization is in decline, and life in virtual reality beats any day in the real world.

This page-turning novel (which is being turned into a film by Steven Spielberg) follows a geeky protagonist named Wade Watts as he undertakes a mission to win billions by finding an egg hidden inside a virtual video-game universe called the OASIS.

Among the many rich themes explored in the story is education, painting a picture that could provide lessons for how teachers and school leaders design for education today.

Ready Player One: Science Fiction’s Vision for The Future of Education | EdSurge