Blog Assignment #6

     Randy Pausch's Last Lecture is an incredible video. As I've stated in a previous blog post, Randy Pausch is someone to be admired to say the least. His character alone should be envied by all. In his "Last Lecture" he covers three topics that include different strategies of teaching and also learning. The topics are: "achieving childhood dreams", "enabling childhood dreams", and "lessons learned". Throughout the lecture Randy pairs up each strategy with a story from his personal life which not only makes the lecture more entertaining, but it makes everything he covers have even more of an impact on the audience.


     He begins his presentation with the topic of "achieving childhood dreams". At first glance this doesn't sound like much of a teaching strategy and the phrase itself isn't, what he includes under this category is where the true inspiration falls. Randy lists all of his childhood dreams, one in particular was that he dreamed of playing in the NFL. Unfortunately he never got the chance to play professional football, yet he states that he probably got more from this failed dream than any other dream he did accomplish. Through playing football, Randy learned how important fundamentals are, what hard work really is, and also about "head fakes". A "head fake" is when you teach someone something but they end up learning something different along the way. Randy's football coach was really hard on him one day at practice and when the assistant coach approached him about it he told Randy that it's a good thing. He said that when people don't care anymore to help you fix your mistakes is when you know that they have given up on you. I think every teacher needs to be told this story. Teachers carry a lot of weight in their students hearts. Their encouragement and opinions can sometimes mean more to a student than what a peer thinks. We are all human. Every teacher will have a difficult student, or more than one, throughout their careers. But we must keep in mind that every single student deserves to be pushed in their own way, and not one of them should ever be given up on because we can't handle the responsibility of their education when it gets tough.

     The second topic Mr. Pausch speaks about is "enabling childhood dreams". He tells the story about a program at Carnegie Melon University that he and a colleague designed. The program is called the Entertainment Technology Factory (ETC) which he also calls the Dream Fulfillment Factory. It was a master's program that consisted of two years full of small group projects. What Randy points out is that this program is very successful, but it's not the academic success that should take notice. What should take notice is the fact that his students were given the opportunity to chase their dreams and some of them ultimately did just that. ETC was so successful because of three reasons. One reason is a simple requirement of the course's curriculum. A focused evaluation of each member of their groups is something each student must do. Randy does this so each student will see their faults and have the awareness to make the proper changes. The second reason is again centered on head fakes throughout the process of the course. It's here that Mr. Pausch states that "the best way to teach someone is to have them think they're learning something different". He used this strategy in the creating of Alice, an educational software that was created within the ETC. Which brings me to the final reason for the success of the ETC, "helping millions of kids have fun while learning something hard". Randy saw Alice as an opportunity of teaching through head fakes, but also an opportunity to simply help someone's educational journey by adding in some fun.


     The last topic the Randy Pausch covers is "lessons learned" where he shares a variety of advice that was given to him in the past and also tips to receive help from others. Whenever you are chasing after something you desire there are "brick walls" that are put up to hinder your path. Randy believes that every brick wall is there for us to prove how bad we want the dream. Throughout his life Mr. Pausch has faced his fair share of brick walls but even a man with such a strong level of passion as him needs people to guide him around those walls. One specific piece of advice that Randy was given that I liked the most was from Andy Van Dam. Andy once told Randy that "it was a shame that people perceive him as arrogant because it's just going to hold him back". In the same way that Randy encourages his students in ETC to take their evaluations as the first step of change, he was forced to see his faults as well. This quote from Mr. Van Dam affected me the most because he wasn't rude or disrespectful. He used constructive criticism perfectly and it was effective because it was out of care, not resentment. I think we should all use this strategy not just in the classroom but in all areas of life. We need to become better people so we can then become better teachers.