Blog Post #7

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

Watch Randy's Video.

      Randy Paush was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He gave an inspiring lecture at his university that he entitled, "My Childhood Dreams, Enabling the Dreams of Others, and Lessons Learned."This university lecture series was called "The Last Lecture," meaning speakers would give a lecture like it was to be their last. Unfortunately  for Mr. Paush, it really was. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and at the time of the lecture was only give three to six months to live. However, Mr. Paush did not want sympathy for his condition. He wanted everyone to understand that he was going to enjoy every day of life that was left to him. He had such a wonderful spirit about him. He had a beautiful way of thinking about his situation, and I think many people admire him for that. 

     Mr. Paush first focused on his childhood dreams. He talked about his happy childhood and loving parents. He showed that his strong will and determination, regardless of the constant "brick walls" put in front of him, had helped him accomplish all of his childhood dreams and then some. From his changing his occupation from professor to reporter in order to experience zero gravity, to winning huge stuffed animals from the fair, to working for Disney as an Imagineer, to learning some incredible things about himself from his coach on the football field, he never faltered in making his dreams a reality and learning from them. He had some great lessons from these experiences that he learned along the way. One in particular that I liked was, "If no one says anything anymore when you are still screwing up, then they have given up on you." Paush says to listen to your critics and take their advice because they obviously care enough to give their opinions. This is a great lesson to pass on to your students. I tell my own students when they are upset because I make them rewrite their essays or make corrections to their work, I constantly get, "Why are you making me do this?". I always tell them, " It's because I care." 

     The second part of Pausch's lecture was about enabling others' childhood dreams. Mr. Paush is obviously a great man who cared for others and truly wants to help people. He gave an example of helping one of his students obtain his dream of working on the Star Wars movies. However, he said he is all about efficiency, so he wanted to help more students than just one at a time. He then pioneered a course at his university called Building Virtual Worlds. It was a project-based course, and it was a huge success. This allowed fifty students a semester to live their dreams. Then he and another professor collaborated to create a two-year professional master's program called Dream Fulfillment Factory. This degree was so successful that they had companies such as EA Sports guaranteeing their graduates jobs. Mr. Paush also worked on numerous virtual reality projects but his "baby" was the Alice programs based on "The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland" which taught students how to write software. He calls "Alice" his legacy, and he feels blessed to be able to see that his legacy will go on. He gives a reference to Moses. He himself has seen the promise land, but he will not be able to go there. However, he is comforted by the fact that "millions of kids will have fun while learning something hard," and that is what he wants everyone to remember about all of his hard work in computer science. Isn't that a wonderful reason to be remembered? If all teachers could teach their students something difficult, and they had fun while doing it, then we could be more successful in education. I think technology is going to help us all make that possible in the very near future.

     The last part of Pausch's lecture was the life lessons he had learned. He gave some invaluable advice about helping others, caring for people, and listening to feedback. He said that life was all about having fun, and that loyalty is a two-way street.  Pausch said to apologize when you make mistakes, and don't complain, just work harder. He also said it was very important to focus on others, and he proceeded to bring in a birthday cake for his wife and lead the crowd in singing to her. That was very emotional. Pausch ended his lecture with an explanation of what he refers to as a "head fake" which is what he calls indirect learning. The first "head fake" was that the lecture he had given was not truly about how to achieve your dreams, but how to live your life. The next "head fake" was that his lecture really wasn't for the audience, but for his own three children. This may have been what he intended, however, I feel that everyone in that lecture hall as well as everyone who has watched this video will take something important away from Mr. Pausch's lecture. I think Mr. Pausch was a wonderful human being, and he will be dearly missed. I think he must have been an excellent teacher and all of his students must have affected by him. We definitely need more Randy Pausch's in the field of education!