Randy Pausch- Last Lecture

There is no way someone can watch Randy Pausch's Last Lecture and not feel as if they are a part of what he is speaking about. I was blown away by this presentation and I was engaged the entire time. This man is one of those that people will remember for a very long time. The point of this lecture was, "If you only had one lecture to give, what would it be?". He structured it by going over his childhood dreams, reaching childhood dreams, how to enable the dreams of others, and lessons learned through time while doing this.

He made several wonderful points about how to achieve ones dreams. He says to work on the fundamentals. This is something that helps us put goals into perspective and reach them one day. Another thing he mentioned was the possibility and idea of failing and what it really means to make a mistake or not necessarily reach a desired goal. Randy Pausch said, "experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted". I have always felt this was true. Like Pausch, I had dreams growing up and one of them was to play soccer for a college team. There were brick walls for me as well. There was no girls team like I had wanted to play on, so I tried out for a boys team and learned how to cope with constant struggle and got the knack for beating the odds. I also made some of the most loyal friendships I've ever had to this day. My experience led me to become a desired recruit once I transferred to girls teams. I played soccer for the University of South Alabama and had one of the best experiences of my life.

Another thing that Randy Pausch mentioned that really grabbed my attention was something that he learned from a man named John Snoody. He said, "if you wait long enough people will always surprise you." I think this is a very important quote to live by and teach to others in life as well as in academics. He also had a story about setting the bar which interested me. In this story, his students went far and beyond what he expected after their first assignment and he realized that he obviously didn't know where the bar should be, so he didn't do them an injustice by putting one there. Instead, he let the students break their own barriers and told them that they could always do better. I think this applies to classrooms today, in a very big way.

As he wrapped up the lecture, Pausch went over some lessons that he thought others should remember and stick by. He reminded people to, "never lose their childlike wonder, help others, loyalty is a two way street, never give up, get people to help you, be honest, be earnest, apologize, and to focus on others". I think that many of these lessons are not only ways to help others reach their dreams, but also ways to lead a life. I also think that if used collaboratively and efficiently, these ideas could bring more students to success by the way that they deem it, not by the way others deem it. That is the point many are trying to make about the way our educational systems are set up today. They try to tell people what they should do to become what they think is possible, but who are THEY to set the bar in this aspect?

Finally, I'd like to say that enabling millions of kids to have fun while learning something hard, without letting them know they are learning something difficult- that is key when incorporating technology into the classroom. It is necessary for the teacher to be tech literate enough to allow creativity to spawn more learning- this is what lets students push the bar higher for themselves.