Randy Pausch was a Carnegie Mellon computer science professor. He was asked to give a final lecture at the university due to a terminal pancreatic cancer diagnosis. His moving presentation was entitled, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams ." He offered the audience lessons learned and advice on how to achieve your career and personal goals. Dr. Pausch died of pancreatic cancer at age 47 (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008) leaving behind a wife and three young children. (NY Times, July 26, 2008)
This lecture by Dr Pausch was the most captivating and inspiring video I have been assigned all semester. His attitude resonates that ‘anything is possible’ with adequate effort, dreaming and patience. As future educators, we must embrace the mentality that Dr. Pausch is promoting.
One aspect Dr. Paush promoted was that both teaching and learning should be fun to be most effective. Educators should be leaders who promote positive communication with their students. Specifically, what vibe you put out, will be the same vibe your students push back. By being positive and open to trying new ideas, we can provide the proper knowledge and education for our future generation. The idea of letting a child paint his own room whatever color they prefer instills an open exchange of ideas between the adult and child. This exchange should also be present in a classroom, to some extent, in order to inspire new ideas in both students and educators.
In addition, Dr. Pausch reminded me that it is important to create a teaching atmosphere in which my students can become self-reflectant. By working on projects that are collaborative, my students will be able to discuss and revise their approaches to a task or project. Encountering conflict throughout a group lesson will force the student to either adjust their incorrect method or better understand why their tactic is correct. Expressing one’s individuality is important, but experiencing a discussion of new ideas while working together will better strengthen their educational journey and create a healthy sense of community.
Finally, this lecture reinstated that basic fundamentals cannot be forgotten in the future of education philosophies. Obviously, teaching philosophies are evolving as we learn more information and gain access to new technologies. However, Dr. Pausch reminds us that the fundamentals of education must be in place for education to be effective, but, in addition, there should be enough flexibility in our teaching strategies to allow for new ideas and opportunities to be integrated. So many educational advantages await for our use. These advantages hope to lift students into a world of imagination and reality all at once, thereby creating a more effective learning process.
I only discuss three inspiring aspects of Dr. Pausch’s lecture in this blog: teaching with openness and enthusiasm, promoting group reflection in the learning process, and allowing flexibility in our fundamental strategies. However, I carried many more education and life lessons with me after viewing his last lecture to Carnegie Mellon. Its always disappointing to know we’ve lost this kind of an individual with such a pioneering educational mentality that he has clearly applied to both his classroom and his life.
Hello Brantly! I feel like I learned more about the video from reading your post! Well done. You put this video in a new perspective and I you were able to express this video in words that I could not transfer from my mind to the keyboard. My favorite part of the video was when he talked about fun and education and how those two go hand in hand. It is such a relief to hear such a influential educator say this. Because after all we are used to the "stick-in-the-mud" teachers. Pausch certainly is a legacy and his affect on education will continue to cause a ripple effect throughout today's modern world.
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