Post #8- Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture is truly inspiring. It was one of the most enjoyable lectures I have ever watched. You could tell that he was a man who loved his job and the responsibility he had as an educator. He did his last lecture knowing he only had a short time left to live. He could have been spending time with his family, but he chose to take the time to teach. That is true dedication. He dedicated his life to educating people in a way that made learning fun and interesting.

What Can We Learn About Teaching and Learning From Randy Pausch?

At Carnegie Mellon University Randy Pausch taught students the importance of working with a group, being creative, sharing their work, and doing their absolute best.
Randy decided not to take the traditional teaching route, he decided to think outside of the box. He gave his students assignments that stretched them to the max, he made them want to be the best that they could be. As a teacher, that is what I would want to do for my students; not let them settle for good if they can be great. I want to be like Randy Pausch and give my students the opportunity to choose where they take their education. I want to motivate them to go the extra mile and not to give up just because something is hard.
Pausch says in his last lecture that "helping millions of kids have fun while learning something hard" is the professional legacy he would like to leave with Alice. What a great legacy to leave. Knowing that the subject that he teaches is hard, he came up with a way to make it fun. This way students will not mind all of the work that they have to put into a project, because they actually want to do it and enjoy it. To him teaching was not just about teaching students from a textbook, it about finding a way for students to learn and also enjoy themselves while doing so.

Randy Pausch is an excellent example of a life-long learner. He also dedicated his life to furthering his education. Without directly saying so in his last lecture, he tells about his own personal learning network. He had mentors who pushed him to further his education and he was constantly researching new ideas. Randy always had fun and he strongly believed that learning should be fun. That is the one of the most important things I could have learned from his lecture. Learning can be enjoyable if you approach it the right way with the right attitude.