Blog Post #8

What Can We Learn about Teaching and Learning from Randy Pausch?

I really enjoyed listening to Randy Pausch's Last Lecture. He was an extremely inspiring human being and professor, and I applaud him for the many accomplishments he made during his lifetime. He was a very influential person, which can clearly be seen in his Last Lecture video. I was in awe of how encouraging and passionate Pausch was throughout the entire lecture. His love for teaching, learning, and Carnegie Mellon was very evident. During his lecture, he shared all of the dreams he had as a child, ranging from playing in the NFL to becoming a Disney Imagineer.

I was very inspired by the story he shared about his NFL dream. Pausch never made it to the NFL, unfortunately, but he learned so much through his football career. One quote that stuck out to me from Pausch's lecture was, "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." Although playing football didn't take him to the NFL like he had originally hoped, he learned teamwork, perseverance, and the importance of fundamentals. I think all three of these things relate to learning in a huge way. Teamwork is an important skill for everyone to learn. Whether it's on a group project or in the work place, it is important to know how to be a team player. Perseverance is another extremely important factor when it comes to learning. I felt very inspired after listening to Randy Pausch discuss his triumphs and "brick walls." No matter how many times Pausch was told "no," he simply viewed it as a way to show his dedication and kept going. After Pausch graduated from Carnegie Mellon, he sent his applications off to Walt Disney Imagineering. He ultimately received rejection letters, but he chose to use that "brick wall" as a way to show how badly he wanted it and was willing to work. Pausch said, "The brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough." He proved he was not one of "those people" when he began working on Disney Imagineering's Aladdin project. I believe perseverance is key in teaching and learning. As future educators, it is important that we push ourselves and our students to be better everyday. With learning, we should not limit our students to what we think they should know. We should be that driving force for them to learn more and more each day. I enjoyed the story Pausch shared about his first year teaching the Building Virtual Worlds course. He gave his class an assignment related to Virtual Reality, and the students had two weeks to complete the project. When the two week deadline was over, Pausch was blown away by the work his students were able to create. But rather than applauding the class for their work, he told them it was "pretty good, but you can do better." The students' projects continued to improve throughout the semester, because Pausch did not set a bar for his students to shoot for. He let them determine how far they could go, and the success demonstrated through the projects was extremely inspiring.

Pausch also mentioned how to handle self-reflection and feedback during his lecture, both of which we are currently learning in EDM310. It is important to be able to honestly reflect on our own work, so we can improve ourselves as teachers and learners. It is equally important to view feedback as a positive tool in teaching and learning. Pausch discussed how we should get a "feedback loop" and listen to it. We should cherish and use all of the feedback given to us as a way to make corrections going forward. Overall, I learned a lot by watching Randy Pausch's Last Lecture. He was a very intelligent man who has impacted and inspired many, including myself.