Blog Assignment #6

Randy Pausch Last Lecture:
I really enjoyed watching Randy Pausch's Last Lecture. It is obvious that Dr. Pausch really enjoyed life; he only had a short time left to live and he was more optimistic than many people who are perfectly healthy. He said one thing at the beginning of is lecture that really stuck out to me, he said "experience is something you get when you don't get what you wanted". I like this quote because people often forget to look on the bright side when they do not get everything they want. The truth is, what we want might not always be what is best for us.
Dr. Pausch had three parts to his lecture: achieving his childhood dreams, helping others achieve their dreams, and lessons learned. He showed us how he achieved most of his dreams. One of his dreams was to play for the NFL. Although he never made it to the NFL, he said he learned so much more from football than he would have if he actually made it the NFL. He brought up the term "head fake", which means indirectly teaching someone something. I think "head fakes" are an extremely important part of education. Teachers can teach kids so many life lessons without the children even realizing it. In the end of his lecture, Dr. Pausch said the head fake of his lecture was that it's not about how to achieve your dreams, it's about how to live your life. His lecture did show us how to live an amazing life.
Dr. Pausch discussed a course he taught for ten years called building virtual worlds. He let the students have the freedom of coming up with their own ideas. He admitted that the students blew him away the first time he saw their virtual reality world, however, he also told them that he knew they could do better next time. This is a crucial key to teaching. Teachers should encourage children by telling them they did a good job, but at the same time, push them to do better. Dr. Pausch was pushing his students to take it to the next level and be even more creative.
I really enjoyed watching his last lecture. It is very sad that such a wonderful and inspirational man left the world so early. It is clear to see that Dr. Randy Pausch lived a very fulfilling life in his short time here. His last lecture has inspired millions of people since he recorded it. Dr. Pausch will continue to live on through that video.