Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

I really enjoyed Randy Pausch's Last Lecture. I have seen him a couple of times on t.v. doing interviews and was glad I had the opportunity to watch his lecture. He seemed to be such an intelligent and strong individual. I liked how he used his life experiences to reach out to his audience.

The main teaching technique that I picked up on was his idea of having fun. He stated how you can get students interested and learn the "hard stuff" if you give them a fun way to learn it. Basically, make it relevant. He used the example of middle school girls writing computer programs. He said they were able to learn it when he asked them to write stories. The head fake was that they were learning how to write computer programs.

Another technique was his use of technology in the class and small group projects. He divided his class of 50 students into groups and had them use technology to learn. Every project they had a different group, so they had the opportunity to work with and learn from different people. He had many really good ideas. His impact on the students and the university was great.

It's really sad that such an intelligent and creative person passed away. I really enjoyed seeing how he succeeded in making his dreams come true. My favorite quote was "experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." This was a long video but completely worth the time.