Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

Randy Pausch gave his last lecture at Carnegie Mellon on September 18, 2007. Randy Pausch was an extremely smart man who took technology in the class room to a higher level. He gave his last lecture on September 18, 2007 at Carnegie Mellon. This lecture focusses on three points: early childhood dreams, This lecture also gives insight into his teaching methods and how he applied them to his classes.
Randy Pausch always wanted to get more out of his students. A mentor told him to never tell his students that their work is good enough. He told Randy to push for more out of his students. Randy was always to tell them that they did good but could do better. This method in the classroom is valid. Students need to to learn to never settle for what is good enogh, but to always strive to do better. One agrees with this idea and wishes that more teachers would push for more quality work out of their students.
Randy Pausch also wanted to incorporate fun in learning. He wanted his students to have fun and learn at the same time. Often times students are not having fun and end up frustrated. Once frustrated they want to jus survive or give up. Students having fun will participate and retain more information than a student who is not having fun or participating. Pausch gave his class five projects to do in small groups. This was their assignment for the whole semester. His students not only learned about virtual technology but were able to apply it and use it in their project. One likes the way that Pausch stears away from the book and incorporates fun hands on learning.
These two methods described above are excellent methods that grab the students and allow them to learn and absorb information through methods that work for them and achieve a goal for the group as a whole. One believes that fun hands on work should be done in more of the classrooms as a method of teaching the students. Students who get bored or just can not get it without hands on activity are at a severe disadvantage compared to their fellow students who can just get it from lecture and memorization. Randy Pausch was an excellent speaker who made great strides in incorporating technology and classroom. His speach was very moving and lets the viewer know that they would have been truly blessed if they had been able to have him as a teacher.