"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? Every, every minute?"
-- Thornton Wilder, Our Town

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Blog Assignment 7

"Randy Pausch's Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"

First of all, I adored Mr. Pausch's attitude. He was in such good spirits and didn't want anyone's pity. He had a purpose to be there and did was he was suppose to do. I think it was important that he began with talking about some of his own childhood dreams. It makes what he's going to talk about easy to relate to. I loved when he told about Coach Graham riding him all practice. I really believe what the other coach said. When someone stops getting on to you, it means they've given up. It's important to instill in children that we believe in them no matter what. I also like his take on "head fake" learning. A 6 year old boy doesn't know he's learning teamwork or communication skills when you send him onto a football field. He just knows he gets to hit people and get away with it. It's sneaky, but it works. I also agree with what Mr. Pausch says about brick walls. They aren't there to stop you, only make you work harder.

I also like the way he taught the VR course. I love that 50 students were randomly over all departments. When you're put in a new environment with people you don't know and you're forced to work with them, I think you grow as a person. I like the method that teams swapped up every two weeks as well. It forces you to get out of your comfort zone. The people you just became accustomed to are no longer with you and you have to find out other people's strengths and weaknesses.

I like the way they did the ETC Masters' Degree. It was solely based on hands learning. That is, in this field, the best way to get a grasp on what you're learning. I also like the bar chart that shows where you stand against your other classmates. When he refers back to the "head fake" with the Alice program, I love that he uses this approach to teach kids. Teaching them computer programming is incredibly difficult and if you can ,like I said before, almost trick them into learning it, I think they learn so much more. They aren't in sense forced to do the work, it becomes fun.

 When he spoke about the people in his life who helped him, you could hear the respect he had for them, even though he was joking. I don't think we realize all of the people that help us along the way. I agree with him also when he says to never lose the childlike wonder. Kids are so open and so innocent. They don't look at things with prejudices and boundaries like we do. They see something they want to do and go for it. They honestly don't have a care in the world. Overall I enjoyed this lecture so much. I thought it was amazing. As I said before I admire Mr. Pausch's attitude so much. He truly touched the world and left behind an amazing legacy.






     
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1 comment:

  1. I also think that brick walls are not to hinder but to make you work harder to get to your goal. If you can make it fun of course children are going to learn things faster and more willingly any body would do something they do not find boring.

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