Sunday, March 2, 2014

Blog post #7

      In Randy Paush's lecture he brings up many good points about not only learning, but teaching as well. When giving this lecture, Pausch was currently undergoing chemotherapy treatments. He made it a point to make sure that no one felt sorry for him or pitied him. He said that he was not only in phenomenal shape but that he was in better shape than most of the people in the audience. He then proceeded to do various types of pushups in an effort to emphasize his health.

          One of Pausch's first lessons is "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you want." What he means by this is no you may not have achieved your goal, but look back at everything you've learned on the way and apply it wherever you find fit. Pausch talks about how a childhood idol of his was Captain Kirk from Star Trek. Pausch was so attracted to Kirk because of his leadership role on he show. He talks about how, even though it was a television show, he led his team and said he wanted to have that leadership role. Pausch later goes onto talk about the figurative "brick walls" that people hit, saying that brick walls only stop people who just simply don't want it bad enough. Pausch says he was taught that everyone has good in them no matter how evil they may seem. He says "wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you".  

           When attempting to get permission from Disney to work on a project the man he spoke with quickly and aggressively pretty much said "screw you" and he was told to ask the head man in charge. When he asked the man he simply said "I'm not sure exactly what it is but I'd like to learn more about it. Pausch said that even though both men said the same thing, it was how each man answered that was most important. As a professor Pausch used numerous techniques he used to further his students' education. Two of which in particular were trickery and project based learning. Pausch told a story of students who came to him about the progress of their project. Pausch said it could be a lot better when in fact it was very good as it was but he wanted his students to surpass their own expectations. He says, as an educator, you're doing your students a disservice by setting a bar.

            

randy Pausch

You can watch the video here

3 comments:

  1. Hello! I really liked how you opened with a little background of Randy Pausch and what he was going through during the filming of this video. You seemed to have got into it with some of the examples you have provided. For instance, with the brick walls and if you really want it you will do what you have to in order to knock down those walls. That's something to think about how bad do you want it.

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  2. Good post. Though, personally, I myself didn't really care for the lecture. I just didn't feel moved by it, and I myself felt that a lot of what was taught in the lecture was stuff that I already knew from past professors and education courses. That said, I'm glad that you learned something from watching Randy Paush's lecture.

    Be sure that you include a picture, a video, or a link in your blog post.

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