Blog Post #7

The video Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams , was very inspirational to me. Randy shares many past experiences and how he became who is he today. He starts off telling us about his childhood dreams and how he strived to achieve them.

Randy taught me a lot about learning that I did not know. One of the points he points out is there is a brick wall for a reason. When people hit the brick wall, they tend to think that is the time to give up but they are wrong. Hitting a brick wall gives us a chance to show how badly we want something and how hard we will work for it. The people who give up and quit are the ones who do not want it so badly. This point really gave me motivation. I never realized that once you hit the brick wall that it is not the end but that it just means if you really want something that badly you will have to keep working for it no matter what obstacles come your way. Randy also talks about what to do when people make you angry or disappoint you. He said do not yell at the person that if you wait long enough people will almost always surprise you or impress you. That point really got me thinking.

Randy also taught me about teaching. He describes head fake learning or indirect learning which is not just learning how to play but knowing the skills it teaches you. The example he uses is him describing his childhood dream of becoming a NFL football player. He said he notices that it was not just learning how to play football but gaining the more important skills like sportsmanship, leadership, loyalty, perseverance, etc. Head fake learning is everywhere. This made me think about how this applies to students in schools. Students go to school for academics but they are learning so much more important skills like friendship, team work, responsibility, and many more. Randy also talks about setting the bar. His example was that he gave the students two weeks to work on virtual reality. He also allowed the students to pick what they wanted to do it on which I think is an important aspect because it allows the students to pick something they are interested in and be creative with it. Randy said that the performance was so good that they would get an A if they had to do this all semester. So he talks to another professor and he tells him to go in the classroom and say that was pretty good but I know you can do better. This allows the students to work harder and exceed their expectations.

I really enjoyed watching this video of Randy Pausch. It really gave me a better understanding of things and to not give up when things get tough. The video was a real inspiration to me and I know will help me in the future.