In
Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams he discusses his life, lessons he learned, and his boyhood dreams. One of the dreams he covered was being in zero gravity. In order to achieve his dream of being in zero gravity Randy Pausch had to quit being an advisor. He applied to be a journalist because only the students and local journalists and the crew could go on the flight. This was the first time that Randy Pausch put in extra work to achieve his goal. One lesson to take from his lecture is that you must do extra work to attain goals. That was how he achieved childhood dream number one.
His second dream of playing in the NFL did not come true. He did learn fundamentals through football. On the first day of practice there were no footballs because the coach said that out of the 22 people on the field only one touches the ball at a time. So they practiced what the other 21 people did. I found that to be an important lesson. There is more going on than meets the eye. Learning must not focus on one point instead it must be a process that starts from the ground up. Another thing Randy Pausch learned in football was that when he would mess up the coach would ride him harder. This was good because the coach did not give up on him. I will remember this lesson because it is true. When a coach or a teacher pushes a student they show the student they care. I will not forget that.
He achieved two more of his dreams by being an author in the World Book Encyclopedia and he met Captain Kirk. He described how it felt to achieve his goals. He described how “meeting his boyhood idol was not as good as having your idol come meet you to see the cool things you are doing.” I noticed at this point that having someone seek you out because of the work you are doing is a true reward. I will incorporate this into the classroom by rewarding the students with more than a grade.
Another goal he described was being an imagineer. He sent applications to become an imagineer for Disney but was rejected very politely. Through an opportunity addressing the Secretary of Defense Randy Pausch was able to work with a team from Disney Imagineering. First he had to work it out with the administration at his university. He spoke to two different deans and found that there is a good and a bad way to say “I don’t know.” I will remember to always try to say things in the best possible way because of the impact it has on the receiver. I never want to discourage, I only want to encourage others.
He attained many of his childhood dreams and asked “How can he enable childhood dreams of others?” He made a course Building Virtual Worlds. It gave students the opportunity to put on shows for people using virtual reality. The students bonded through the excitement of making others excited. This gave the students experience through exciting projects. I will remember this because I find it very important to have students excited. I think that would make them want to learn.
Another thing Randy Pausch created was the Entertainment Technology Center where artists and technologists work together to build things. All they do is make things. This gives the students experience which is important for learning. Learning through experience is an idea that I will take away from this lecture. Randy Pausch stated more than once that he wanted to help lots of people. He helped many different people. He also attempted to help many people at one time. Through Building Virtual Worlds and the ETC he did accomplish that goal. I will remember to help others experience by working toward their dreams.
