Randy Pausch's Last Speech

Randy Pausch's Last Speech was wonderful. It was a great lecture to view and very interesting. His speech begins by telling of the childhood dreams that he had and how it is important to dream as a child. He went on to tell how each dream that he had was obtained and not just left behind.

I really enjoyed the "brick wall" metaphor that Randy Pausch used. He refereed to "brick walls" being the things that keep us from achieving our goals. The "brick walls", as he explains are there for a reason. They are not there to keep us out but are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. He also says the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t really want it badly enough. I completely agree with this. If someone wants something bad enough you aren't going to give up just because something is trying to come in your way.

Randy Pausch believed that being a good teacher was what made learning interesting and fun. He helped sponsor a program called the Entertainment Technology Center. It had a project based curriculum and there were no textbooks. In this program he wanted feedback from the students. It gave the students a chance to give feedback of their peers and to improve. Through this program "Alice" was created. "Alice" is a "head fake" style of teaching students to computer program. It teaches students to program while they feel they are creating virtual reality.

Randy Pausch believed it was also an important role of the teacher to learn from the students. He went on to say how he had learned some important lessons from his students and how he had gave back to them. He believed that everyone should show gratitude and be appreciative. I really enjoyed the speech and I'm very glad that I got to watch it. He gives teachers a incite on how they should respond to their students and how to succeed.