Blog Post #6

Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture: Achieving Childhood Dreams

In this video Randy mentions the important key factors on how to be a leader, as well as a key to help others become leaders too. There are three main topics in his lecture: His Childhood Dreams, Enabling the Dreams of Others, and Lessons Learned. He begins the lecture about his childhood dreams, and the steps he took trying to achieve them. At the Carnegie Mellon University, he shows his students ways to enable others to reach their dreams through creativity; He has his students create, beyond his expectations, something exciting for others to enjoy. Last, he describes what to learn and achieve out of life, through lessons. Wanting the adults to teach the younger generation through guidance, Randy uses his own life experiences to tell a story. His lecture not only concerns childhood dreams, it is also about leadership. Along the way, to fulfillment, you will run into obstacles and learn to gain more out of life.

A brick wall is an obstacle that everyone will run into as they go through life; we do not want to teach children as this being a failure, or a bad thing to run into. Instead, Randy gives an idea that brick walls are proof of how badly you want something through dedication; “Brick walls are there to separate you from other people who really do not want to achieve their childhood dreams”, Randy mentions toward the end of the lecture as a reminder. It is important for the young generation to experience obstacles as a learning situation. Children are capable of fulfilling anything they set their minds to, and it is important for educators to let them know of this capability.

When a teacher puts a border line between improvement and what is good enough, they set students back from doing better. Teachers must know that their students are always a capable of doing better than before. Another important key factor Randy Pausch states is about enabling other childhood dreams. Children can accomplish their dreams through others achievements. As an example, “Alice” was a computer program developed to help kids learn; the “Alice” game was made through someone else’s achievements, in order to make learning more fun for kids. Randy Pausch feels if you focus on people, besides yourself, learning can become something great. Great as in, learning programs going global!

When I become an educator I will use Randy’s Techniques. By keeping their imagination open, for new creativity, my students will have an opportunity to succeed. Using technology in a classroom, to help students build their own learning games, is a great way to keep creativity intact. I would also like for all my students to fulfill leadership qualities. If they learn how to be a leader, they can teach others to become a leader as well. Towards the end Randy tells the viewers about the “head fake” of the lecture. The actual purpose was not on how to achieve your childhood dreams, but how to direct your life and others. His intention was to acknowledge adults, to pass his techniques on to the children. With this in mind, I will use his teachings to better myself as an educator for the younger generation. Another thing I will uphold from his lectures is his idea on barriers. My students and I will run into barriers that come along, together. In the end my student’s can self reflect what they learn through the help of their peers, parents, and other role models; they will all become leaders.

All in all, Randy’s last lecture was entertaining, informative, and humorous. I enjoyed how he told a life story,and made it into life lessons. I agree with all of his methods, and how important it is to keep pushing towards success. What I mostly got out of it, was the importance of creativity. To take creativity away, at a young age, can destroy a future in someone’s’ life. Obstacles are a big part of life, is another factor I got out of his lecture. Without obstacles things will be left unchanged, and no excitement for the future. This man was dying, but yet he was still having a blast in his life. He was fighting an obstacle, which made everything around him more exciting. Life has to have bumps in the road or else it would just be a boring old world. What a great lecture, by Randy Pausch!