I remember seeing Dr. Pausch on Oprah when this story first hit the nation. My wife and I watched the interview and were very moved by his story. In the next day or two, I blocked off some time and watched the last lecture online. I remember being impacted by it then, and it impacted just the same watching again, some years later.
The driving question for this assignment was "What can we learn about teaching and learning from Randy Pausch?" There are a few things that I think Dr. Pausch focuses on that can answer this question. The obvious one is that he teaches in a strictly PBL format. He pioneered a course at his University which took PBL to a whole other level. He would assign groups, a project would be due in 2 weeks, he would shuffle groups, rinse and repeat. He made a point that his mentor told him that he didn't know "where the bar was" when it came to the quality of work to expect from his students. I think that is an amazing perspective. In a world of learned helplessness, it is essential we give our students the opportunities to fly.
Dr. Pausch also took the approach of a life long learner. He was always looking for the indirect, or "head fake", lessons in his everyday encounters. He took risks and allowed his students to do the same. Every brick wall presented an opportunity. It was almost as if sometimes he taught in order to learn himself. I think that Dr. Pausch showed that teaching and learning are interconnected.
Hi Kyle! This was a great post. I agree that it is very important to give your students the opportunity to fly. They are so much more capable than many people, including teachers, think. "He took risk and allowed his students to due the same." Due should be do. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Brooke! I fixed the typo.
DeleteGood, but I would have liked to see you talk more about some of his other points, like what a brick wall means.
ReplyDeleteI think watching this video was one of my favorite assignments when I took the class. I learned a lot from it.