Blog Post #7

Randy Pausch was professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He was born on October 23, 1960, and was known around the world, for developing the "Entertainment Technology Center"(ETC) graduate program, at  Carnegie Mellon. He traveled throughout the country lecturing about the ETC. Despite being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer(giving him 3 to 5 months to live), he never slowed, in his quest to promote his ideas and beliefs.
On September 18, 2007 Randy Pausch gave, what became known as the "last lecture". In this lecture he spoke about his childhood dreams and how he lived to follow them. He spoke of bricks, that we all encounter when we want something, and how they are there for a reason. In his analogy he explains, that brick walls are there, to prevent or weed out the people, who really don't want something bad enough. He called them, the other people.
Mr. Pausch also spoke of teaching techniques he learned, to further his career in both life and in the classroom. He spoke of always having something to bring to the table. He says when you do, people are always willing to listen. He also spoke of communicating on the professional level. He used an example of the word "no", and two different scenarios, with his immediate boss and his Dean. His boss upset him with his use of the word, and his Dean completely restoring his faith, in his abilities, with the same word. Mr. Pausch goes on to explain why he never instituted the bar rule(setting a bar to measure students achievements). He stated when you set a bar for achievements, you are basically putting a cap on your students abilities to expand. He explains, you never know how far a student can achieve, so let them set the bar, not you.
Mr. Pausch created the ETC to help pioneer the virtual world of technology. To further his cause, he entered into a contract with the the people at Disney, who were already secretly working on virtual technology. His objectives in creating the curriculum for ETC was, for students to just make stuff. The whole Master Degree program consisted of 5 projects. No book-reading, just projects through virtual worlds. He called the curriculum " the dream fulfillment factory".

The most important thing Mr.Pausch spoke about was the "head fake" teaching technique. He explains how he hopes one day, kids will learn how to write programs by playing a game. He explains, that the easiest way to get a kid to learn, is to make whatever your objection is,  look like a game, instead of a lesson plan. He called this the head-fake. It's the same as on the football field. Kids will be learning something fun, and not know, that they are programming. Mr.Pausch stated that a newer project called "Alice", would take the same learning technique, to the middle schools. There, they will be making music video games, story telling games, and  writing software, without even knowing it. Mr. Pausch added that because of his illness, he won't see all of his dreams come true. But like Moses, he has been able to take a peek into the future. Mr. Pausch continued to work vigorously, to educate and enlighten people about the possibilities, of virtual world education. Unfortunately, he passed away on July 25, 2008, ten(10) months, after the so-called "last lecture".