Blog Post #10

             So it is half-way through the semester and I must say that Project Based Learning has by far changed my perspective on teaching. It has given me so many new ideas, and new way of approaching learning through technology. In this week's blog post we were to watch the video http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/ titled "Randy Pausch's Last Lecture". Randy Pausch was an inspiration for educators and students everywhere who drastically changed the way we veiw Prject Based Learning today. This video is of Randy's Last Lecture before he passed in July of 2008 due to pancreatic cancer. In this video he explains his life, beginning from his childhood dreams to his crazy career to his last life lessons. If you didn't know who Randy Pausch was before watching this video, you certainly will after.

             Randy Pausch was like any other typical child, was full of dreams and imagination. Pausch's list of childhood dreams seems to match up the untamed imagination of any child; being in zero gravity, playing in the NFL, being Captain Kirk, winning stuffed animals. Pausch also had dreams of being a Disney Imagineer, and just like any child, these come up with some huge dreams! Pausch talks about completing his list of dreams, first starting with being in zero gravity then working his way into the more...larger of dreams. Pausch received his bachelors degree from Brown University and eventually achieved his dream of becoming a Disney Imagineer.

            After competing his master and revieving his PhD from Carnegie Mellon, he began working on a project at CMU's Entertainment Technology Center called "Building Virtual Worlds". Where fifty students from CMU's art, design, and drama classes were broken up into groups and told to create a virtual world from scratch. With it being the first year a project like this had ever been attempted, Pausch did not know what to expect. However when he came back two weeks later, the work he saw blew him out of the water, it was phenomenal.

            His words in the video were, "Ten years as a professor and I had no idea what to do next." So he calls up his mentor and his mentor tells him to tell his students something out of the ordinary; he told Pausch to say, "Guys, I know this is pretty good but I know you can do better." But if Pausch was so pleased with the students work then why would he say such a thing? Well, Pausch's mentor explains to him that he obviously does not know where the bar should be, and that he would only be doing them a disservice by putting it anywhere.

          Oh how true this is. Because no bar was set, throughout the course of a semester, the students kept going and going; creating virtual worlds unlike any he'd ever seen. The video actually showed you one of his group's virtual world. Here are some screen shots.

Visit the video to see the whole thing!

         Pausch also created a masters program that consisted of five virtual reality projects with no book work involved whatsoever, all you time was spent "makin stuff." This program was called "The Dream Fulfillment Factory" and became a HUGE success. It was project based, there were bi-weekly peer evaluations so the students could see where they stood amongst classmates. Along with that, the students and the teachers were given freedom, so students were able to have fun and express themselves and really get creative to come up with some great stuff.



        From this a software for teaching how to work computers was developed by Pausch and other educators called ALICE. In this program kids can make movies and games, all while having no idea they are learning! (Also called "head fake"). Pausch created a program that has sold over a million copies and is used by 10% of colleges in the U.S. For more information on ALICE, you can go to ALICE.org.


     
            Towards the end of the video, Pausch shares the lesson learned from all of this; to never lose your childhood wonders, to help others and to never give up. He told the audience to tell the truth and be honest and apologize; and lastly to focus on others, not yourself.

           This video is just another example of Project Based Learning and how effective it is. Pausch even said it himself in the video that you learn from doing. There is so much to be learned from this video, not just that Pausch was a great man and educator, but how he changed education and how he learned through trail and error. This video also comes to show that Project Based Learning can be utilized at any grade level and has been proved so time after time. If you are to take away anything from this video, take away the idea that you can learn by having fun, and that you can learn by starting from something unfamiliar. Project based learning has limitless ideas and opens the door for so many life changing learning experiences.


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