Blog Post #7

Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture

My heart was beating faster than normal as Randy Pausch's astounding last lecture came to a close, with so many things resounding in my head. I want to do better. I want to be better. And not for the good of myself.

But this Blog Post isn't about that. It's about the techniques Mr. Pausch used in his lecture. Here is not where I say "Well, he used a powerpoint and some visuals..." No. The first technique of his that stood out to me was his organization. Now, when I say that, think of an ordinary conversation between you and your friends. Not your aqauintances. Your friends, and while we're imagining, imagine your best friends. The conversation is rather flee-flowing, correct? None of it seems planned or premeditated; the talking simply happens. It's natural, as all conversations between friends should be. Likewise, Randy Pausch's speech is natural. Yes, we know he's conversing with an audience and not his best friends, and yes, we know that his speech is in fact premediated. Notwithstanding, he presents it in a fashion that appears flee-flowing and natural, which is how speeches and lectures should be conducted. There's no stiffness. Yes, he stumbles here and there with a word or two... but who doesn't? The thing is, we don't concentrate on that. He picks himself right up and keeps going.

From the aforementioned we can assume that Randy Pausch did a lot of planning, which is another technique behind his wondrous lecture. Although everythinjg seems natural, the slides, pictures, stories and examples are there for a reason. He didn't just present them in his presentation in the order which he located them or thought of them. Everything in a lecture must planned and exact. It's not an accident.

A third technique of Randy Pausch's is his confidence. Yes, he is a college professor with years upon years of public-speaking experience under his belt, and yes he has numerous friends, and yes he is exuberant, funny, entertaining, likeable... wait a minute. Did he get like this over night? No. He spoke. You know, I must interject here that to do good things does not take rocket science. How do writers write so well? They write. How to do runners run so well? They run. How do speakers speak so well? They speak. If you want to gain confidence with speaking... the answer's simple. Speak! Get in front of a mirror, your brother, sister, best friend, boyfriend, girlfriend, puppy, etc. And speak. You will gain confidence. Randy Pausch has confidence, not because he was born with far more than just adequate speaking skills, but because he did it time and time again. We all want to listen to a confident person.

And lastly, I want to mention one more technique Randy Pausch used. He made us think. Think about brick walls, think about that "the best of the gold is at the bottom of barrels of crap," and that being valuable is being good at something. He didn't just spoon-feed us a lot of statistics, graphs and facts. He made us really think, which is what a lot of our assignments in EDM310 are stressing for us to learn how to teach our students. We don't want them to just know things. Anybody can know something. We want them to come up with their own revelations and ideas.

One more thing I'd like to mention. I have a childhood dream of my own. It's to write a book and get it published. Ever since I was a small child I wrote, whether it was a five-page book about pancakes (then spelled 'payunkayks' by yours truly) when I was 5, a 100-page book when I was 14, and now a work-in-progress-novel which is currently over 70,000 words long. It's speeches like Randy Pausch's which make my dream seem a little less like a dream, and more like a reality. Thank you Randy.