Perhaps you have heard of "some faculty member" giving "some last lecture" on something or other that has become quite a phenomenon on the internet and education circles. That person happened to be a very popular professor, Randy Pausch, who was on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon. He was diagnosed with incurable pancreatic cancer and he has sadly since passed away. As you may know, the concept of asking faculty to reflect hypothetically on what they would say if had the chance to give one last lecture has been a faculty development exercise that has been used for awhile. The last lecture became a fact of life for Randy Pausch and he gave it at Carnegie Mellon, and the reprised it on Oprah.
The original lecture has been downloaded millions of times and runs about an hour and 16 minutes and is worth the time to watch in your spare time. As Randy gives his last lecture on life and realizing childhood dreams there are many things he said that I found to be quite thought provoking and inspirational and gave me the chance to compare and contrast his viewpoint to my own. Of course, I found out that I can always do more to breathe life into my teaching so students accomplish even more than I could have ever imagined. I hope you will benefit from watching it, too. Oh, and have a kleenex at the ready as you may shed a tear or two during the lecture.
The full original lecture can be found on YouTube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo
The reprised lecture he gave on Oprah can be viewed at:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8577255250907450469
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