Remembering Dr. Randy Pausch

This video was first passed to me soon after Dr. Pausch delivered his "Last Lecture" in September. Having been diagnosed with rather aggressive pancreatic cancer, he had months to live when he delivered the lecture, which has now been seen over 3 million times on YouTube. That's some big classroom...

Isn't amazing that today someone can leave a legacy like this to the world and their family after they're gone? It's a long video, but well worth the hour+; so check it out when you have time.

Mentioned in the video is another of his legacies, a program called Alice that is aimed at teaching high schoolers computer programming while having fun by manipulating a 3D world (middle school version TBA). I've downloaded the software and it's really quite cool. It's also a desperately needed idea. I only hope that schools around America will adopt this or other programs to bring meaning to math, science and engineering education in a way that connects with the students and inspires them to learn more.

Dr. Pausch passed away today; I hope you'll join me in honoring him by passing along these two gifts he's left for us.