First Session Shadowing

Intro:

Our group had its first shadowing session at the Metropolia University of Applied Science in an electrical course at noon in the 17^th of April 2012. The members of our group are Othman Fallatah, Khalid Alfaris and I Nawaf Almzaini.  As been arranged for us we met Mr. Adel the session coordinator at the front desk in the main building in the Metropolia UAS. He was very cooperative and helpful. Then we went to classroom where the session was held. We didn't have enough time to meet the professor before the session started because he came couple minutes late. It was a computer based electrical engineering lab. The students have an access to it using their electronic tokens, and there were about 12 students at most. To tried to take seats in the back to leave the front ones for the students. The professor told the students he will speak in English because of us. The lesson was very short. It was about 35 minutes and after that we had the chance to discus many issues and ask many questions with professor at the end of the class. He was very friendly, cooperative, and helpful. Finally we thanked the professor and the other and just left.   

My personal reflect:

I will start with the session method of teaching directly since the date, time, and place were mentioned above.

First I would like to talk about the environment of the class. It was a computer based electrical lab divided into columns, right and left, and there were two seats in each one. Each student has a computer and there were shared electrical tools.

Second I would like to talk about the teaching method the professor followed and applied during the session. There was no introduction in the beginning of the session; he started directly with explaining some electrical designing code. The outcomes of the subject were unclear to our group the beginning since it wasn't clear to us what the lesson is. We as group tried to figure everything out, but there was only some explanation for a code of an electrical design about 35 minutes. After that the professor finished and asked the students to complete their work. So it seemed to us in the beginning that the session was typically a behavioral, since the students didn't interact with professor during the session.

We as group notice that the professor didn't relate the session to any sort of previous one. But the students seemed to know what it was all about. We felt that the class was arranged mainly for our group. In my opinion it was a very typical lecture. The professor explains some materials when he or she finishes asks the students if they have some questions, and then the session ends.  

In fact the lab was well organized and has almost all the technological and learning materials the professor may need. And it was very appropriate for the students, and of the thing I have noticed as I mentioned above that each a student have and access to the class using their electrical tokens. I noticed that because my master dissertation was about gathering information about certain University or an Institute and designing a database program in order to help that University to improve its learning process. This information can be gathered using such tokens when facilities and students attend lectures and sessions.    

After having enough time discussing the session's documentation with the professor, I noticed that he prepared well for the course in general. One of the things I liked about it is the grading system he used to evaluate each student.

The students have a project to accomplish by the end of the semester. They work as group of four students. There will be a grade of 40 for the group when they finish. So each student will have a grade of 10 if they get the full mark. But if one of them doesn't work or help the group at all they have to tell the professor before the grading takes place, so they would not lose the grade of the fourth member. But instead the full grade would by divided by three.

In general I have enjoyed the shadowing session and I think I have added some experience to mine. For me it is something new to be shadowing in a different culture of mine and compare it to it. I have noticed that we have different cultures but still learning is the same in concept and different in applying.