This is such an important topic: when teachers go online to view videos, do they come away with a deep understanding of the topic or with simply the activity for the day?  Building in an opportunity for reflection while still allowing teachers to get what they need to teach their classes and get on with their lesson design in short order is a difficult problem.  You have stated an important problem, I am wondering what some of the initial ideas are that you are exploring.

Very interesting.  On the basis of 20+ years' experience with online learning, it is not surprising to me that few of your teachers want to post.  1 in 20 is not a bad ratio!

   BUT:  One thing that can overcome some of the barriers or resistance to online interaction is face-to-face relationships amogn some of the participants.  The reality of those direct contacts helps translate into some more activity on line. 

    This leads me to one other thought, whch is the power of having teachers getting together to learn and discuss the videos — during a faculty meeting, or in some other more informal setting — where people can help each other notice things, chew ideas over, and debate about what they're seeing.  

Hi Brian, thanks so much for taking the time to leave feedback. Indeed, we have found in our interviews that one of the barriers to participation is that the teachers feel anonymous and don't know others.  Quite a few teachers, however, said that they had no problem discussing and even critiquing the videos with their peers in their physical school buildings. Sherin and Van Es' (e.g., 2008) work on video clubs was very influential in this study and falls right in line with your point. Ultimately we hope that our investigation will result in an online solution that replicates the level of productivity and learning that we see in the face-to-face discussion of videos so that we can help teachers who might not have the option of meeting with other teachers face-to-face. 

I just joined VLC and viewed a few videos so that I would have a better understanding of the content.  What a wonderful resource of teachers sharing their everyday lessons. I can understand reluctance in posting videos and/or comments.  How do you intend to use the posted comments and discussions in your research? 

This collection of videos seems like an amazing resource with lots of potential! Do the videos have focus questions or suggestions about what to observe with respect to teacher moves or understanding student thinking? 

I think Brian's suggestion about other settings in which the videos could be used (staff meetings; PD sessions) is really interesting.