I have read through the statements of many of the participants with great interest and am looking forward to the weekend.

However I shuddered when I read several references to "minimally edited" representations of teaching.  Just as "easy writing makes cursed hard reading," so too does minimal editing make for difficult viewing.  

I feel strongly that media representations of teaching must be highly produced with superb audio (television is radio with pictures, after all).  In the end, this will be much cheaper---on a per repeated use basis--than any other approach.

Most of the media representations of teaching that I have seen have been minimally edited and shot with one stationary camera. Perhaps this is done for reasons of cost or because of the fear that a cameraman moving around the classroom will be disruptive.  Other supposed media representations of teaching have not represented teaching at all but consist of an adult looking into the camera and talking at the viewer.

One writer on the website calls exemplary lessons "rare birds."  While that may be accurate, it makes it all the more important that those lessons be captured on tape, edited to guide viewers, and layered with the commentary of the teacher in question.

Should media representations of teaching be a 'buffet' for 'just in time' use?  Absolutely!  Those are the teachable moments for teachers.

Regarding point of view, one writer referred to the importance of having what he called "teacher perspective video."  I agree that the produced video should at various times show the audience what the teacher is looking at (shot from behind the teacher), but the CRUCIAL teacher perspective will be AUDIO, the teacher's reflections on what happened, what she was trying to do, and so on.

I would add that they should also be 

1. short--no more than 10 minutes

2. fun to watch

3. both thought- and discussion-provoking

4. tightly focused on a specific activity, whether it is managing a classroom discussion, finding the area of an irregularly-shaped four-sided figure, or handling conflict.  The goal is to spotlight an outstanding technique, not an individual teacher.

The best media representations of teaching will provoke this response in the minds of the audience: "I could do that!"