1. Make sure you have reliable hardware.
Of course, if you don't have a reliable computer, it's difficult to do things like develop a web site or produce digital video. You should make sure your hardware is up to the technical requirements of whatever software you'll be using in the development of your site. The time you invest at the beginning of the process will save you lots of frustration later.
2. Focus on current practices.
A central piece of Charlie's course web site was simply an extension of a classroom tool with which he's already had a great deal of success—"free writes" on 3x5 cards. By focusing on ways to simply enhance your current teaching methods, you will find success.
3. Don't forget the power of redundancy and the importance of situating video examples in a classroom world that students can recognize and relate to. Segments from classrooms students have seen or they've taught in over the course of the program is important.
4. Use transcripts in class from the actual video examples they view.
Getting students involved in critically questioning what they see and
connecting what they see to their own practice is important. This is not
show and tell. This is all about aligning and forcing them to connect
and adapt what they see to their own practice at the age and grade level
and situational constraints in which they are teaching.
