As Wallace (1991) suggests, teacher education should proceed from low-risk activities (such as data collection and analysis) to higher-risk activities (such as microteaching). One such low-risk activity that has been used in teacher education is observation.  Rys (1975) pinpoints the fact that observation should help prospective teachers not only get acquainted with classroom situation, but also develop an “observational feel” and consolidate the terminology that is needed to talk about teaching and learning. Prospective teachers also learn to describe, interpret and explain observed situations based on previously learned theories (also in Seidel et al. 2009). Day (1990) writes about similar points and highlights the fact that observations help prospective teachers conceptualize “what goes on in a (second language) classroom” (p. 43).
The aim of the Videoweb project is to help the prospective teachers develop their observational and lesson analysis skills to help them prepare for their teaching practice. Videoweb is an e-learning environment that uses extracts from real classroom videos accompanied by questions, tasks, expert comments and excerpts from theoretical literature on teaching and learning. Videoweb was created as a reaction to the practical issues that arise when a lot of teacher students need to observe a real class for a number of times (e.g. teachers not willing to cooperate, class being disturbed, unnatural situation, time restrictions connected with a high number of students etc.). These reasons led to using video (on the use of video in teacher education see for example Sherin, 2004) combined with e-learning.
The design of Videoweb was guided by the notion that the functions of observation seem not to be fulfilled if there is no one to discuss what was seen with. Furthermore, in unstructured observations, when they have nothing to hold on to, nothing directs their attention to salient points in the lesson, prospective teachers can easily get lost in the complexity of the situation and may focus on rather unimportant issues (Van Den Berg, 2001). That is why guiding questions and tasks were developed together with expert comments.
There are two main research questions that we want to investigate in the study connected with the Videoweb project. First, we are interested in whether Videoweb helps to develop student teachers´ observational and lesson analysis skills. However, this research question is not the focus of the proposed poster. We would like to concentrate on the second research questions, which is connected to the acceptance of this tool among student teachers. More specifically:
1.    How do student teachers evaluate the videosequences used in the Videoweb?
2.    How do student teachers evaluate the tasks and questions connected to the videosequences?
3.    How do student teachers evaluate the expert comments and theoretical material provided?
4.    How do student teachers evaluate the work with Videoweb in general and its relevance for their studies and future professional life?
We believe these questions are important for the practical use of Videoweb in teacher education as student teachers´ acceptance of this e-learning environment is vital for their motivation to work with it.

Day, R. R. (1990). Teacher observation in second language teacher education. In J. C. Richards, & D. Nunan (Eds.), Second Language Teacher Education (pp. 43–62). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rys, S. (1975). Hospitace v pedagogické praxi. Praha: SPN. [Observation in Teaching Practice] Seidel, T., Prenzel, M., Schwindt, K., Stürmer, K., Blomberg, G., & Kobarg, M. (2009). LUV and Observe: Two Projects Using Video to Diagnose Teachers’ Competence. In T. Janík, & T. Seidel (Eds.), The Power of Video Studies in Investigating Teaching and Learning in Classroom (pp. 243–258). Münster: Waxmann Verlag. Sherin, M. G. (2004). New perspectives on the role of video in teacher education. In J. Brophy (Ed.), Using video in teacher education (pp. 1-27). NY: Elsevier Science. Van Den Berg, E. (2001). An Exploration of the Use of Multimedia Cases as a Reflective Tool in Teacher Education. Research in Science Education, 31, 245-265. Wallace, M. J. (1991). Training Foreign Language Teachers (A Reflective Approach). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.