here is a VERY nice article online that describes the process of creating a high-value educational website: Telling an Old Story in a New Way: Raid on Deerfield.

there is lots of great information in here, but something that is perhaps most striking is the essential role of COLLABORATION: unlike academic publishing, which puts a high premium on the individual work of the solitary scholar, a website benefits from the diversity of skills and knowledge that a group can provide. here's how the Deerfield site got started:

Challenge 1: Collaboration
Our first challenge was to create a collaboration that would include the diverse perspectives of five different cultural groups. We began by assembling a planning team that included a core team of Native American and non-Native American scholars; a historian-in-residence; an award-winning interactive media designer specializing in history and humanities Web sites; a well-known French Canadian illustrator; a programmer responsible for site architecture, programming, and database structure; and a project manager with extensive experience in interactive multi-media training and project administration.

You can see the Deerfield website here:
http://www.1704.deerfield.history.museum/

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Posted by Laura Gibbs to OU...Online at 6/23/2004 09:27:15 AM