Some organization.

Javascript boot camp above is a useful reference.

Don't feel like you need to learn/watch everything immediately. A:
Nothing is immediately necessary. B: You have other work. C: it's
better (for your mind) to learn things over time.

NOT YET SURE WHICH UI WE WILL USE!!!! Don't get too entrenched yet, just learn the basic javascript/ajax. Heck, I don't even know CSS yet.
http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/ Program in java, end up with
javascript and ajax. Looks like I might not end up needing to learn Ajax
after all... or does this just do the GUI. (This might also be useful for learning how to create a GUI in javascript by writing one in java.)



http://code.google.com/apis/gears/ Enable web applications to work while
offline. The Google license is nice. (If integrated into a
blackboard replacement students could download copies of all their
asignments and wouldn't be forced to log in).


http://www.craftysyntax.com/help/ The help system Aleksandr uses.

http://yuiblog.com/blog/2007/01/24/video-crockford-tjpl/
Good 30 minute lectures on javascript... each one is effectively a class
so you might not have time, but he teaches some interesting things.


NOTE: WE MAY OR MAY NOT GO WITH GOOGLE GEARS... SO JUST SEE HOW EASY
THIS IS TO LEARN FOR NOW, NOT WORTH MORE THAN 15-20 minutes of your
time.
http://www.evotech.net/blog/2007/05/beginning-ajax-using-the-yui-library/
Beginning ajax using the YUI library.


http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/ There's also a lightweight GUI skin
called SAM that's included and Yahoo can host the whole package for
you. It uses sprites so loading one 16 by 16 gif (or even an 8 by 8
sprite) can be responsible for loading 3/4 of the program... that
makes it really fast. (Not necessary for the scope of the project,
just try it once... if you fall in love, go for it, if it takes too
much time, drop it and one of us will create the UI.)

http://yuiblog.com/blog/2007/05/23/in-the-wild-20070523/
Beginning ajax using the YUI library (start here if you want to try
above). YUI CSS GRIDS has the potential
to give you more control.

http://www.dynamicajax.com/fr/JSON_AJAX_Web_Chat-271_290_324.html
Ajax web chat, the first thing I'd like to create.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mygosuclan/ Anyway, there's some tools for PHP debugging, a simple javascript text editor, a document management system using web 2.0 and ajax, and a game of tetris... etc.

http://jszen.blogspot.com/ A javascript only app... interesting little calendar.

http://www.hunlock.com/blogs/Mastering_JSON_(_JavaScript_Object_Notation_)
My take on JSON, let's hope I'm right: JSON basically creates and object with named properties referenced by dot notation. Let's say I create a sheet. Within that sheet I create a property called "header" and say "header" = "?head?This is the header?/head?" then Sheet1.header would return the string "?head?This is the header?/head?" At least that's what I get from this. You just make, then pass the object, and use the dot notation to get it's properties.
It's parsed by being run to create the object.