Although Ogbuji's "A survey of XML standards" presumed too much background information, it gave me a clear description on the process by which certain coding practices become standards. And his article thoughtfully gathered different standards communities together and described their different standards-making processes one-by-one. This is a useful tool for anyone who would like to know what goes in behind the scenes.
I strongly believe that I am learning more from actually doing the labs, and not that much from the readings. When I follow Evgeny's labs step-by-step, and actually do the work, then I understand the material.
There is an old Chinese proverb on learning that goes: "To hear is to forget. To see is to remember. To do is to understand." I think these learning principles can still be applied to learning 21st century programming languages! I would like to see LIS 2600 developed such that there is very little reading, but longer and richer screencasts, with more complicated labs.
I am in the same boat with you. I learned a lot from doing a lab activity than reading articles. However, every activity has its own role for me after 10 weeks. Reading materials give me introductory information, the lecture summarizes or defines what I read previously, and a lab activity confirms what I learned. I think that ideal order of activities is a lecture, a lab and then reading materials because I will learn thoroughly.
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