What makes a good educational website?

I have been writing an article recently about 24/7 learning and why I think more teachers need to develop their own websites so that students can keep continuing their learning out of school. One of the most interesting things that I have found as I researched the article is that it is really difficult to actually find good, useful advice about what actually makes a good educational website. People are very quick to tell you what is NOT good in a web site and what does not work but there is precious little information about what should be appearing on youre site. That is the sort of article that I feel that I should be writing but I am finding it very difficult as I am not sure that I am expert enough to be able to know. I am a geography teacher who dabbles. I dont know much about web design, i cant speak HTML or SQL or .net, I could't even tell you how to put a web counter onto your page.

My view is that the internet is here to help communication. Yet, sometimes the communication between teacher and student is not as it should be. The internet should allow more communication, advice and online learning nut is it? Students are more technically enabled. They use YouTube, MySpace, Bebo and other social networking sites as places to meet and share social information - how can we encourage these communities of learners to engage in learning rather than socially? Is it the content of our courses, our sites, our teaching that is letting us down or is it the way that we attempt to communicate?