I am interested to pick up web development,
however most of the materials I found on the web are commentary
blog posts and technologies
more or less publicizing the author or developer,
gossip or industry news?
is there any good site for learning development?
i kind of don't like video tutorials
Then pick up a book and learn. Either way, I can tell you, you learn little until you get involved in real projects trying to fulfil real customers' requirements.
That's why learning on the job is critical; That's why Industrial attachment has its value when exercised properly.
You can set a target on what you want to achieve, looking at what is currently available in online. For example, you a very rich in graphic designed site, and you can try to code one yourself. But you will need really good motivation to do it, because you are not satisfying any real demand.
One thing I must admit is, very few graduates will come into the industry with experience that is of real value since those experience are not fire tested. What we want is tested experience that are mature, as such, training on the job provide such opportunity.
What you can do is read more books on technologies and development of all sorts. Web developing a very broad subject. I recommend you download the Zite or Flipboard iOS or Android application, get yourself exposed to technologies. Also consider reading articles in engadget, macrumors, hardwarezone, yahoo, and so forth to enrich your knowledge in technologies.
Your foundation in computing should be enriched during your study your institute. Take up other courses that offer breadth instead of just depth. Try out actual technologies like PHP, Scala, Perl, Java, Node.js, Javascript and stuffs.
When doing projects, or exercises, do more than just the necessarily requirement. Try add wings to it outside of your deliverables as enhancement. Use existing technologies to add on more feature. It's easier to enhance something than to create from scratch at times. The baseline of the project will give a good starting point.
Mobile industry is flourishing and still growing, reach out into this part of the world. Distributed computing is real stuff, get to know them.
I fully agree and have always advocated in my uni days that computing is nothing more than breaking down your thoughts into steps that can be executed. When approaching a problem, always try to nail down what would you have done if you have consider each steps clearly and visualize that in your brain.