[Yr11 Information Technology] Python: Text, IDE, and version control

[Victor Rajewski]

Hi Folks,

We're planning on using python extensively through our VCE IT curriculum;
I'm trying to get some pointers from people who have taught it (or other
languages) in high school before. In particular, positive or negative
feedback about any textbooks - we have a few (paid and free) in mind, but
would like to hear any experiences.

I want to use a decent IDE - does anyone have any recommendations? At the
moment PyCharm is looking nice.

Has anyone tried using a version control system (e.g. cvs, subversion,
mercurial) with students of this age? I never even got taught that at uni,
but it strikes me as a very useful tool to have some early introduction to -
many students our year 10 class this year 'lost' lots of interesting work by
saving 'over the top' of previous edits, without any versioning. Or would
learning a system like this, at this stage, be too much overhead and
overload? Integration of a VCS into the IDE would be a necessity to make
making revisions easy.

Cheers,

Victor Rajewski
IT Manager
John Monash Science School
+61 3 9902 9828
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