In my honest opinion everything in Computers world has a lifecycle, and in this case, Java Oracle is providing this lean featured Java releases because they are running out of ideas to implement for the JCP. Java soon will have to enter in the Maintenance only and not give new features, so it means it may soon disapear from Enterprises and Education levels (maybe like in 3 years).

Probably then they are switching to Unity due to the schedule?

Actually, have you tried playing out with Google App engine? It brings to the table a host server for your Django application at very low cost. It also allows you to integrate your application with google user managment. Why to use? Well, for me, it is for low cost hosting for Django Applications, but for business it can be really interesting as there is somebody taking care of the infrastructure while they only need to care about the application itself.

Have you thought on Gobby? It is easily downloaded from Ubuntu. It has sintax highlight for some languages and it is very easy to set up. The SVN Server is also a good idea, but the students should learn to configure the server. As you would like them to have on a centrilized way SVN would be the best. I would not go to git because they are "distributed" by nature, so they would do again everybody one part and not "togther". I hope this helps.

Leave the crappy games from EA & play Blizzard Games! Go for WOW!