Tell them this,I am 75 years old and I started a couple years ago using
Ubuntu and Cinelerra. If I can learn this stuff it ought to be a piece
of cake for an 18 year old. I taught myself with the help of this list
and the Cinelerra list. Rafaella Tranello gave advice and wrote help on
line in the form of Cinelerra for Grandma. It's excellent, we should
have more help written by teachers. I have heard some say that Linux has
not arrived yet where video is concerned. I can't speak for the pros but
it sure as heck works for me. The cost of propitiatory photo editing
and video editing a school can buy a lot of hardware. Your students may
have to use proprietary software when they go to work but after learning
Linux they will be light years ahead of those who learned on proprietary
software. My friends are amazed at how much I know about computers and
though I am a neophyte on these Linux lists compared to them I am
way aheadand it's all attributable to Linux.
There is another thing I have built a milling machine out of and
old drill press and am using EMC2 to run it cnc. The software is free
and so was the advice I needed to do it. This would have been out of
reach for me without EMC2. Without Linux I would not have had the know
how to make it work either.
With a teacher who is willing to take on something more as you seem
to be, they are a lucky bunch of young people in my opinion. They will
learn well and I'm sure they will enjoy the added challenge.