Recommended IDE for teaching web development to beginners I have been assisting an IT teacher who has recently started teaching computer science to year 7-9s (11-13 year-olds). This year they will just be covering basic client-side web development: HTML, CSS and a bit of JavaScript.

I was shocked to see him, and the kids, writing their HTML in Notepad- it makes code a lot harder to read, and simple typos, such as a missing bracket, almost impossible to spot. Which isn't ideal, especially for beginners. 

For my own coding, I always use InteliJ or WebStorm, however, I would worry that this might go in the opposite direction, and actually over-complicate things.

Anyone got any suggestions of a simple free IDE or text editor for web development for school kids? (It would need to be possible to install on school network).

I'm thinking maybe something simple like Notepad++, Sublime, or possibly Atom. But would love to here your feedback or suggestions on what might be good for school kids.

Thanks very much,
Alicia Sykes
I find that the best introductory IDE is a lack thereof because, for the most part, the features that an IDE offers (code completion, organization, etc.) are more hurt than help and tend to promote completely unrelated questions, for example, "What is this dropdown under the word I just typed" and other questions about IDE function rather than language functions. Generally IDEs are a distraction to beginners.

I would use a text editor with syntax highlighting such as sublime text, but nothing with too much many extra features. You certainly don't need a full fledged IDE.