Python Access

[Kevin]

I'm about to start my final semester of student teaching and would like to include some programming and computational thinking into the semester. However, I'm having some trouble figuring out how I'm going to get all of my students access to Python - I doubt that the school's IT folks will install the necessary components for me.

Ideally, I would like to find something completely browser-based, where students would be able to create, save, edit, and run Python programs. Not only would this minimize what needs to be installed, but it would also make it easily accessible for students at home, regardless of the platform that they use. I've found a couple of sites that provide some type of access to a Python interpreter, but none have all that I'm looking for.

As I recently received a Chrome notebook in the mail (thanks again, Google!), I've been looking at whether I could handle this with a Chrome App. I haven't really found anything yet. Kodingen looks to be the closest, but it's more aimed at Web development and will probably be too complicated for ninth grade algebra students just getting their first experience with programming. I'm considering writing a Chrome App that would do this all for me, but that project would have to wait until this summer.

The only other idea I have is to round up some used computers, install Ubuntu on them, and squeeze them in the back of the classroom. I doubt that the IT department will give us network access, but it would give us access to Python.

Anyone have any ideas? If you have included some of this programming into your math classes, what was your setup like? How did it work?

Thanks!

Kevin