[JesseK]

From a career perspective the instant a developer locks him/herself into a single language is the instant the developer's career longevity shrinks to 3-5 years. Programmers even need to learn the different design paradigms (Java/C++ vs Python/Javascript/Web) in order to be successful on the really hard, large and complex products/programs.

Programmers should never stop learning languages. Learn one language extremely well so it's easy to ask about/learn nuances of any given language, then learn the others just well enough to use them. A crash course in Java that then leads to a simple robot implementation (press button -> get reaction) is a perfect exercise in this regard.

With that said, the students are mocking up our Java ecosystem in UML, so I'll get that up when they're done (mid-Nov).