The website repl.it is provides an online code editor that features tons of great tools to assist in development. Schools across Scotland rely heavily on the website, and materials created refer to repl.it over and over, including those from large groups that make materials available for teachers in Scotland.
But this is an issue.
By depending on repl.it and putting all your effort into the platform, you are investing heavily in an organisation that seeks to make money and who may in turn decide to make educational benefits non-existent. This happens all the time: JetBrains did this, removing and changing their educational discounts (and going from offering free packs of their software to charging the full amount).
Secondly, and perhaps more important to me as a computing teacher, is that by teaching pupils to use repl.It, we are teaching them one environment for developing software, when we should be teaching them things that are used in the industry, such as IDEs like VS Code or Atom. This frustrates me as someone who has worked in the industry for a few years prior to becoming a teacher because I know no one uses repl.it where I've worked. It's a bit like teaching someone to drive a Ford Focus by telling them where everything is in that car and then expecting them to know how to drive a bus after passing their test. Don't teach them one thing; teach them the general skills that apply to all of them.
