Dubo,
Can I propose that you setup a learning path for new-comers to programming in JAVA and to programming in general. As the fears expressed by Zing may be similar for quite a big number of IT learners. I find that many people might benefit from a bit of hand-holding in the tentative years of learning say from a higher level language and later on could explore low level programming languages (C, C++) if needed. (I personally think the approach to teach C, C++ and the like to newcomers is not the best approach. To start off, I need a button on a canvas, that achieved in higher level languages in a snap. If I need to arm wrestle code to draw me a button on a canvas and that takes best part of a week to understand, then I would shy away from the lessons)
For this, a full blown application would be best. One that explores likely business implementations to date say, Database access, web services, business processes and the like. You will surely get more queries on how/why the implementation is the way it is and believe will be a good opportunity to teach/learn for all.
With such a plan in place, the students will surely be eager to follow up on planned lessons and you will be in a position to see their progress and appropriately adapt the lessons for the users.