These people are now better known among people likely to hire webmasters than whomever won the competition.
The students did not violate the rules. The rules say that template sites like Wix, GitHub, etc. may not be used. They did not say "such as" GitHub. There's a difference. GitHub is merely illustrative of the template site concept, in this case incorrectly.
The controlling requirement is that it be a "template site". Which GitHub is not. So this is a drafting error, not controlling language.
"Like" vs. "such as" has been a question on the Graduate Management Admission Test, because it is a distinction which might matter in a contract. But that distinction is somewhat archaic and probably beyond many teachers.
We're doomed. If this is how we introduce kids to tech, we can guarantee they bail and do something more intellectually rewarding, like Business Admin or Sales /s
For real though, a similar thing nearly happened to me. over a decade ago I took a community college class CS101 - and it was taught by a guy with no knowledge and no investment (and they got you started with Java, of all things). Totally killed my interest. Fast forward to three years ago and I was lucky enough to find my way into the field through self-study, but quite nearly gave up on the whole thing forever because of a pug-ugly initial experience. And this was way after high school.
Official rule is: "Template engine websites, tools, and sites that generate HTML from text, markdown, or script files, such as Webs, Wix, Weebly, GitHub, Jekyll, and Replit, are NOT permitted."
I still don't think this blanket bans GitHub; only in the context of using it as a tool for generating HTML from text, which the kids did not do.
The students did not violate the rules. The rules say that template sites like Wix, GitHub, etc. may not be used. They did not say "such as" GitHub. There's a difference. GitHub is merely illustrative of the template site concept, in this case incorrectly. The controlling requirement is that it be a "template site". Which GitHub is not. So this is a drafting error, not controlling language.
"Like" vs. "such as" has been a question on the Graduate Management Admission Test, because it is a distinction which might matter in a contract. But that distinction is somewhat archaic and probably beyond many teachers.