Yes..Pro Tools is the standard application that most "pro" studios use. Macintosh based systems are the standard as well altho PC's are very rapdily making headway into the high performance realms. It's a good idea to have different options tho..A lot of people these days work from their home studios and will work in different applications such as Cubase,Nuendo, Digital Performer, Logic or Cakewalk. It's good to know which programs have strong Audio or strong MIDI based applications. Pro Tools is all audio with some MIDI functions..same as Nuendo..
Cubase, Logic and Cakewalk are all MIDI based programs with audio functions. There are soooo many differentiating opinions as to what to teach the kids to get them ready for the real world. Teach them the basics of recording and signal flow first..this way they understand audio routing and being able to be creative with that knowledge. Once they have an understanding of the "physical" realm of audio they can thus apply it to the "virtual" realm of DAW based systems.
Also explaining that MIDI is NOT AUDIO!!!! MIDI is data recorded into the sequencer which then tells the keyboard to play a certain note on a certain patch with so much velocity and volume and panning.
Having different platforms too is key..PC and Mac if possible..this way they can work at any studio or any location regardless of the system.
Opus

I would say that it depends on the goal of your program. Is to turn out professional recording engineers, or are you offering an elective to students that are interested in home project studios? Maybe the hope is to get students interested enough to make rational choices? Will a whole curriculum be offered, or just one class??

That being said...It seems that most "professional studios" (the ones that turn out the chart-topping hits) tend to use Pro Tools. This is a very expensive route to take, but this may be the way to go if you are looking to give students "Pro Tools Experience" on their resumes.

There are many other very competent DAW software products on the market, and to be honest, most of them have similar features and controls, it becomes mostly a matter of personal preference at that point.

I would suggest that you visit thier web sites and download a demo copy, and try them out yourself to see what you will feel most comfortable with.

Some of them that you may be familiar with:

Steinberg's Cubase
Steinberg's Nuendo (not as strong for MIDI, but top end for Audio)
http://

EMagic's Logic
http://www.emagic.de/english/index.html

Cakewalk's Sonar
http://www.cakewalk.com/

Syntrillium's Cool Edit Pro
http://www.syntrillium.com/

Digidesign's Pro Tools
http://www.digidesign.com/

Mark of the Unicorn's Digital Performer
http://www.motu.com/

Sonic Foundry's Vegas Audio
http://www.sonicfoundry.com/

There are many others...but these will get you started! I personally use Cubase (Steinberg), which allows you to use many of the available plug-in effects that are available (both DirectX and VST).

As you can see, the choices are many, and everybody has their favorite! You can't go wrong with Pro Tools (Other than the associated cost...software, hardware,plug-ins etc...it *really* adds up with Pro Tools).

Best of luck!!!

DH