I would use Matlab:

1) It's designed and optimized for this type of work which may allow it to run faster on slower HW.
2) The language itself is really easy and if you can do perl you can probably pick it up very quickly.
3) (If you have the plugin)It has a graphical system for generating NN (ala Labview type interface), which makes generating them trivial and can enhance your understanding.
4) If you can not use the graphical interface you can still program it in MATLab then run it on your other system using Octave (http://www.octave.org/)
5) As the others have mentioned, you'll be on the same page as the other students in the class.

One option is to take a simple example like a Perceptron and try all your options. That will allow you to see how difficult each option is.
Zero_Flop

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