Pro tools 8 M-Powered, which audio interface

[nmurray]

Good evening,

I have had a search and can't seem to find an answer. I have just moved to a new school to teach music technology and have found that they have 6 PC's with Pro Tools 8 installed on all of them but only 1 m-audio interface for recording.

We need sequencing software and I had thought about buying Cubase but this was before knowing we had 6 copies (only thought we had 1), is Pro Tools usable to create a piece only inputting MIDI (all that is allowed for coursework).

Question 1. What is the best/cheapest hardware that will enable me to use Pro Tools on the PC's with MIDI keyboards we need 5-6 bits of hardware. Or do we even need hardware, is there a work around?

Question 2. Is Pro Tools user friendly enough for a sequencing project with only inputting notes via a MIDI keyboard and changing them on screen.

Thank you very much for your help,

Neil