OK,
I agree the board that he is using is outdated. That being said, the board that he is using has routines to interface to a LCD, among other peripherals. I can see why he would go that way, less work for him. Since the course is an introductory course, there are many other concepts thatthe students will have to grasp before they can jump into writning drivers for LCDs, drivers for SPI devices, etc. It is beyond the scope of his course.

Jacob