Every web design class should spend at least 30 minutes discussing web pages that suck
http://www.webpagesthatsuck.comIt may not be purely academic, but it will make them better.
The only advice I can give is this: for at least the first 2-3 classes, focus on getting an understanding of what the web actually is, what HTML actually is, and what active content actually is. It amazes me when I talk to people with 4 year degrees in SAN, CS, or MIS - and they don't understand these basic concepts. Instead, they only know how to use the tools - with no real understanding of what the tools are doing.
That doesn't mean you spend the whole time lecturing on concepts. But, you need to make it clear that basically all web pages are HTML and no matter what tool you use - it ALL comes down to HTML and you need to have a general understanding of how it works and what it's about. From there, you can get into the myriad of active content and how it works, from AJAX to scripting to Flash, etc. You can pepper those over the course.
From a marketing point of view, dumping tons of tools and fancy junk on them is FUN - but you will yield better students if you help them understand what they're doing. Again, I've seen people not able to figure out why their AJAX doesn't work and they didn't have the necessary server-side installation done... and some of them (one I think of in particular) are closing in on 100k salaries.
But, maybe I'm contradicting myself... because you can make a lot of jack just knowing enough buzz.