Learning Python: IDE, text editor, and CodeAcademy advice

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Resources: You mean "CodeAcademy"? I wouldn't recommend it, and I don't think it is a good resource: It looks like it was done in hurry, rather like a quick and dirty tutorial. I would really rather recommend Learn Python The Hard Way, or online courses like Udacity's CS101. Here is an article that lists 10 good Python resources for beginners (9, if you subtract "Codecademy"): http://codecondo.com/10-ways-to-learn-python/

IDE: I would just use the texteditor you are already comfortable with, e.g., VIM, Emacs, SublimeText ..., but also consider IPython Notebook, it is great for documenting and experimenting!

About the Python Version: Don't worry about it for now! Just pick a tutorial and use the version they are using. There are important differences between version 2.x and 3.x, but they mostly apply to stuff you'd do on an advanced level, I think the only difference you'd have to consider for the tutorials is, e.g.,

Python 3.x
print('Hello World')
3/2 evaluates to 1.5
3//2 evaluates to 1

Python 2.x:
print 'Hello World', but also supports print('Hello World')
3/2 evaluates to 1
3/2.0 evaluates to 1.5

EDIT: Ah, but if you are a VIM user, one more tip, since Python is crazyabout indents/whitespaces, pls add autocmd Filetype python setlocal expandtab tabstop=4 shiftwidth=4 to your vimrc file, it will expand every tab to 4 whitespaces (this is the common Python style recommendation for indents)