Yes, Eibe Frank can even consult you in the WEKA mailing list (https://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wekalist). BTW, a textbook is very good, but you have to know they change many things and very quickly that the things they describe in the textbook can become outdated.
From the previous answers, matlab and WEKA have been refered as the most easy-to-use toolkits for new users, however, once if you want to do a little more complex AI related task, they will be not the most suitable candicates. Here, I think keras may be a more suitable ANN framework for new users, keras is a high-level toolkit with the backends of Tensorflow, CNTK or theano, which means that your can both relaise your idea by using a little codes with highly packaged interfaces , and take the advantages of GPU parallel computing and highly optimized instruction. Further, keras uses python, an easy-to-learn language to program.