Hey, why don't you start with a simple tutorial for Jquery. The links below might be helpful to you:
http://www.w3schools.com/jquery/default.asp[
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http://www.jquery-tutorial.net/[
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You need to refer the jQuery file in your web app as below:
<!DOCTYPE HTML >
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title> My First JQuery Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<div id="mydiv">This is the DIV
</div>
<input id="textName" type="text" />
<script src="Scripts/jquery-1.4.1.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function () {
$("#mydiv").css("background-color", "Red");
$("#mydiv").css("background-image", "/Images/pic1.jpg");
});
</script>
</body>
</html>
In the above example, i have saved the jQuery file inside scripts folder in VS 2010.
As jQuery is a Javascript framework, you need to write your all your methods and stuffs inside your scripts tags, so yes you can say that Javascript is required.
Even you can use your notepad as an editor, save the jQuery file on your desktop and give the src as the desired path. No special IDE's are required as such.
Hope the above helps.
Regards
Anurag