Lets assume the intent of the project is to learn about electro-mechanical systems.
You would normally use a DC motor (or AC) and gear it down. Use sensors to know its position. Then use some type of control system to make it work (uP,PLC,RELAY,Discrete, etc.)
To make the design simple, I (not being a mechanical engineer) would use the stepper motor. That way I could control its speed without having to use gears.
Everything else should be the same. Just trade off the gears (mechanical) for the stepper (electrical) for simplicity.
Hope this helps,
Red