Arduino

At $30, the arduino is cheap enough for everyone to buy their own... which is one of the primary goals along with making the programming interface very simple.

For learning Micro-controllers with a focus on the circuit side: "The arduino"

Now available at Radio Shack. http://www.arduino.cc/

Here's the back story and purpose of the Arduino...

http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/hands-on/the-making-of-arduino/0

The "wiring" language for the arduino is very simple syntactically and is provided for free.

Labview is a graphical language that is used for the usFIRST programs. Toolkits are developed for using the Arduino with Labview. the bundle can be purchased at http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10812