What programming lauguage should we start with?

[Cuog]

I think its important to consider what you want to get out of the students programming.

Labview is great for an easy system to get the robot running with an easy learning curve(though complex systems are about the same between C++ and Labview). Labview is also great for those students who would be interested in programming for industrial robotcs since thats what most in that industry use.

However as a teaching tool using a language like C++ will provide a better platform for understanding programming in general and is much more like languages used in most other programming industries.

Pick which platform will meet the needs of your robotics program and run with it.