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Originally Posted by DeltaLover
I would vote against any flavour of Basic (especially proprietary implementations like Liberty Basic or VB) since it is not only a think of the past, but is also represents a very limited programming paradigm. I think that more declarative languages like Python or Ruby are perfect choices for the novice, since they are not only easy to start using but the also can be used for very advanced applications and have huge open source resources, fulfilling any imaginable need.
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Again, you're thinking more like an experienced programmer who understands the concepts. I've taught enough beginners to know that they can barely understand loops, arrays, or nested IFs let alone classes, objects, and overloaded methods. You want people to learn something that they can use in the future. I would be more interested in having them get a solid foundation in programming logic without any thought of what they might need three years from now. Once the basic understanding is there then people can graduate to a more flexible, powerful language like Python, Ruby, or C#.
For those who might be interested, coursera.org has some programming classes available.
LINK Some courses listed are for future dates (like the Intro to Python class), and some are past classes that are still available to sign up for and learn from (like the Learn to Program: Fundamentals class).
And while I'm in favor of people learning how to program, if researching data (datamining) is the goal then I see nothing wrong with using Excel or Access to accomplish that if the limitations of those applications are known in advance. I just can't imagine a beginner trying to make a SQL db connection through Python, or BASIC, or whatever. No need to reinvent the wheel.
