Beginner Programming

I am an instructor at a 3D Animation, and multimedia school in British Columbia, Canada. We are looking to start up a Game design program, focusing mainly on the design end, but with some programming. I am wondering if there is a language anyone can recommend that would give students a taste of the progamming end, but not be so complicated that they would need to spend a year learning it. It would be supercool if they could have an actual game running by the end of the course. They would be using Maya and 3DMax for the graphics end, but it could be a 3D or 2D game. Any ideas?

I'm sorry, I don't have a good answer to your question, but I thought I might pose another question for you (or others). I've been interested in dabbling in game programming. I'm not looking to make a career of it, just curious - I like knowing how things work, how they're made, learn new stuff. Anyone have thoughts on where to get started? I'm just looking for some basics, some pointers, references, etc. Which language doesn't really matter to me. I've written a "battle" MUD using C/sockets/threads but I'm more interested in doing some work with graphics and OOP (C++/Java).

Suggestions?
Thanks.
David

i suspect the www.gamedev.net forums will suit your needs better