--Well FWIW I got my start with a UC Berkeley Extension class (no longer offered unfortunately) called "Kinetic Sculpture Electronics" which was taught by one of the kooks who runs the Omnicircus www.omnicircus.com In the class we learned how to get big outputs from small inputs; i.e. using a laptop to program a Basic Stamp to do interesting things in the real world. Oh' and from omnicircus you have *got* to link to www.carlpisaturo.com . He was the class TA and he's a real genius; he's built some really beautiful robotic stuff and his page is a real inspiration with lots of useful stuff.
-- www.parallax.com seems to have the best tutorial and really nice kits to get the complete novice (me) up and running. If you're in the Bay Area you can get kits from HSC. In class we started by learning reeeeally basic stuff like making one LED blink then getting into more complex things. Each module you learn in the book is finally all put together in the last chapter when you make a little robot run' turn' beep' blink lights and do other things. (sorry about apostrophes' but my comma key has stopped working!). Anyway I do recommend Parallax; it gets you started for not too much money and it's an open-ended thing with much room for advancement' including advanced stuff with more modern PICs.
--My class project was to build a tap-dancing robot; a little ambitious to be sure and' after 12 weeks' the most I'd managed was to get one toe tapping but it was a start! :-) Once you've gotten that far the rest is easy. I used low voltage solenoids powered directly off of the "board of education" what Parallax calls their prototyping board' heh' but the real fun happens when you learn how to interface the Stamp with larger horsepower devices like big-ass stepper motors (easy by replacing a servo with an R/C car motor controller' as the input signals and wiring are identical!). With this hack I've succeeded in running one of those big-ass surplus worm drive windshield wiper motors to power a' um' sexual appliance' heh. Anyway it's a real springboard for bigger and better things; two thumbs up' so to speak... :-)