It would be REALLY helpful to have a "1st Time Buyer's Guide" online. I read through the Products Comparison Guide, but there are bunches of terms & abbreviations with no explanation of any. This makes my eyes gloss over & I go into a total blindness to anything on the page. Even if the page just had links or mouse-overs to explain each term in the table, that would be a huge help. This lack of information is a huge roadblock to someone wanting to get started helping his child augment the 7th Grade Robotics Class he is taking using the Lego robotics package.
ddlabens:
This makes my eyes gloss over & I go into a total blindness to anything on the page.
You might should have that checked out. Seriously though, don't be like that. You should crave situations where there are things you don't understand. That's how you learn. It's not that they make it hard on purpose, but what's hard to you might not be to most folks. Or even if they dumb it all down for you it may still be over someone else's head. The secret isn't to have everything spoon fed. The secret to success is to learn how to learn. Once you got that it opens up anything in the world you want to do and you aren't reliant on someone to write up some great tutorial.
The secret is easy: Google terms you don't know. Keep two browser windows open and just follow down the rabbit hole. If there's a term on that page you don't know then go google it. Nothing is out of your reach that way.
child augment the 7th Grade
If you don't know how to use Google to learn things, I bet the 7th grader does.
There are soo many "how to" topics about Arduino and getting started.
From almost super basic to rocket scientist level.
As Delta_G suggests let your search engine be your friend.
I consider myself a noob and anything I am unsure of I try to google first to get to grips with the basics of what I want to do. That way at least when I do ask for help I can often follow along a little and learn more at the same time.
However as a simple example I typed "lego arduino basics" into google to get these
If one of the hits seems a little hard move on to the next one until you find something at your level.
We hate doing all your work for you but will point you in (usually) the right direction.
Seriously though, don't be like that. You should crave situations where there are things you don't understand. That's how you learn. It's not that they make it hard on purpose, but what's hard to you might not be to most folks. Or even if they dumb it all down for you it may still be over someone else's head. The secret isn't to have everything spoon fed. The secret to success is to learn how to learn. Once you got that it opens up anything in the world you want to do and you aren't reliant on someone to write up some great tutorial.