Learned about Alice last night; it’s Carnegie-Mellon’s 3D cousin to MIT’s Scratch development environment. Alice is aimed at older students, and a bit more flexible.

I showed off the built-in library of objects to Diana, and the moment she saw the ocean-themed section, to my surprise, she all but elbowed me away from the keyboard. (She’s not a developer, but she is a fish nut.) Thirty minutes later, and with only occasional guidance from me, she had a school of fish robotically spinning, rolling, and moving about an ocean floor.

Drag-and-drop is definitely a good way for novices to get started programming. It’s all too easy for a beginner to give up when all they get is a blank screen due to a well-hidden typo. Mistake-resistant constructs you can scramble around and get instant feedback on keep a student moving forward.