"Visual Programming" is the opposite of Computer Science. Telling someone those tools are related to CS is like correctly hooking up your cable modem and declaring you are a networking genius.
Rather than feed a troll without question, I'll give you a few links, and then we can discuss your plan to frighten every non-CS major away from learning about CS.
A high-school teacher from one of our last events reflects on his bias against visual programming as "real" programming:
(You'll probably have to zoom in on this one. I don't have a lot of time to split it up into pieces right now)
Check out the lectures that are associated with the class, which have both "big ideas" as well as some fundamental CS concepts (E.G. algorithmic complexity, abstraction, recursion, etc.):
CS10 : The Beauty and Joy of Computing
(Give them the "big ideas" on one hand, and allow them to "peek under the hood" (do some visual programming with Scratch/BYOB/Snap) on the other.:)
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"Visual Programming" is the opposite of Computer Science. Telling someone those tools are related to CS is like correctly hooking up your cable modem and declaring you are a networking genius.
Rather than feed a troll without question, I'll give you a few links, and then we can discuss your plan to frighten every non-CS major away from learning about CS.
A high-school teacher from one of our last events reflects on his bias against visual programming as "real" programming:
http://itmoves.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/cs-ed-day/
Here's the factorial block that he mentions:
http://www.aggroculture.com/cal/cs10/factorial.gif
An example of what's available in BYOB (Build Your Own Blocks, an enhanced version of MIT's Scratch):
http://www.aggroculture.com/cal/cs10/BYOB+tools.gif
(You'll probably have to zoom in on this one. I don't have a lot of time to split it up into pieces right now)
Check out the lectures that are associated with the class, which have both "big ideas" as well as some fundamental CS concepts (E.G. algorithmic complexity, abstraction, recursion, etc.):
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLECBD29A17AAF6EF9
And if you feel it isn't too beneath you, why not give it a whirl?
http://byob.berkeley.edu/
Here's a tutorial video about Lists and Higher-Order Functions (since you probably want to jump straight into the .. "genius" .. stuff):
http://byob.berkeley.edu/BYOB3-Tutorial2.mov
CS10 : The Beauty and Joy of Computing (Give them the "big ideas" on one hand, and allow them to "peek under the hood" (do some visual programming with Scratch/BYOB/Snap) on the other. :)