I am a bit torn about Alice.
On the one hand, it is nice to have a framework where you can program with direct visual gratification. This is really a good idea.
On the other hand, I think that it is a very bad idea to have beginners program exclusively by drag and drop. I fear that this might even lead to a sort of illiteracy, where they are unable to produce properly written code when the drag and drop interface is taken away.
