Folk Pedagogy - how to measure best practice teaching CS?

Check out Mark Guzdial's latest blog post on ACM challenging what we believe as teachers about how we teach computer science, especially to non-CS majors at the college level. Thought provoking, not least in the dismissive reference made by CS thought leaders to applications like Scratch, Alice, and Kodu as "children introduction". Wow. Funny, because just before this casual write off by Mark Goldweber (CS professior, Xavier University and SIGCAS chair), the same author referenced mentions that non-CS major teaching should focus on evidence a programming platform teaches learning how to build algorithms to solve real world problems, giving as example, plotting on a map graph location proximity to identify near by locations (in his example, in a disaster, where the nearest Red Cross location is). And, a "children introduction", like Scratch can do exactly that, based on x and y coordinate layout, the ability to build variables to define object (sprite) relationships relative to their x and y proximity and in fact, one of the backgrounds offered is an x and y grid. And MIT takes this introduction even further with AppInventor, allowing learners exposure to building API references using google maps to develop simple "find this" apps that plots your current location via your phone's GPS relative to a specific location you define and query using a google map API call. Child's play? I think not. As I've said before, using technology, even for non-CS majors, is less about specific language proficiency and more about the ability to learn, the "art" and transfer-ability of thinking skills and the challenge has always been how do you measure "artfulness"?  Being a programmer is (fortunately) becoming less of a sink or swim proposition because we are seeing more non-traditional learners come to the field. I think overlooking platforms like Scratch, Alice and Kodu to teach programming misses the chance to learn and teach creatively. If it's fun, it can't be serious stuff? And, I bet any of the kids I've taught over the years could in 15 minutes or less come up with a "find this" algorithm using Scratch ;)