Zuckerberg To Teach 10 Million Kids 0-Based Counting 295
theodp writes "'Why do programmers start counting at zero?' wondered Mike Hoye, questioning the conventional programming wisdom. Code.org will soon introduce the practice to a hoped-for audience of 10 million schoolchildren as part of Computer Science Education Week's Hour of Code. In a tutorial created by engineers from Microsoft, Google, Twitter and Facebook that's intended to introduce programming to kids as young as six years old, an otherwise breezy lesson featuring look-ma-no-typing Blockly and characters out of Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies, a Mark Zuckerberg video introducing the concept of Repeat Loops includes an out-of-place JavaScript example that shows kids it's as easy as 0-1-2-3 to generate 4 lines of lyrics from Happy Birthday to You by using zero-based numbering with a For-loop and ternary If statement. Accompanying videos by Bill Gates on If Statements and basketball star Chris Bosh on Repeat Until Blocks show the Code.org tutorial is still a work-in-progress. That's no big deal, since CSEdWeek has pushed back the delivery date for final Hour of Code tutorials from its prior little-time-for-testing due date to Dec. 9th, the first day of a five-day period during which teachers are expected to deliver the lessons to 10 million students."
Re:They don't. (Score:4, Funny)
This press conference is over.
Re:They don't. (Score:5, Funny)
This press conference is over.
The press conference began at 0 PM, where were you?
Re:They don't. (Score:2, Funny)
This press conference is over.
The press conference began at 0 PM, where were you?
I was at 0 Main Street.
"The corner of 0th and Null" was the joke you wanted.
It's actually only 9,999,999 kids.... (Score:4, Funny)
Because you have to start counting kids from ZERO.
Don't you guys read your own articles?