But do people seriously think that computers are a guy thing nowadays? The CS barbie looks just like a secretary or any other profession to me. All moms I know (and my daughter is in the barbie demographic) have computers, most have laptops or netbooks. They use them for e-mail, internet, they are on Twitter, facebook, play online games, etc.
Now, I have no idea how a CS barbie should look. I totally agree with the author of the presentation that it is a good thing that Mattel did not make the CS barbie extra dorky. However, as it is now, I don't think girls will make any connection with programming.
Yeah they are using computers. but computers are increasingly like appliances, and there is a huge gulf between clicking buttons in an UI and messing with code in an editor.
I remember way back, when I had to learn all this stuff about DOS and RAM just to get Ultima 7 to work on my computer. I had a friend who couldn't get sound to work correctly on his PC in StarCon2, so he soldered together his own sound card to get it to work. Nowdays you don't need to do that with modern computers and most of time you can't even do that even if you wanted to, because modern software and hardware are exponentially more complicated now.
But do people seriously think that computers are a guy thing nowadays?
Probably not, but they definitely think that coding/engineering is a guy thing.
I agree though that this design does not scream "computer engineer" at all. Perhaps it would have been better if they had her putting a computer together or something like that... not sure if that would work well for a toy though.
Now, I have no idea how a CS barbie should look. I totally agree with the author of the presentation that it is a good thing that Mattel did not make the CS barbie extra dorky. However, as it is now, I don't think girls will make any connection with programming.