With her bright pink laptop, Bluetooth earpiece and trendy pink glasses, Barbie appears ready to take the computing world by storm. In a career field where the gender imbalance is legendary, the blond haired, buxom doll will have her work cut out for her.

According to the official press release, “Barbie designers worked with the Society of Women Engineers and the National Academy of Engineering to ensure that accessories, clothing and packaging were realistic and representative of a real computer engineer.”

What exactly does a “real” computer engineer look like? If Barbie’s binary code t-shirt and hot pink sneakers are any indication, geek-chic has taken a definite turn toward the girly.

Computer programmer Barbie is a vast improvement from the doll’s “Math class is tough” phase, and it’s great to see a high tech career portrayed as fun, interesting, and even kind of cool, gender discrepancies in the computer engineer and computer programmer field are still a major concern. These careers are expected to be some of the fasted growing over the next 10 years, yet girls rarely report an interest in pursuing jobs in the computer science area.

A 2009 report by New Image for Computing (NIC) showed that 67% of all boys rated computer science as a “very good” or “good” career choice, but only 9% of girls rated it “very good” and 17% as “good.”

It will be interesting to see how girls react to Barbie’s new career. While “computer programming” was picked through a public vote conducted online by Mattel, the “girl’s vote” was actually won by New Anchor Barbie. Online buzz says “computer programming Barbie” came into the world thanks to a viral campaign conducted by women in high-tech industries stuffing the virtual ballot box.

Do you think this new Barbie will help change girls’ perspective of careers in computing? How can educators help change the gender bias in this high-tech field?

India as you see it on CNN: bustling, crowded, overwhelming. Throw in Mother Theresa, cricket, complex marriages, outsourcing and India’s computer engineers and you have a very complicated nation. Add two generations of highly successful immigrants now creating the new political grouping of “Indian-Americans” and the understandings of modern India become increasingly muddled.

India, the larger part of the Indian subcontinent is one of the BRIC countries of “Brazil, Russia, India, China,” which feature new emerging economies that are altering the economic landscape of northern America and Europe. India hosts a population almost three times larger than the United States of America in about one-third the space, and about 50% of Indians are under 25. This makes India one of the youngest countries in the world.

The primary and secondary school population in India is almost the size of the total population of the United States. India has some of the finest, as well as many of the worst, primary and secondary schools in the world. Educational opportunities range from elite residential schools to village government schools with one teacher. A new surge of private schools that teach in English wrestle with local language schools to set, and often degrade, standards.

In a speech in Calcutta on January 16, 2010, India’s recently re-elected Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, “Our Government has raised public investment in education steeply. Never before has so much of money been spent on education.”

This speech was part of his government’s commitment to make universal access to education one of the cornerstones for inclusive growth of India.

“I assure you that in the months to come we will pay even greater attention to the development of school education,” he said.

This may be indicative of speedier implementation of the Right To Education Act, which along with the previous amendment to the Constitution in 2002, will make free and compulsory education for children age 6-14 a fundamental right. It also aims to bring about a qualitative change in primary education to ensure schools have adequate teachers and reformed syllabi aimed at all-around development of children.

According to unofficial estimates, implementation of the new Act would require some 12 lakh (1.2 million!) for teachers and a provision of over 1.7 lakh crores rupees by the Centre and the states. (One crore rupees is around $225,000. A lakh is 100,000. Here’s the math: $225,000 x 170,000 = about $38.5 billion. Add in pricing parity, and you can add a zero to that to understand impact. Think what $380 billion in new money for education would mean in the US or Europe.)

I am delighted to learn that the literacy rate in India has gone up significantly in the past few years. Enrolment rates are rising and drop out rates are falling. I wish to see every child in our country become literate over the next decade. I would like to see a sharp increase in enrollment among women in schools, to help young girls fulfill their potential and become equal citizens of our great Republic.

Our final two priorities call for focusing on technology as the foundation of a modern, high-quality K-12 education.

2. Leverage education technology as a gateway for college and career readiness. By effectively engaging learning through technology, teachers can demonstrate the relevance of 21st century education, keeping more children engaged as they pursue a rigorous, interesting and pertinent PK-12 education.

1. Establish technology in education as the backbone of school improvement. To truly improve our schools for the long term and ensure that all students are equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve in the 21st century, education technology must permeate every corner of the learning process.

Click here for the full list of ISTE’s Top Ten in ’10.

Click here to read Knezek’s full statement.

How do you think Obama’s 2011 budget plans will impact education?

To ensure that technological expertise is considered an integral part of an educator’s skill set, staying on top of technological advances must be one of the criteria on which an educator is judged. To that end, ISTE has named the measurement of skill development as a top priority for 2010:

4. Continuously upgrade educators’ classroom technology skills as a pre-requisite of “highly effective” teaching. As part of our nation’s continued push to ensure every classroom is led by a qualified, highly effective teacher, we must commit that all P-12 educators have the skills to use modern information tools and digital content to support student learning in content areas and for student assessment.

While classroom teachers are often the front lines of education technology integration, without knowledgeable and readily available technology experts in schools the process of teaching with technology is easily stymied. ISTE calls for increased support for educational technology specialist programs:

3. Ensure technology expertise is infused throughout our schools and classrooms. In addition to providing all teachers with digital tools and content we must ensure technology experts are integrated throughout all schools. To support these experts, as well as all educators who integrate technology into the overall curriculum, we must substantially increase our support for the federal Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program.

Click here for the full list of ISTE’s Top Ten in ’10.

ISTE welcomed the Frontline film crew at NECC 2009, so watch for possible clips from the largest education technology conference in the world.

@ISTEConnects will be live Tweeting the event at 9 p.m. PST, but for a sneak peek at the program visit the Digital Nation Learning page and join the conversation.

While edtech-gurus are wiping up the pools of drool from their keyboards, it’s time to take a step back and look at what the iPad can do for educators and students.

Of all the wiz-bang features presented by Jobs, the iPad’s e-book capabilities most captured my attention. With a starting price tag of $499 (not including the 3G network costs) the iPad begins to look like a bargain when you compare it with the price of keeping a student in textbooks from k-12. Plus, the potential for enhancing texts with images, audio clips, and videos may pay off immeasurably in terms of keeping students engaged.

It’s also exciting to hear that all those great iPhone aps for education will be accessible on the iPad. While iPad specific applications are in the works, it’s nice to know there’s a full library of tried and tested aps already available for download.

There are a couple caveats though. The iPad appears to have some compatibility issues with Flash, which could lead to a diminished Web browsing experience. Also, no camera means no video chat capabilities, which is one of the highlights of using MacBooks in the classroom.

What are your thoughts on the new iPad? Do you see a place for it in schools? Will we see experiments with 1:1? How could you use an iPad in your classroom or district? Or, is the functionality more suited to preparing lessons and administrative tasks than active learning?

That’s because there’s something implicitly hopeful about working in education. Knowing that the work you’re doing, the knowledge you’re passing along, helps give young minds the same opportunities you had—or maybe even opportunities you didn’t have—is a guiding principle of educators. And that passion, that commitment to students, is one of the reasons the field attracts so many bright, hardworking people. Education is about the rose-colored glasses. Education is about the future.

But unfortunately, all too often that bubble bursts. The New Teacher Center reports that beginning educators hit a “disillusionment phase” in their first three months on the job. Perhaps it’s that disillusionment that causes almost half of new teachers to leave the field after five years, as reported by the U.S. Department of Education.

And a recent study conducted by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) boils it down to dollars and cents: teacher attrition costs the U.S. over seven billion dollars per year.

At ISTE we want to foster strong young educators. Our students deserve the best support and opportunities and so do our beginning teachers. Professional educators bring a diverse set of talents to the learning process; the energy, creativity, and fresh ideas that young educators bring are critical components that keep this field vital and growing.

That’s why ISTE has created a new Outstanding Young Educator Award (OYEA). This annual award will be presented to a young educator (under age 35) who displays excellence in modeling innovative, NETS-aligned educational techniques. The award prize—a free trip to ISTE’s annual conference and a one-year professional membership—will help support a young educator at a critical juncture in his or her early career.

If you’re a seasoned educator, I challenge you to invest in developing a younger educator. Perhaps it’s someone in your own school or organization who could benefit from the accumulated wisdom of a trailblazer. Maybe it’s someone you’ve met at a conference who isn’t being nurtured by his or her own administration. Start by alerting them to (or nominating them for) the OYEA, and then keep in touch with them. Your informal mentorship might just be the crucial success factor for retaining this young educator.

And if you’re a young educator yourself, use this time to build your professional learning networks, take advantage of every development opportunity available, and consider applying for the OYEA. Not all of you can be this year’s ISTE Outstanding Young Educator…but all of you have the potential to be outstanding young educators.

As part of ISTE’s advocacy efforts this year, we’re launching a campaign, ISTE’s Top Ten in ’10.  Our goal is to raise awareness about the centrality of education technology to real and lasting school improvement, and its role as a key driver in innovation.

You can read the press release here, and the full Top Ten in ’10 document here.  But for conversation and learning from your peers, stick with ISTE Connects, where we’ll be counting down ISTE’s Top Ten in ’10, two at a time, over the coming weeks.

So let’s get the ball rolling!  ISTE’s #10 and #9 ed tech priorities for the New Year are as follows:

10.

Promote global digital citizenship.  Growing competition in a flat world means technology is a great equalizer. It breaks down artificial barriers to effective teaching and learning, and provides incredible opportunities for collaboration across borders.

9.

Invest in ongoing research and development. Solid investment in education R&D, particularly if focused on innovation in teaching and learning, ensures that we remain a global leader in this strategic domain.

Now it’s your turn.  Do these two ISTE priorities reflect key issues in your region?  What is your school or district doing to promote digital citizenship and invest in R&D?

That isn’t to say that I leave my interest in new technology behind when I shut down for the night. In fact, some of my favorite books read over the last couple years have been ruminations on the way new media is changing communication. Here are a couple of my favorite books addressing new technology:

Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies

Written by researchers at Forrester, Groundswell examines the power of social networks to get people the information they need. This book uses engaging case studies to show that the real value of social media is that it facilitates relationships.

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More

Have an obscure hobby? Are you trying to track down the perfect holiday present for the classic movie buff in your life? Isn’t it great that you can track down just about anything on the Web? Chris Anderson’s book discusses why selling small quantities of specialty items on the Web can be big business.

The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations

Although it was published more than five years ago, The Wisdom of Crowds by 2008 NECC keynoter James Surowiecki still presents one of the most compelling arguments for open access and smartmobs.

I’m going on vacation soon and looking for a new book to read on the plane. What’s your favorite treatise on new technology?

Also, as you may have heard, ISTE Books is offering 20% at the ISTE Bookstore (on top of the ISTE member discount) until Jan. 4, so now is the time to stock up on any ISTE offerings you may have your eye on. Make updating your classroom technology expertise one of your New Years resolutions.