In 1998, Park Center began a relationship with Cisco Systems by joining the education department and becoming one of many "Cisco Networking Academies" across the world. Cisco Systems is a huge company. If you want to take a quick look at them(impossible cause they are soooo big!), check their main website. They are the leading network company in the world producing hardware and software for networking building and the world. Cisco saw a shortage of networking professionals in the field and devised the Academies as a place to train new professionals in the skills of networking. You can read a summary of the Networking Academies here.

I received training and continue to receive training from Cisco via our Regional Academy currently housed at Anoka Ramsey Community College. There are about 20 other high schools in the Metro area that work with Anoka Ramsey to upgrade our knowledge and skills of networking. NOTE: Mr. Rholl is not a networking professional! The model Cisco chose when they created these Academies was to train teachers to teach networking skills. They recognized that teachers had access to the students, teachers were experts in teaching, and the networking skills could be taught. In my opinion, their logic is slightly flawed but they didn't have many other options. It is hard to find networking professionals that are also skilled teachers. Despite the training I have taken over the last few years, I never feel really qualified because I don't work in the field. Most of the knowledge and skills you will learn in the Intro class are fairly simple and I feel I understand them well. But it always would be nice to bring years of networking experience into the classroom to share with you. Cisco's thought is that you get introduced to networking here in high school and you will have opportunities to fill in the experience gaps later.

One thing to always remember in the computer fields is that no one is an expert at everything. As a high school computer science teacher, I am certainly a "jack of all trades, master of none". I teach a little computer anatomy, a little HTML, a little scripting, a little programming... and yes, a little networking. Students should never feel shy about questioning my knowledge of networking or givin' me a "ya but...". We all are learners and we all are teachers in Computer Science. Share what you know and what you think you know. That is OK!!!

The Cisco Curriculum

Cisco has devised and revised and revised an online curriculum that is used in all Networking Academies across the world. The curriculum you will be using in this class is some of Semester 1 and one Chapter of Semester 2(there are 4 semesters) of the Cisco Certified Networking Associate Program. This is the curriculum that trains you to sit for the CCNA(Cisco Certified Networking Associate) exam. Most of you will not go all the way to complete the 4 Cisco semesters and sit for the certification exam but there is no reason we can't use the curriculum in this intro class. We have put the entire online curriculum on to each computer in the room so you do not have to go through the internet. It is available on the internet at students.netacad.net. You can use the user name and password I give you to access it from any computer in the world. In this room, please use the curriculum on your hard drive for speed sake.

The CCNA curriculum is somewhat interactive in that it has practice quizes and small activities you can do. Much of it is just reading, however. Treat it like reading out of a book. Take notes in a notebook. Each topic we do will have a test on the curriculum. Most of the tests will actually be Cisco created tests that you will take in an online database in California. I will make up a couple of small quizes for you and a final test. Get a notebook for this class. Cisco calls it your "Engineering Journal". You can call it that too if it makes you feel good, or you can call it a notebook. Just get one by tomorrow.

The first thing we are going to do is read the Cisco Curriculum overview. It will walk you through how to use the online curriculum. Please get some headphones from the cabinet as there is talking in this overview. When you are done, begin reading and taking notes on Chapter 1. To get to the Cisco Curriculum, pull down on Favorites on the top of this browser window and select CCNA Sem1. You can also click "Cisco Curriculum" on our Class Web Page. Click on "Take a Quick Curriculum Tour" and begin.


Index Class Schedule Cisco Curriculum students.netacad.net Class Assignments Class PowerPoints