Teaching

I teach Network Communications. That means I teach students how to manage and setup Windows networks with servers, workstations and how to configure them for central management. I'm having a hard time getting them to understand the basic concepts of what is required to have a server running Active Directory and users that exist inside of Active Directory. They just don't seem to get it. They still believe the users exist on the local computer (Manage My Computer). A few got this point, but only after 3 weeks of working with it. [even after a full semester of having it with another instructor]

Another difficult point this semester is this group has a hard time with the basic network concepts like DNS and IP addresses. I believe this may be because we are using VMware to setup the servers and workstations. We have a local only setup with a linux firewall being the 'connection' using NAT to the outside Internet.

Anyways, I want them to actually do this in a lab and not just memorize the book stuff. So I'm having them do a lot of hands-on. They still seem to be taking a long time to internalize this stuff...