Gaborone

Teaching computer networking practical can be daunting task especially when teaching a large class of students of around two hundred (200) and using real network devices that are relatively expensive, requiring careful handling. Letting students start experimenting with the networking devices just after receiving theory may be a recipe of disaster. So many things may happen like corrupting, uninstalling, locking of the software and even physical damage of the devices. The resultant is at the end students will not get enough practice and will not be evaluated. In this paper we would want to show why the first hand-on practical in computer networking should be done through the use of interactive simulation and then students may graduate to experimenting with real devices. Some authors believe that simulation must be used in order to facilitate the teaching and learning of computer networking concepts [1]. With this general agreement that simulation plays important role in the teaching and learning of networking we then proposed the set-up of networking laboratory that include one section of simulation machines and the other section of real networking devices