With the economy how it is, a lot of people are calling for a mandatory personal finance class for high school students.  I think that's a great idea, but it makes me think of a different topic that I think everyone should learn about:  The Internet

From online banking to Facebook, it's virtually impossible to escape daily computer use.  I don't think technology users need to understand how to program or how to put together a computer, but understanding the basics of the internet seems pretty important to me.

Here's a case where a little basic knowledge would help out a lot.  I get a lot of I.T. related questions from people where they can't get online.  They tell me, "The internet isn't working.  Can you fix it?"  Most of the time the internet isn't the problem.  Either the router is broken or the computer doesn't have any enabled network adapters or something like that.

With that in mind, here are a few concepts that I think everyone should be taught in high school (this is all dumbed down, but the concepts work):

• Modem - A modem is the hardware that connects you to the outside world.  It generally doesn't do anything except take in data from some signal (such as cable or DSL) and convert it into a standard network signal (The kind transferred using ethernet cables).
• Router - This is the blue thing that looks like an alien and says "Linksys" on it.  Your router is not your connection to the internet.  The router is what creates a local network.  Rather than plugging one computer directly into another computer or a modem, a router allows several different network devices to communicate together using local IP addresses.  Your router is the reason multiple computers can share the same internet connection.
• Computer - Your computer runs files locally, but it can gain access to files using a network connection.  If you look at a web page, that page is downloaded to your computer and then displayed to you.  If you're streaming music, the data is sent to your computer and then played.  Computers aren't some magical portal to a series of tubes.
• Troubleshooting - If your computer can't connect to a network, it's either because your network card isn't working or the router isn't working.  If you're on a network but websites won't load it's either because your router and modem aren't playing nicely together or your modem isn't getting a connection to the outside world.  The go-to diagnostic move is plugging your computer directly into the modem.
• Web Servers - Servers are just computers sitting in a room somewhere.  There's nothing fundamentally different about a server that makes them special.  They are connected to a local network just like your computer and the way they serve web pages is through an internet connection not unlike yours.
• Web Pages - Web pages are just text files for the most part.  A server (which is just a computer with an internet connection) sends your computer a text file (and some images) and your computer takes all that and figures out how to display a web page.