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There are a wide range of equally valid approaches to teaching networking. One approach is to teach internetworking technologies (switches, routers). However, an extensive analysis of educational materials in this area has indicated that these devices are typically treated as' black boxes'. This is contrary to educational theory that supports the need for a conceptual model. Two state models were designed and used as the pedagogical foundation of network curriculum. These models are valid for different levels of technical complexity and work to date strongly suggests they support student learning. Based on these results the models have been further developed.