https://bytesizedacademy.org/ 2026-10-19 https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/ 2026-10-19 https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/what-is-a-network/ 2026-10-11 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-11-ep01/thumbnail.png What is a network? Two devices and one cable is all it takes. From your home Wi-Fi to the whole internet, it's networks all the way up. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-11-ep01/video.mp4 56 2026-10-11T00:00:00-07:00 yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-11-ep01/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/what-is-electricity/ 2026-10-17 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep01c/thumbnail.png What is electricity? Electricity isn't stuff pouring out of the wall. It's the push on electrons that are already in the wire, and the energy that push carries. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep01c/video.mp4 55 2026-10-17T07:20:00Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep01c/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/north-america-in-1491/ 2026-10-17 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep01h/thumbnail.png North America in 1491 In 1491, the year before Columbus sailed, millions of people already lived in North America, in hundreds of nations that spoke hundreds of languages and lived in very different ways. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep01h/video.mp4 51 2026-10-17T07:30:00Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep01h/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/what-is-money-really/ 2026-10-17 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep01m/thumbnail.png What is money, really? A $20 bill is just paper, so why does everyone take it? Money solves the problems of barter, and today's dollar is fiat money, backed by taxes, the law and trust instead of gold. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep01m/video.mp4 55 2026-10-17T07:40:00Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep01m/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/router-vs-switch-vs-modem/ 2026-10-11 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-11-ep02/thumbnail.png Router vs switch vs modem That "router" on your shelf is usually three devices in a trench coat. Here's what each one does. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-11-ep02/video.mp4 61 2026-10-11T00:00:00-07:00 yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-11-ep02/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/voltage-current-and-resistance/ 2026-10-17 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep02c/thumbnail.png Voltage, current and resistance Every circuit has a push, a flow and a squeeze. The water-pipe picture makes voltage, current and resistance easy to remember. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep02c/video.mp4 52 2026-10-17T07:50:00Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep02c/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/canada-before-europeans/ 2026-10-17 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep02h/thumbnail.png Canada before Europeans People lived in what is now Canada for more than 10,000 years before any European ship arrived. Around 1500, many nations with their own languages, laws and ways of life lived across the land. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep02h/video.mp4 56 2026-10-17T08:00:00Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep02h/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/what-is-inflation/ 2026-10-17 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep02m/thumbnail.png Inflation Inflation means prices across the economy rise over time, so each dollar buys a little less. Here is what causes it, how it is measured, and why central banks aim for about 2%. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep02m/video.mp4 55 2026-10-17T08:10:00Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep02m/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/what-is-an-ip-address/ 2026-10-11 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-11-ep03/thumbnail.png What is an IP address? Every device online has an address, just like your house. Here's how to read one. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-11-ep03/video.mp4 64 2026-10-11T00:00:00-07:00 yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-11-ep03/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/ohms-law/ 2026-10-18 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-18-ep03c/thumbnail.png Ohm's law V = I × R ties voltage, current and resistance together. Know any two and you can work out the third. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-18-ep03c/video.mp4 51 2026-10-19T03:50:00Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-18-ep03c/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/cahokia/ 2026-10-17 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep03h/thumbnail.png Cahokia Around 1100, Cahokia, near today's St. Louis, was home to 10,000 to 20,000 people and more than 100 earthen mounds. By about 1350 it was mostly empty, and historians still debate why. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep03h/video.mp4 48 2026-10-17T21:30:00Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep03h/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/interest-renting-money/ 2026-10-18 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-18-ep03m/thumbnail.png Interest: renting money Interest is rent for money. Borrowers pay it to use someone else's money, savers earn it when the bank uses theirs, and the interest rate says how big the rent is each year. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-18-ep03m/video.mp4 50 2026-10-19T04:00:00Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-18-ep03m/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/what-is-a-mac-address/ 2026-10-12 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-12-ep04/thumbnail.png What is a MAC address? Your phone has two addresses, and one of them came from the factory. Here's what it is and how it works with your IP address. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-12-ep04/video.mp4 61 2026-10-12T18:00:00Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-12-ep04/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/conductors-vs-insulators/ 2026-10-19 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-19-ep04c/thumbnail.png Conductors vs insulators Wires are copper on the inside and plastic on the outside because copper lets electrons flow easily and plastic holds them tight. One conducts, one insulates. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-19-ep04c/video.mp4 58 2026-10-19T18:20:00Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-19-ep04c/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/the-haudenosaunee-confederacy/ 2026-10-17 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep04h/thumbnail.png The Haudenosaunee Confederacy Five Haudenosaunee nations in what is now upstate New York joined under the Great Law of Peace, with a shared council and clan mothers who choose the chiefs. The Tuscarora joined in 1722, and the Confederacy still exists today. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep04h/video.mp4 54 2026-10-17T21:35:00Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep04h/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/simple-vs-compound-interest/ 2026-10-19 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-19-ep04m/thumbnail.png Simple vs compound interest Simple interest pays only on the money you started with. Compound interest pays interest on your interest too, so the same money at the same rate can end up more than twice as big. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-19-ep04m/video.mp4 57 2026-10-19T18:10:00Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-19-ep04m/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/public-vs-private-ip/ 2026-10-13 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-13-ep05/thumbnail.png Public vs private IP Google has never seen your laptop's IP address. Here's the difference between private addresses inside your home and the one public address the internet sees. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-13-ep05/video.mp4 65 2026-10-13T17:00:00Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-13-ep05/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/why-europe-sailed-west/ 2026-10-17 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep05h/thumbnail.png Why Europe sailed west In the 1400s, spices from India and Southeast Asia reached Europe through a long chain of middlemen, each adding a markup. Portugal and Spain, shut out of those profits, looked for their own sea routes to Asia: Portugal around Africa, Spain west across the Atlantic. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep05h/video.mp4 52 2026-10-17T21:47:00Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep05h/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/what-is-dns/ 2026-10-14 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-14-ep06/thumbnail.png What is DNS? Your computer has no idea what "google.com" means. DNS, the internet's contacts app, turns the names you type into the IP addresses computers use. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-14-ep06/video.mp4 58 2026-10-14T01:02:00Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-14-ep06/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/vikings-in-canada/ 2026-10-19 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-19-ep06h/thumbnail.png Vikings in Canada Norse sailors from Greenland reached North America about 500 years before Columbus. Their camp at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, found in 1960, held eight sod-and-wood buildings and an iron forge, and tree rings prove they were there in 1021. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-19-ep06h/video.mp4 61 2026-10-19T18:00:00Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-19-ep06h/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/what-happens-when-you-type-a-url/ 2026-10-15 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-15-ep07/thumbnail.png What happens when you type a URL? You type a web address and press Enter. Here are the six steps that happen before the page appears, often in well under a second. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-15-ep07/video.mp4 59 2026-10-14T03:11:50Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-15-ep07/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/what-is-a-packet/ 2026-10-16 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-16-ep08/thumbnail.png What is a packet? Your streaming movie doesn't arrive in one piece. It arrives as thousands of small packets, each labeled with where it's from, where it's going and which piece it is. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-16-ep08/video.mp4 59 2026-10-14T04:14:05Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-16-ep08/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/lan-vs-wan/ 2026-10-17 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep09/thumbnail.png LAN vs WAN Your house is a LAN. The internet is a WAN. Here's the difference between a local area network and a wide area network, and where your router fits. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep09/video.mp4 56 2026-10-14T05:17:06Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep09/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/network-topologies/ 2026-10-18 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-18-ep10/thumbnail.png Network topologies Every network picked a shape. Here's how star, mesh and spine-leaf networks are wired, and what each one is good at. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-18-ep10/video.mp4 55 2026-10-14T07:07:09Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-18-ep10/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/the-osi-model-7-layers/ 2026-10-14 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-14-ep11/thumbnail.png The OSI model: 7 layers Every message you send goes down seven layers and back up seven on the other side. Here's what each OSI layer does, and one silly sentence to remember them all. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-14-ep11/video.mp4 57 2026-10-14T16:00:00Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-14-ep11/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/osi-the-two-halves/ 2026-10-15 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-15-ep11b/thumbnail.png OSI: the two halves The bottom three OSI layers move your data across the network. The top four only run on the two ends, your device and the server, and make that data useful. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-15-ep11b/video.mp4 54 2026-10-15T16:00:00Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-15-ep11b/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/tcp-ip-vs-osi/ 2026-10-16 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-16-ep12/thumbnail.png TCP/IP vs OSI There's the networking model you learn, with seven layers, and the one the internet actually runs on, with four. Here's how the TCP/IP model maps onto OSI. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-16-ep12/video.mp4 58 2026-10-16T18:00:00Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-16-ep12/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/tcp-vs-udp/ 2026-10-17 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep13/thumbnail.png TCP vs UDP Both carry your data across the internet. TCP checks every delivery and resends what's lost; UDP just fires packets and keeps going. Here's when each one wins. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep13/video.mp4 57 2026-10-17T14:00:00Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-17-ep13/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/tcp-three-way-handshake/ 2026-10-18 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-18-ep14/thumbnail.png The TCP three-way handshake Almost every website you open starts with a three-step greeting. Here's how TCP's SYN, SYN-ACK and ACK set up a connection, and how TCP resends anything that gets lost. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-18-ep14/video.mp4 63 2026-10-18T17:00:00Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-18-ep14/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/lessons/ports-and-common-port-numbers/ 2026-10-19 https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-19-ep15/thumbnail.png Ports and common port numbers An IP address gets data to the right device; a port number gets it to the right app. Here are the four port numbers to learn first. https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-19-ep15/video.mp4 53 2026-10-19T18:30:00Z yes https://media.bytesizedacademy.org/2026-10-19-ep15/thumbnail.png https://bytesizedacademy.org/about/ 2026-10-11 https://bytesizedacademy.org/privacy/ 2026-10-11 https://bytesizedacademy.org/terms/ 2026-10-11