Routers -vs- Switches?

poochie asks "I'm currently in high school taking the Cisco first year course (semester 1 and 2). We're messing around with routers, and I'm starting to get the idea that routers are being outdated. We're learning switches next semester, but from what our instructor says, switches are just more specific to a LAN. In my mind, they seem more versatile in that they actually control their own ports, rather than having a router which is configured to support lans with switches on them, which have to be configured anyway, and make everything more confusing. I dunno about the purpose or the limitations of each, but from what I see, routers make life difficult for small networks. So I guess my question is twofold: Could anyone list resources on the Web about information on routers vs switches, and does anyone see switches taking over routers/hubs in the future, and making network administration a lot easier? "