They may have to read George Washington's personal letters, Fidel Castro's speeches or John F. Kennedy's accounts of the Cold War. Finding these original documents is easy, even at midnight in pajamas. The Valley High School teacher's Web site offers links to these documents and more. The Internet is becoming a more common learning tool for students from elementary school to high school. Along with teacher's Web sites are commercial sites that link to document archives and online dictionaries, thesauruses and encyclopedias.
Some sites provide bulletin boards to exchange homework questions and answers.
America Online has chat rooms devoted to schoolwork. The West Des Moines school district plans to create a Web page for every teacher from kindergarten to the 12th grade this year. Some teachers in the Des Moines, Ankeny and Johnston districts have their own pages posted on commercial sites. Each of these schools holds open the possibility of a district- wide program in the future. The Web's multimedia abilities can entice students to learn, educators say.