August 2006

How to Increase Your School's Use of DLC Resources

Lynden High School, Jeff Baglio, Principal

Lynden High School regularly falls into the top 10 schools with the heaviest use of DLC resources. We caught up with Lynden's principal, Jeff Baglio, toward the end of the 2005-06 school year to talk to him about the story behind the numbers.

Baglio offers the following advice to administrators who are working to increase their school's use of DLC resources:

1. Set the expectation that technology be built into lessons.
2. Provide staff with digital resources. "That's where the DLC comes in."
3. Offer a number of professional development opportunities.

"If I'm going to insist that teachers use technology in their lessons, then they have to have the technology to use and know how to use it," Baglio explains.

Training through the DLC

Lynden has used a wide array of DLC resources, including library databases, college and career planning tools, teaching resources, digital tools, and online courses.

At the beginning of the school year, the DLC led an all-staff training at Lynden to introduce educators to the resources. This was followed up with another training in which educators explored the resources that were most relevant to the work they do.

In addition, ninth- and tenth-grade students received training to learn how to use the resources. Lynden also scheduled DLC trainers to work with students on specific resources, such as college and career planning tools.

Students and staff find relevant resources

Baglio says that what has been most valuable about being a DLC member-school is having access to an "umbrella of resources that are all in one place." Students are able to find relevant resources without being overwhelmed or sidetracked by the tens of thousands of choices they'd get if they went through a general search engine.

Baglio adds, "Students still want to Google. It's just part of their nature. But now teachers can say, 'We're not gonna go there.' "

Baglio says that teachers benefit too. "It frees up time for them as well. Instead of getting inundated with choices and spending a lot of time trying to figure out what's best, teachers can find resources that are more specific to what they're looking for."

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