Storytellers

Presenter Background

Thom Dunks is the recently retired Director of Technology at the Santa Cruz County Office of Education in California. Previously, he was a school principal in Santa Cruz County for 25 years. During the nineties, he served as a District Technology Coordinator for 5 years.
He is a technology staff development presenter and was one of the 20 founding cadre members of the Technology Information Center for Administrative Leadership (TICAL) in the state of California.

Thom served on the Regional Council of the California Technology Assistance Project(CTAP)-Region 5. He was active as a Trainer of Trainers in the Institute for Intelligent Behaviors with Arthur Costa and Robert Garmston in the late eighties with a special emphasis on
developing strategies to teach higher-order thinking skills.

His undergraduate major at San Jose State University was Broadcast Communications. He studied radio, television, and film. Thom holds a Masters Degree in School Administration from the University of San Francisco.

In his former school district, Thom created a school wide closed circuit broadcast system and a multi-media center. A rather sophisticated video studio was developed for elementary students and staff.

Thom leads trainings and activities in all areas of technology. Specifically, in multimedia technology, he trains others in the use of computers, video, and digital photography. He has provided training
in many multimedia presentations, desktop publishing, video production, digital editing, podcasting, and Internet research.

The relationship between our schools and the community is among Thom’s highest professional priorities. Technology and the Arts are both phenomenal conduits to nurture and enhance those relationships. We, in education, have a great story to tell and we have awesome tools at
our fingertips to do just that.