Dr. Cassie G. Raulston is an Instructional Technology Specialist for Vestavia Hills City Schools. She is a former Gifted Education Teacher and works with educators across the state to assist with educational technology experiences. She received her doctorate in 2009 from The University of Alabama. She has continued in higher education as an adjunct professor for the University of Alabama and the University of Montevallo, as well as serving as Instructional Technology Specialist for her school. She has conducted numerous technology integration workshops and presented at regional and national conferences.

Dr. Raulston has successfully promoted and integrated the Thinkfinity program resources in K-12 as well as university settings. She was selected based upon her very high evaluation scores and glowing comments from 40 educators and future educators. These numbers do not include the many informal efforts she has implemented to encourage the use of both ALEX (the Alabama Learning Exchange) and Thinkfinity. Additionally, Dr. Raulston has directly helped the state ALEX team to incorporate Thinkfinity resources into a variety of other training programs at the state level.

Last week I was assisting a few teachers by working with a group of students that were researching space. I was able to introduce them to Thinkfinity and not worry about inappropriate sites popping up. (It is great that the content in ALEX and Thinkfinity is already filtered and aligned with state standards.) Within minutes the students discovered a variety of sites to help them with their research. Many of the interactives gave them hands-on experience to help them grasp difficult concepts. This made the other teachers I was working with very excited about utilizing Thinkfinity in their own classroom with other topics.