Wheelofnames.com: A Tool Teachers and Presenters Will LOVE

The other day I was designing a writing lesson in which I wanted to create a digital spinner with different prompts. I first launched wheeldecide.com but quickly realized I had a character limit. Then I tried a few other apps but ran into the same issue. I decided to do a quick Google search to find out what else might be out there and that is when I stumbled upon wheelofnames.com and was BLOWN AWAY. Have you tried this? Wow, there are so many great features. Let's take a look:

What is this tool used for?

Wheel of Names is a random selector tool that was designed for choosing winners/names. However, educators could use this for so much more! I was looking for a digital spinner to add different writing prompts to go along with the book, Troll Stinks (affiliate link). As you can see below, I was able to type in my prompts but the entire question did not show up on the wheel piece. However, when I spin the wheel...

The entire prompt pops up once a piece has been selected. What is nice about this tool is that you can click Remove to eliminate that piece from the spinner if you want to spin again. 

Saving Your Spinners

This tool can be used without signing into an account. However, if you wish to use your spinners over and over again or want to create one ahead of time, you can login with your Google account and your lists can be accessed and edited any time under the Open List Tab.

Sharing

There are several different ways you can share your spinners with others to use. One is by clicking Share>Get Shareable Link. The other way is to enter someone's email address by clicking Share>Email List. They can also be embedded into blogs/websites.

Customizing Your Wheel

Under the Customize tab you can choose to add an image in the center of the wheel (If you look above, I added the cover of Troll Stinks to my writing prompt wheel). Other customizations include changing the section colors, spin time, sound and the message that pops up once a name/category has been selected.

 Devices

This web tool works beautifully on Chromebooks, laptops/computers and has been optimized to run well on most mobile phones and tablets. There is not an app but can be accessed through the following browsers:

• Chrome: version 53 and newer
• Safari: version 6 and newer
• Edge: all versions
• Firefox: version 49 and newer
• Samsung Internet: all versions
• Internet Explorer: version 11 (but you can't save colors and other settings)
• Opera: all versions

AWESOME Features

Importing from Google Forms:

If you are giving a presentation and want to choose a winner for completing a survey, create your survey in Google Forms. Be sure to include a question that asks for the attendee's name or email address. Once information has been collected, click on Summary to create the spreadsheet of responses. Then on your Wheelofnames spinner (make sure you are signed in), select Import>Link Google Spreadsheet. Choose your spreadsheet, select which tab and column you would like to pull from and then all of the information you need will be sent to your digital spinner!

Importing Users from Social Media: 
Often times I have attended conference sessions in which the presenter asks attendees to tweet about something from their session using a specific hashtag in order to be entered into a raffle. You can use wheelofnames.com to choose winners! Simply click Import>Import Twitter Users>Enter the hashtag>Click "OK". Users who tweeted your hashtag in the last 24 hours will be imported.
☝However, it only pulls the most recent 20 tweets.

There are many more really cool features that you can read about in the FAQ section of the website HERE.

In the meantime, I need to think of a clever way I could use this emoji spinner I just created🤔:

Update!

You now have the ability to add images to the different spokes of the wheel!

Follow me on Pinterest to get more techie ideas: