Google Classroom has a new random name selector tool available in the Google Classroom Android app. As announced by Google earlier today the random name selector will randomly pick names from your roster and let you keep track of which students have or have not been called upon.

To use the random name selector in the Google Classroom Android app simply open the app, select your class, tap “people” at the bottom of the screen, and then tap the random name selector at the top of the next screen. The random name picker will let you mark a student as absent if he/she isn’t in class. You can also select “call later” if you want to move on to another student then come back to the first student. Finally, after you have called on a student tap the “next” button to mark that student as having been called upon.

Here are some random name selectors for those who don’t use Google Classroom on an Android phone or tablet. 

Random Name Picker is a free tool from Russel Tarr at Classtools.net. The Random Name Picker lets you input names and spin a virtual wheel to have a name randomly selected from the list. After a name is selected you can remove it from the wheel so that it is not selected again. Random Name Picker is free to use and does not require a registration on Classtools.net. You can save your lists by assigning passwords to them. You can re-use your saved lists. The Random Name Picker wheel can be embedded into your blog or website. The Random Name Picker was written in HTML5 so that it will run in the browser of your iPad.

Flippity.net offers sixteen Google Sheets templates. One of those templates is a random name selector. Simply make a copy of this template, insert your class roster, and then publish your spreadsheet to use Flippity’s random name selector.

The Random Name Selector from Primary Technology is a simple tool for picking names from a list you’ve created. To use the selector just type in or copy a list of names then hit “go.” Once a name is selected you have the option of launching a two minute or seven minute countdown timer. You also have the option to remove a name from the list after it has been selected. Watch the video below to learn a little more and see the Random Name Selector in use.