Random selection is a key engagement strategy. In fact, calling on random non-volunteer students is one of our Ceres Instructional Norms. Teachers can use many creative methods of picking students randomly. Popsicle sticks are a popular low-tech option; we've also seen teachers employ a wide variety of apps. Whether or not you've used technology for random selection, you've had to invest some time in writing your students' names on sticks and/or typing them into a random-picker app.
The good news is that Google Classroom's Android app now has a built-in random student selector. This means that you can now select students directly from your Google Classroom roster with just a few taps on your cell phone screen. Best of all, your student selection will automatically update when your roster changes throughout the year.
Check out our brief video demo here:
If you don't already have the Google Classroom app for your Android device, follow the link below to install it. Unfortunately, Google hasn't added this functionality to the iOS or web versions of Classroom ... at least, not yet.
We'd love to hear from you about this exciting new feature. If you'd like to share your thoughts about random selection, drop us a line on our Feedback
Stay Techie,
Correction: This page was updated on October 16 to reflect the fact that the Random Selection function isn't available for iOS yet. Thank you to George Somers who caught the mistake.
For clarification purposes, the student picker functionality does not yet exist for iOS (Apple) phones. I'm looking forward to that day.