WheelSpinner.net: A Powerful Tool For Educators and Presenters

In previous weeks, I created a digital spinner with multiple writing but quickly realized I had a character limit. Later, I tried a few other apps and encountered the same issue.

I decided to do a quick Google search to see if I could find anything else out there. After finding Wheel Spinner I couldn’t believe my eyes. Have you tried it? Wow, it's got some cool features. Let's take a look:

For what purpose is this tool used?

The Wheel of Names was developed for choosing winners/names in contests. Although educators can use this for so much more! I found this spinner while looking for different writing prompts to go along with the book, Troll Stinks (affiliate link).

You can see below that I was able to type my prompts, but the entire question did not appear on the wheel piece. However, when I turn the wheel it.

After selecting a piece, the entire prompt pops up. It's great that they have that remove option so you can spin again if you do not want the piece to appear on the spinner again.

The Saving of Spinners

This tool does not require that you have an account to use it. However, if you want to use your spinners again or create a new one beforehand, you can sign in with your Google account, and your lists go under the Open List tab.

Thanks for sharing!

You can share your spinners in a variety of ways depending on who you want to share them with. Click Share>Get Shareable Link.

Another way to add someone is to click Share>Email List to enter their email address. You can also embed them into your blog/website.

Wheel Customization

You can choose to add a picture in the center of your writing prompt wheel under the Customize tab below (if you look above, I added the cover of Troll Stinks to my writing prompt wheel).

Also customization are the section colors, the spin time, sound, and the message that's displayed after the name/category has been selected.

The devices

Chromebooks, laptops/computers, and mobile devices with a reasonable resolution work perfectly with this web tool. Although there is no app, you can access it from the following browsers:

• Chrome: version 53 and up

• Safari: version 6 or newer

• Edge: the latest versions

• Version 49 and newer of Firefox

• All versions of Samsung Internet

• Internet Explorer: version 11 (but you cannot save the color schemes and pre-sets).

• Internet Explorer: all versions

Amazing Features

From Google Forms: Importing:

Create a Google Forms survey if you need to choose a winner for completing a survey during a presentation.

Make sure your email to attendees includes a question to ask for their name or email address. Click Summary to form the list of responses once the information is gathered.

After that, select Import>Google Spreadsheet from your Wheelofnames spinner if you are logged in. Select your spreadsheet.

Select which tab and column you would like information from, and then it will be sent to the spinner.

User import from social media:

At conferences, I have often attended sessions where the presenter has asked attendees to tweet about something from their session using a specific hashtag to be entered in a raffle.

You can use wheelspinner.net to choose winners! Simply click Import>Import Twitter Users>Enter the hashtag>Click "OK".

For now, I'll have to think of a clever way I could use this emoji spinner I just created.