Have you ever wanted to choose teams or groups in class quickly, randomly and without the hassle of students trying to organise themselves into groups? Team Shake is an iPad app for randomly selecting names to create teams or to select an individual name. On Team Shake you can create rosters by manually entering names or by importing a list of names. When you are ready to choose teams just select the number of teams that you want created, shake your iPad, and then each person is randomly assigned to a team.
To use Team Shake to randomly select an individual name for a task just open a roster then choose “pick random player.” From the same menu you can exclude names from a list. So if you have an absent student you can simply exclude his or her name from your roster when go to create teams or randomly select an individual name.
The thought driving this post is the power of collaboration. Students need to understand and experience the dynamic of working with others. It is what most people do every day of their working life and although the future is uncertain, having the skill of being great at collaborating with others is vital. This little tool will enable group work to be organised just a bit easier!