Freeware, “The Hat”

Lately, people at my campus have stopped me to ask if I am actually carrying tortillas around the halls.  No, I’m not.  The truth is that inside that tortilla basket are slips of paper with the names of my students on them for random drawings.  You see, I occasionally have trouble getting students to volunteer to get up and speak in front of the class.  That’s odd, you say…or perhaps you don’t.  Nevertheless, I just found a free application from Harmony Hollow Software via Classroom Technology that will save me the trouble of having to explain my tortilla basket to those I meet in the halls–and from disappointing them, I might add, when I can’t invite them to share a tortilla with me.  This application is called The Hat.  You simply add names manually to the application or you can import the names from a roster, which are then shuffled into a random order with animation and special sound effects.  Then, when you click on the “Pick,” button, accompanied by a drumroll and a cymbal clap, a slip of paper comes flying out of The Hat with either one name you or a pair of names, depending on your request.  Et, voila! No more tortilla basket to explain or mistakenly leave behind in a classroom.  No more cutting up little slips of paper, time and time again.  You can save that list of names to a file, or you can export the names to a file in order to add a different group of names, importing this list again the next time it is needed.

It is an incredibly simply little application to use, yet a fun and time-saving one that you save right to your computer or to your flash drive.  I hope you enjoy it!