The Moss-Free Stone

Digital storytelling is a hot topic in education these days, and for good reason. When creating digital stories, students not only write, they collaborate, apply technology skills, create, and critique. They have the opportunity to create a product that is meaningful and engaging.

A tool that has been around for awhile, but that I am finding is still relatively unknown, is Kerpoof. Kerpoof has tools that allow students to create drawings, drag-and-drop scenes, virtual story books, greeting cards, and animated movies. At a regional conference where I shared the tool last week, the response was pure excitement, as teachers saw the great possibilities for students to create stories in a format that is very engaging to them, the cartoon. Kerpoof is designed to be kid-friendly, although content is available to anyone (The site claims fans from 2 to 90!). Accounts are required to save and share content, but the basic tools of Kerpoof are free.

The drawing (Super Doodle), picture-creation, and storybook tools are easy to master. Essentially, users simply select a setting image to get started. Next, images such as characters or scenery are added by dragging and dropping into the scene. Images may be resized, flipped, or moved forward or backward in the scene, even changing size automatically as perception changes. Additionally, users can add speech balloons or text to create more of a sense of sense of story. Text items appear with traditional comicbook style, a nice touch.

The part of the site that excites me the most is the movie creation tool. This tool, again, uses drag-and-drop to create scenes. Additionally, users can add music and, most exciting, animation. This is accomplished by setting “waypoints”, which act as destinations for character movements. Additionally, characters and items include their own, unique animations, including displays of emotion. I imagine a classroom working in groups, writing stories and creating story boards, then creating, publishing, and sharing their videos. Students would then view one another’s stories, rate them (using the stars system in Kerpoof), and offer their critiques/compliments to the producers. I’ve created a couple of videos demonstrating the basics of animation using the site. Give it a try and let me know what you think about its usefulness!

Kerpoof Animation, Part 1

Kerpoof Animation, Part 2