- Creative Activities are Free
- No Software to Download (and Aggravate your School District's IT Staff)
- No License to Purchase, to Keep Track of, to Renew
- Art that is Accessible from any Internet-connected computer
- Lesson Plans and Connections to Standards for Three States (Maryland, Texas and Washington)
Check out Kerpoof Scholastics™ at:
Link to Kerpoof
Check out Kerpoof's Educator Flyer at:
Kerpoof Teachers' Flyer
Kerpoof™ provides the drawing tools that create art from scratch using:
- Background Scenes
- Characters
- Objects and Artifacts
Better yet, Kerpoof creates animations for pictures, stories and movies.
Kerpoof is great for kids home during the long, dull summer months (without their school fix)…with nothing to do but play "shoot-um-up, fight and kill" video games. (Oops! I forgot the auto theft, beach-vollyball and pilfering "ancient cultural artifacts& games.)
And, the Kerpoof™ interface is available in English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Italian, Chinese and (I think) Polish. Although, the language interface is only skin deep, and quickly reverts to English after the initial menus.
Dreams that Never Come True
Kerpoof™ seems like a dream until you scratch deeper into its Terms of Service and Newsletter Archives.
Here you will find some "gotchas" that "turn your smile upside down." Here is the "Tell-it-like-it-is" rest of the story…
- You can make Avatars, i.e., persona characters, but the Kerpoof™ folks are going to charge you $4.39 per month, $27.79 for six months or $44.79 per year
- The newsletter will be halted during the summer (when many teacher ramp up their yearly planning)
- The Lesson Plans lack breadth and depth, in both curricular savvy and broad curricula application
- You cannot copy and sell the pictures that you create with Kerpoof
- Kerpoof™ Terms of Service states that the company (Kerpoof, LLC) owns all rights to the art that is created by you or your students
So, what seems like a a cannon of a usable teacher tool becomes only a pop gun toy for curricular and instructional use.
Out of Touch with Real Teaching
Kerpoof would be valuable if the company didn't place outlandish requirements on the use of its software.
Imagine the Open Source advocates anguish if Google™ announced that its online word processor, Google Docs would remain free to use, but any and all documents that teachers and students write with it become the property of Google™.
Take a tour of Google™ Docs…
This would be enough to shift these Microsoft™-hating folks into a "paranoid-rant" against Google™. (Of course Google™ folks are way to smart to pull a "bone head" maneuver like this.)
This Terms of Service miscue on the part of the Kerpoof Developers prevents teachers from using the software in curricular ways such as illustrations for…
- Storyboards, Worksheets and Graphic Organizers
- PowerPoint™ Presentations
- Desktop Videos
- Writing Prompts
- Pictographs
- Holiday Bulletin Boards, Banners and Other Motivational Art
What the Kerpoof™ product developers fail to understand is that creating graphics is time intensive, and that no creative teacher that is using a drawing program for curricular purposes is going to put in the work if they do not own the copyright to the completed writing project.
Sidebar
Note: This is the reason that Classroom Toolkit always allow participating and partner authors to retain full copyright for any of their contributions.
The Kerpoof™ Terms of Service also violates many school districts' policies about owning the rights to all the work that their teachers do. In the case where a teacher works for a school district that claims that all work that the teacher creates is "Work for Hire," these teachers must exercise caution since when using Kerpoof™ since Kerpoof™ also is making a claim on their work.
Another shortcoming of the Kerpoof™ product is that the characters and objects seem bound to certain scenes. So, for example, a creative student is not able to take a vampire from a Halloween scheme and let this character face the inevitable conflict with Cupid from a Valentine's scene, or maybe with Santa from a Winter Holiday scene…a splash of cold water on some students' creativity (no matter how warped that some might think that creativity to be).
Sidebar
One other thing that teachers must be able to do with the graphics they create using their valuable "free" time is to take screen shots of those graphics for use wherever they want, whenever they need.
The premier program for doing just that is TechSmith™'s Snagit. (Note: Free trial available.)
Slap at Student Self-Esteem
Worse than Kerpoof™ claiming ownership of teachers' creative work, Kerpoof™ claims ownership of students' work as well.
This is the opposite of what Master Teachers tell students, i.e., "All your work is your work and valuable in its own right. Be proud of your work because you own the copyright to it, and your right to that intellectual property is protected by law."
Final Review
The folks at Kerpoof™ seem to be moving away from a teacher-support focus towards one of business and money-making.
In addition, there may be some legal and security issues if a teacher tries to upload user accounts for students that in any way compromise those students' confidentiality.
But, if time (and creating Kerpoof™ represents a substantial investment of time to create and edit a picture) is compared to measurable student outcomes, then teachers cannot afford to direct students to activities that do not show and document measurable student curricular outcomes.
So, in an era of one-computer classrooms because of budget shortfalls, this leaves teachers only to recommend Kerpoof™ to parents and students as an after school and weekend diversion. If students derive any academic skills or curricular learning, then so be it. Otherwise, teachers will retain their instructional outcome focus.
So, recommend Kerpoof™, but be sure to caution students that the work that they create will not be their own.
This shortcoming of Kerpoof™ can become great fodder for a class in Civics, Debate or Government where students can explore and express their opinions about whether this policy is fair. An issue such as some company claiming ownership of their work should motivate students to express the injustice, and prompt vocal outcries for protest and class action. Or, this discussion and strong reaction can be fodder for a Math class where student opinions can be tabulated, tallied, and graphed.
Sidebar
Better than fiddling with Kerpoof™ for Math class, use software that was made-to-order for math, i.e., Kidspiration™ Inspiration™ and Inspiredata™. (Note: Free trials of each program are available.)
These software program are probably available in your school district, now. And, you can use the output of these programs to do many of the things listed in this article that the Kerpoof™ Terms of Service do not allow you to do.
In summary, Kerpoof™ offers free online drawing tools that have game-appeal for young students, but limited practical value for teachers.
And, the Kerpoof™ Terms of Service preclude our students learning that everything that they create is valuable. This spark (of intellectual property ownership) to our students' creativity and self-esteem is far more valuable than any cut and "paste, drag and drop" online tool that our students might use in their free time.
