Kerpoof and Rip.Mix.Feed

I created a story using kerpoof.com. I was motivated to explore this application because of my final group project on graphic novel creation. I am always looking for new and engaging tools for story creation in my elementary classroom. Kerpoof.com offers a few different choices for story creation including Movie Making,Tell a Story and Make a Picture. Students are able to tap into their personal learning styles and find an entry point into their work no matter what level they are at. Something new on the kerpoof.com site is a mobile app. This would open doors for students to participate in knowledge building activities anywhere, anytime. Kerpoof allows for discussion connected to online safety and security as students do not give out personal information to be a member. Responsible digital citizenship is another important discussion that can arise from using this platform as students must make responsible choices when choosing to share their work with a global audience if they choose. The differentiation that is already built into this site for my learners was appealing.

I have created a story about teenagers and the impact of social media using the analogy of “snowball applications”. My story can be viewed at the link below.

http://www.kerpoof.com/#/view?s=2gs11ea@jgo3cgi1c000-d-4ce7e2-x

Some drawbacks I found with this program included the multiple steps to creating a story, saving it then finding it again when logging on again. There seemed to be an increased amount of time involved with loading the program each time a screen change occurred. Not sure how patient my upper elementary students would be with this many steps and waiting for loading. I do think it is a program worth investigating some more though as I found the more I worked with it, as with any program, the more savvy I became with creating.

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3 Responses to Kerpoof and Rip.Mix.Feed

  1. esarbit says:

    Thanks for sharing this!
    For younger students – ToonDoo may be easier for creating graphic novels (https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540sept13/2013/11/25/rip-mix-feed-toondoo/)
    Also looks like we have a similar interest in the impact of social media … check out our research project (https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540sept13/2013/11/24/social-media-and-literacy-exploring-how-social-media-is-changing-our-definition-of-literacy/)

  2. laurenmacd says:

    I like the story that you created and the look and of kerploof. It felt like I was really reading a books I turned the pages. I am really enjoying the rip.mix.feed activities as it is great to hear the opinions of colleagues on the different tools. When I was “reading” your story I was thinking that this would be a great tool to use with my grade 2 students to create a storybook themselves. But knowing that the pages took awhile to load and that there were a lot of steps involved, I may instead use it myself to create stories that they can access to read. Thanks for sharing!
    Cheers!

  3. msheidi says:

    I too liked the page turning option. I agree that using a tool like this would allow you to teach digital citizenship and safety to your students. I also think digital storytelling is a great way to engage students in creating, writing, and sharing stories.

    As I explored the tool a little, I did not find it so easy to use. While it was advertised as a free program, I found I was limited. I could not access very many scenes in “Make a Movie,” and I found the images in “Spell a Picture” hard to see. In “Tell a Story” I wished that I could create my own scene or characters. I wanted to change the movement positions of my characters, but this was not an option (that I could find).

    I recently tried out Bitstrips to create comics and really appreciated that not only could I design my own characters and scenes, but I could also change the movement/positions of my characters as well as their facial expressions. It was really simple to use. For animation stories, I experimented with Domo Animate. Although more appropriate for upper elementary students because of its complexity, it allows students more creativity in developing their stories.

    Can anyone recommend other digital storytelling tools that offer users options while at the same time being simple to use? I would love a tool that offers the page turning option.

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