Kerpoof.com (www.kerpoof.com)
© 2007 Kerpoof, Ltd.
Note: in 2009, Kerpoof was acquired by Disney, and the company was asked to make the creativity portal for Disney.com. The Kerpoof site still operates, free of Disney branding. See also: Disney Create. Well-designed, free (with subscription teasers) and powerful, this online creativity kit has grown up since we first reviewed it nearly two years ago, when it was mostly an electronic flannel board. Recently acquired by Disney, the free, Flash-based site offers children five rich creativity activities, making it possible to make sketches, greeting cards, drawings, movies and multi-page stories with tools partially funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant. Besides being free and easy to use, the best part about this service is that it runs on any current browser -- Mac or Windows, with no downloads. New features include a token system, where children earn "Koins" hidden behind certain features and icons that they can spend at a special store that sells more stickers, patterns, new movie sets, characters and avatar parts. The core of the site remains the electronic flannel board that makes it easy to drag and drop smart stickers onto over 80 backdrops. Each scene contains theme-related items that automatically resize, based on the scene's perspective. For example, in the firehouse, you can position firefighters and equipment as needed. A firefighter positioned in the back of the picture looks smaller; when moved to the front, it grows. In addition, moving a light source -- such as the sun -- around the screen changes the lighting accordingly. At various points in the experience, children are shown interesting items that are off limits unless they subscribe (e.g., "many of the items for sale in the Kerpoof store are for members only"). These premiums include the ability to form groups (e.g., for a teacher's classroom), buddy painting (a very interesting collaborative drawing tool, for two children), and so on. It is still easy to save and print work. In addition, it is easy for children to rate and comment on another child's work. Because any scene can be saved (per free registration) or modified, Kerpoof is like a coloring book mashup, where ideas can be downloaded, modified and re-shared. Costs for membership range from $4.39/month to $44.79/year, although there is enough content (as of March 2009) available for free to make this site well worth the bookmark.
$4.39, Internet Site
Teaches: art, creativity
CTR Rating: 94%