We are currently in the demanding process of the digital transformation in schools. This includes two
major challenges. The first is the provision of the necessary hardware equipment and network
connectivity for students and teachers. The second challenge is to find well-designed integrated
software applications to support the learning processes inside and outside schools. We developed the
Ambient Learning Spaces (ALS) platform as a didactic infrastructure for schools. In comparison to
Learning Management Systems (LMS), ALS focuses on self-directed learning inside and outside
school. The pervasive ALS platform consists of multiple interrelated teaching and learning applications
(modules) that can be accessed through stationaries (e.g. PCs, multi-touch walls, dome projections)
and mobiles (e.g. wearables, smartphones, tablets). During the development of the ALS platform, we
studied how students and teachers can be enabled to create high quality media content with low effort.
In schools we observed that almost all students had access to mobile phones, which allow them to
record images, audio and video. To enable students to process these recordings, we developed
VideoEdit, a web-based tool. We analyzed scenarios for video creation and processing in connection
with diverse learning applications and implemented the video editing functions identified as
mandatory. The VideoEdit application supports mobile upload functionality, so students can upload
recorded files directly into the ALS platform without a need for USB cables or the like. Once the files
are uploaded, they find an easy to understand set of functions such as cutting and merging files,
adding new audio tracks, adding text overlays and some effects. Once the cloud-based rendering
process is initiated, the resulting video file will become automatically available to all ALS applications
through our cloud-based backend system NEMO (Network Environment for Multimedia Objects).
Using the NEMO backend, all ALS frontend applications can access the same multimedia repository
with device-specific rendering of image and video formats and resolutions. NEMO stores information
in semantic structures using different databases to support search and discovery of media and related
information available. In this publication, we present the architecture, design, and evaluation results of
VideoEdit.