WeVideo a Winner

WeVideo

WeVideo is a free video editing software that works with your Chrome browser (download for free from the Chrome Webstore).  WeVideo is easy to use and provides users with a multi-tiered experience for the user from a novice mode where users arrange video on a storyboard up to experts.  I like accessing the timeline mode for students - can be accessed in their menus.  

Some of the features include the ability to drag and drop your clips in any order to put together your video.  You can also split longer clips or trim them to edit out unwanted video.  You can add titles and captions, video effects, music, and transitions to your project to add a professional look.  Voice-overs and video can be directly add using your devices’ camera and microphone.  

The WeVideo Interface

We video is available on the Chrome browser (thus any computer and Chromebooks) and there is a WeVideo app available for both iOS and Android devices.  You can load your raw video directly to your Google Drive and then upload it to WeVideo from there.  WeVideo will add a folder (WeVideo) where projects are stored.  Once you are ready to publish you can upload directly to YouTube or Google Drive. 

The free version (the only one I have experience with) provides the user with 10gb of storage and 5 minutes of publish time per month with up to 720p quality and a WeVideo watermark at the end of the video.  WeVideo is easy to use and provides the average user quite a powerful tool for creating, editing, and publishing small video projects.

You can import media to WeVideo from a number of different social sites

WeVideo also has purchased options.  There K-12 license is $249 per year or $149 for 6 months.  This package allows for 50 users with 10GB of storage each and 1 hour of publishing time a month per user.  This also includes premium their editing tools and the ability to collaborate on video projects.

I’ve worked with the free version with users from 6th up to 12th Grade and was impressed by the low learning curve.  Students were able to get up and running and editing their videos with relative ease.  Bandwidth did appear to be a problem when we had a large number of students trying to upload their videos clips from their mobile devices all at once but once we got over that hurdle we were able to function fairly well.  

Having worked with other video editors in the past in a classroom setting I am wowed by WeVideo’s ability to provide a cloud-based video editor that can truly be used by anyone.