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In teacher education programmes, text-based portfolios are generally used to assess student-teachers' competence as new teachers. However, striking discrepancies are known to exist between the competencies reflected in a written portfolio and the competencies observed in actual classroom practice. Multiple assessments should be used to provide a more valid assessment of student-teachers' competence as new teachers. Technology can support this kind of multiple and flexible ways of assessment. In a Research & Development project, four types of e-assessments were designed, implemented and evaluated in 27 interventions in 13 post-graduated teacher education programs in the Netherlands. Teacher educators reported positive outcomes of the interventions in terms of new procedures, materials and tools. No significant effects were found of the implementation of the four types of e-assessments on the evaluation by either teacher educators or student-teachers. A possible explanation for this absence of effects might be teething problems of the interventions implemented.

Boys show a stronger preference for digital entertainment games than girls. For this reason, it may be that game-based learning is more acceptable to boys than to girls. Yet game-based learning might improve the performance of both boys and girls, depending upon the instructional design. In a quasi-experimental study with a secret-trail game, effects were examined on students' subject-matter knowledge. Analysis of covariance revealed that both boys and girls of the game intervention group showed a higher test performance, compared to students of the control group. However, different game activities mediated this effect of the secret-trail game on performance: girls seemed to profit more from searching the Internet to complete assignments and boys from competing with others. The performance of both boys and girls was negatively influenced by technical problems. The results are discussed within the framework of gender-inclusive game design.

A mobile and multimedia game designed for History education was analyzed in terms of how it is designed and how it was applied as a narrative learning environment. In History education, narrative can be argued to be very useful to overcome fragmentation of the knowledge of historical characters and events, by relating these with meaningful connections of temporality and sequence (storification). In the game studied, students explore the history of Amsterdam by walking in the city, experiencing characters, buildings, and events, while using UMTS/GPS phones for communication and exchange of information. The History game was played during one day by 216 students, spread over 10 secondary school classes, in groups of four or five students. All information exchanged during the games was collected, and the game play and introduction of the game was observed by team coaches and researchers. The design of the game as well as the actual gaming process was analyzed with respect to how it evoked three types of storification: receiving (spectator), constructing (director) and participating in (actor) the story. Results show that the game evoked a mixture of these three types of storification. Moreover, these types of storification processes differently affected students' engagement. Participating in the story evoked high activity in the game but less awareness of the whole story, whereas constructing the story triggered awareness of the whole story. Compared to receiving the story, both these types positively affected the engagement of the students being active and motivated during the game. (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.)