<span>Electronic supported assessment or e-Assessment is a field of growing importance, but it has yet to make a significant impact in the Australian higher education sector (Byrnes &amp; Ellis, 2006). Current computer based assessment models focus on the assessment of knowledge rather than deeper understandings, using multiple choice type questions, and blocking access to more sophisticated software tools. This study explored a new system based on a customised version of an open source live CD, based on Ubuntu which was used with three groups of pre-service teachers (N=270). Students had divided opinions about using computers or paper for their examinations, but prior exposure to computer based assessment was a highly significant factor for preferring the computer medium. Reflecting upon their experience, students found the noise of computer keyboards a distraction during the eExamination and preferred fewer on-screen windows. The new system allowed eExaminations to be taken securely on student owned laptop computers and was supervised by invigilators without specialist information technology skills. The system has been made available for other researchers to use at</span><a href="http://www.eexaminations.org/">http://www.eExaminations.org/</a>

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Few contemporary pre‐service teachers would have completed their schooling with the extensive aid of computers. Yet, classroom use of information and communication technology (ICT) is now ubiquitous in much of the world. Today's pre‐service teachers are the ‘cusp generation’ who, at a unique moment in history, straddle the two worlds of the ballpoint pen and the computer mouse. This study examined pre‐service teachers' beliefs about their stakeholder role in terms of influencing ICT innovation and adoption. The pre‐service teachers expected their future pupils to learn with computers much more extensively than they had; however, their beliefs about the transformative use of ICT in schooling were divergent. To address these findings, a teaching intervention was designed, which enabled pre‐service teachers to ‘envision’ their practice in the digital classroom of the future. This involved the generation of new learning outcomes only achievable using ICT in pedagogy and assessment, and unfettered by the confines of the traditional pre‐digital curriculum. Ninety‐five per cent of the cohort was assessed as completing the intervention successfully. This paper finishes by discussing methods of equipping the cusp generation to negotiate the tensions inherent between current classroom practice and the rapid emergence of digital technologies in schools.