Nuts and Bolts A variety of hardware and software tools can be utilized to assess student achievement. Digital tools allow students to easily create and store demonstrations of understanding and skills and provide a longitudinal record of student accomplishments that may be indexed, reviewed, and updated throughout a student's career. Sophisticated applications that adapt to user responses can reflect not only current goals and achievement but also data from past performances, which may be used as benchmarks. Student achievement can then be compared against performance standards and benchmarks rather than the performance of others. Hardware and software that can be used in this way include videoconferencing equipment digital networks multimedia authoring and presentation software electronic portfolios simulations and virtual environments