Getting Your Accounts in Order

Learning activities undertaken in year 5 and 6 will be supported by a range of online tools. Many of these tools require users to register email addresses and create accounts on a website. Parents, we ask that you create this accounts for your child as registration often requires the user to be over 13 years of age. There will be no cost involved. By all means keep a record of the login details for each tool so that you can monitor your child's activity at any time if you wish. Legally, the account will be owned by parents.

We appreciate your fabulous support in devoting your time to Cyber Safety Boot Camps and all the necessary setup for your child's iPad. We are hoping that you will have time to create accounts at the following online tools before Monday 11th February so your child is ready for full participation in classroom activities.

Which tools are required?
Please create an account for your child at each of the following:

• VoiceThread - for creating online slideshows with a comments feature (text, audio or video).
• Fotobabble* - for posting and annotating images.
  (*please do not use a Facebook account to sign up to Fotobabble.)
• Evernote - for accessing and sharing files, images, task lists etc across devices.
• Google Docs** - for sharing, managing and collaborating on online documents
  (**if  your child has a Gmail address then they  already have a Google account which can be used to access Google Docs. Login and click the "Drive" tab to create or access Google Docs.)

Which Email addresses should I use to sign up?
Each tool will require registration with an email address and password. To make things easier for your child, please use the same email address for each registration. The children each have a BCE student email account. However, because this BCE account contains your child's surname, you may wish to restrict its use to secure BCE sites*** and for emails to and from other BCE addresses. If you created an email account for your child's Apple ID, this address could also be used. If you have not yet created an email account for your child there are many free options available, such as Gmail. There is no reason your child will need this email account for school as they will use their BCE student email account for all school-related communications.

What is my child's BCE email address?
BCE student address consists of your child's BCE login then the suffix @ mybce.catholic.edu.au
Their BCE login is the first initial of their first given name + their surname + (optional) a number may follow if there are duplicates
So, a sample email address would be: cwalker24@mybce.catholic.edu.au
If your child does not remember their BCE login, please ask them to write it down from the lists in the classroom. It will also be recorded in last year's student diary. They should avoid writing down their passwords.

What else do I need to know about Passwords?
A number of the students have not remembered their BCE passwords from last year. These will be reset overnight. Please help your child to devise a password that is easy for them to remember but difficult for others to crack. This video clip from BTN on "Password Power" may help.

It would be great if you kept track of your child's passwords so that you may monitor your child's online activity. To make logging in to the online tools easier for your child, we recommend that you use the same (or very similar) passwords for each of these accounts. To ensure security of passwords and information it is safe practice to vary passwords. However, as long as the password for the online tools is different from your child's BCE email*** account, we do not foresee a significant security risk. If the security of one of these accounts were ever compromised, the passwords for all could be changed with a minimum of effort.

One more thing...
A Dropbox account is also required. Dropbox is a cloud storage facility. A free account allows limited storage space but extra space can be earned by inviting others to join, or by accepting an invitation from an existing user. For this reason we request that you do not open a Dropbox account for your child until their teacher sends an invitation email. Of course if you already own a Dropbox account yourself, by all means invite your child to join. That way both of you earn free space. If not, when you create an account for your child they can send an invitation to other family members and earn more space that way.

***Students' BCE email addresses are required for login to secure sites under the Brisbane Catholic Education domain:

• BCE Student Portal, including Sky Drive and Student email
• LIFE (BCE's learning management system)