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Should students change their default password? Yes!

Students at all grade levels have an email address and default password to login to their GSuite account and the default password pattern is often taught in elementary grades. This helps students remember their password but it also poses a problem for students interested in accessing a classmate’s password to cause mischief.

Here are 10 reasons teachers (yes, even elementary teachers!) should teach students how to reset the default password.
  1. Using a birthday chart posted on the wall, students can figure out someone’s password and access the account as an intruder.
  2. Intruders can make changes or delete work (this is where learning how to find the revision history on a Google doc comes in handy).
  3. Intruders can send malicious emails from someone’s account.
  4. Inappropriate docs or slides can be created by intruders.
  5. Intruders can destroy files.
  6. Intruders can do non-schoolwork searches from a classmate’s account.
  7. Intruders can access personal information.
  8. Intruders can share information with others.
  9. Online accounts (like Raz-Kids or Typing Club) can be accessed and points can be deleted.
  10. It’s never too early to learn ways of managing passwords.

Teachers always have the ability to reset a student password using the Student Password Reset Tool. Students can learn to change their passwords using the Password Change Tool (the current password must be known). Teachers in grades 2 - 8 have the ability to monitor their students' Google Drive and Gmail using Hapara. If you’re interested in learning more about these tools, please contact your Instructional Technology Coach.

Suggested Lessons:
K-2 students on Powerful Passwords from Common Sense Media
Strong Passwords (Grades 3-6) from Common Sense Media
What are some good rules for passwords? from Common Sense Media is a great place to start when planning a lesson on how to create safe passwords.

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