If you are an educator who is new to twitter, there are some “must-know” vocabulary and abbreviations in order for you to get the most out of the experience.

Handle – twitter username that starts with @

@  – the “at” symbol – at the beginning of a person’s twitter handle

# – a hashtag – used to join chats, ongoing asynchronous conversations, or tag your tweet

Follow – click this button on person’s page to have their tweets appear in your home stream

DM – Direct Message – like a text message or email within twitter; sends a message directly to a person which is only visible to the receiver; DMs can only be sent to those who follow you

Notifications – shows when others like or retweet your tweets

Mention – when someone has used your handle in a tweet; an area within Notifications lists all of  your mentions

PLN – Personal Learning Network; this is the group of people that you follow and who follow you. These are the twitter users you engage with most and is your online learning collaborative.

Edcution shorthands often used:

• P or Ps – Parents
• T or Ts – Teachers
• A or As – Administrators
• S or Ss – Students

Great Hashtags to follow/use

• #EdChat
• #EdTech
• #KidsDeserveIt
• #CelebrateMonday – tweet positives and celebrations to start the week
• #FF – Follow Friday – recommend other users to follow
• #BlendedLearning
• #BLinAction – Blended Learning in Action
• #TLAP – Teach Like a Pirate
• #PLearning – Personalized Learning
• #PersonalizedLearning
• #cultofpedagogy
• #hyperdocs
• #joyfulleaders
• #celebratemonday

My personal favorites are #TXed and #CFISDAPchat (I co-moderate these chats!)