Twitter: A tool for communicating and professional learning

Twitter could be used as a tool to communicate with students and parents. Honestly, I feel that remind101 and Cel.ly are better tools for this. Twitter could also be a tool to use for professional learning. The professional growth aspect is the reason I feel teachers should start learning about and using Twitter.
Much like a student can come to class and never say a word (if the teacher will allow it),  teachers can join twitter and never tweet a thing. Instead, teachers could simply follow(read) what other teachers who do tweet are tweeting. If the teacher follows teachers with similar interests and teaching needs, the tweets from those professionals should prove beneficial to their own teaching. Below are some basic guidelines. Create an account and become a Twitter Lurker (a person who often reads discussions but seldom contributes to them. ) Once you see how it works, dive right in and start tweeting!

Twitter Tutorials and Jargon Explanations

Twitter 101 a 7 Step Guide for Teachers, Newbies, and Everyone
http://edudemic.com/2010/05/twitter-101-a-7-step-guide-for-teachers-newbies-and-everyone/

Twitter has its own jargon (tweet, hashtag, retweet...). It is explained in the guide linked above. In case you would like another  Here is a list of the terms and their meanings.
Basic Twitter Terms
http://www.hashtags.org/platforms/twitter/basic-twitter-terms-you-must-know/

10 Basic Guidelines
http://www.hashtags.org/platforms/twitter/twitter-for-beginners-basic-guidelines-before-you-start/

Another beginners guide to Twitter
http://michaelhyatt.com/the-beginners-guide-to-twitter.html

Twitter Tips 
TwiTip gettting more out of Twitter
http://www.twitip.com/category/twitter-for-beginners/

Five Minute Film Festival 
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/film-festival-twitter-education

Twitter Apps
Once you start using Twitter, I highly recommend using Tweetdeck http://tweetdeck.com/ on your computer and Hootsuite (on the iPad or iOS device).