Twitter Handles

If you include @[handle] in a tweet, the person gets notified. Here's an example of a tweet that notifies my colleague Keegan (@CraZyIriShman7) — we're both doing #CLMOOC. [next]




Additional comments:

You can click on someone's handle in any tweet to see their profile in a pop-up window, and that will show their name in addition to their handle.

When you type someone's name in a tweet following the ampersand, you can type their name or their handle, and Twitter will try to autocomplete for you (and it usually does a good job, especially if you are already following that person).

I've heard people argue that educators should always use their real names instead of a made-up handle at Twitter, but I'm ambivalent about that, especially now that Twitter makes your name so easily discoverable. There's nothing special about my handle, but I do like the way that when I set up my class Twitter I could pair it up that way with my existing handle: OnlineCrsLady and OnlineMythIndia. And some of my favorite Twitter people have really creative and memorable handles like the great canines dogtrax and cogdog.

Does your Twitter handle have a story that goes with it? If so, share with the #UOConference hashtag!

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