Editor’s note: Guest contributor Nancy Barlow regularly blogs at The Teacher Geek. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Lecture Hall + Skype = Goosebumps

Think using Skype in the classroom might be difficult? The Edtech Digest blog talks about Professor John Boyer's 3,000 seat lecture hall SKYPING with Burmese democracy leader Aung Sun Suu Kyi in early December. If he can do it, anyone can. You can find more of Prof. Boyer's amazing lectures here. He's also had students use parody Twitter accounts as part of the coursework, and also holds office hours via video chat. It's no surprise there's now a waiting list to take his course.

Delivering Bad News Is Never Easy

If you're in the throes of December conferences, Cindi Rigsbee at TeachHub.com writes about 4 Communication Tips To Use When Confronting Parents. She offers some useful insights into how to see things from a parent's point of view. Keeping these tips in mind will help when things get tricky, like having to deliver bad news about academics or behavior issues.

The Art of Technology

The Teaching Palette Blog has a joyful list of 10 Best Web Tools For Art Teachers, which include surprise like using QR codes, Twitter, WallWisher, Pinterest and even Google Maps. Even if you are not an art teacher, you will be inspired to use some of these tools in your classroom.

App Of the Week: On Air

If you or your students need a teleprompter app to practice public speaking, this FREE app is a handy tool to have on your podium. Its simple interface will let you  control font color, font size, scroll speed, background color, and toggle a 3 second countdown. It's currently available only for the iPad, but will be coming soon for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Available in the iTunes store.