Can we get some tech up in here?

I attended my first parent-teacher conference today.  It was pretty cool.

Since I really have no idea how to run one of those things, it was nice to get some ideas on how I can structure the 20 minutes, what student artifacts to use, what to say, and what to ask.

Actually, the superintendent of the district was in my first set parents.  Not that it really mattered, being as I was just observing, but still.  He commented that his daughter "really seemed to be enjoying school this year, but that she had said something about not liking the intern", then he gave me a wry smile and chuckled.  Even knowing he was joking, I still almost peed my pants.

The experience of the conferences was great, but it got me thinking - with all of the technology we have available, why do we need to schedule a meeting to see our student's parents?  Samples of the kid's work could be available online, and any concerns about that work could be voiced by email, Skype, text, cell, etc.

If the whole point of the meetings, as it looked to me, was to see samples of work and use it to talk about strengths or what needs work, then it could have been done in another, more efficient way.  Through technology it could also have happened much sooner, rather than waiting several months into the school year to have an in-depth progress report.

But how would we balance that with the benefit of face to face communication?  I certainly don't want the impersonal robot conference from my earlier post, but we have far, far too much digital assistance at our disposal to be doing things the same old way.

Thoughts?