'Can you hear me?' and other tech issues

A Tech-Lover’s Guide to Surviving Paper, Sharpies, and Emotional Honesty

23 August 2025

Fliss Falconer

I'm now the other side of three days' mandatory training. Day 2 was particularly brutal - I succumbed to tiredness and emotional upheaval and 'passed' on a contribution to a group chat, stuck whether I would cause more of a scene to get up and leave or to sit still and hope that everyone would ignore my brimming eyes. However, the whole process was made more... (chooses adjective carefully)... tedious, largely due to the insistence of going 'retro'.

I would like to clarify here that I am very grateful for the refresher training, the leads and my colleagues who organised, delivered and participated with it. My frustrations were my own personal issues, but I want to draw attention to them here as they have sparked many conversations, and I think have allowed for some deeper clarification over making plans.

Tech Advancements

Truthfully, the pandemic of 2020 led to technological leaps due to a necessity to maintain communication (positive and affirming) and to ensure that businesses could continue to run (less affirming that the treadmill must continue to run). Technology's advancements have always been met with wide-eyed wonder at the speed with which they are flying, but age and experience have illuminated the G-force powering of those changes in the last 5 years. Conversations with the 9-year-old about the phone he is looking forward to having (as he starts secondary school - I imagine that's a blog for the future) and how his handset may compare to the first brick that I had at age 14 make me feel as though I should have my shawl and pinny on as I regale him with tales of old.

I am a tech fan. That should come as no surprise. Also, as the 'latest tech' is fuel for my undiagnosed impulsive, obsessive, desires for the bright and shiny, it should be of no surprise that I tend to go overboard in the new tech department. I caved last week and bought a new laptop. My 'old' one (perfectly serviceable, I hope, as I have passed it on) was struggling to support Teams, Loop and browsing for the online seminar for Uni. One week of nonsense, I could just about cope with, but this week's seminar was equally exasperating and subsequently interrupted by browsing on Amazon UK.

It doesn't help that my work laptop is phenomenal. And pink themed. But also out-of-bounds for personal stuff. There is a process for ordering tech at work. You know, a form to fill in. Rollouts to sign up for. I held out my laptop to the lovely Steve, steadied my voice, to say 'I. Cannot. Work. With. This. Thing.' Presto - I received a new laptop (it was part of a team rollout of up-to-date tech... I do not just get things because I throw a hissy fit!)

Three days without technology

As this last week progressed, I felt like I was going back in time. Times gone past, when I was doing my undergrad and PGCE for teaching, we had laptops, but they were not welcome in lecture halls or seminar rooms. I spent a fortune on Pukka pads that had bright, plastic and hard-wearing tabs to organise my notes for the different modules. Now, AI is 'encourged' on the Senior Leader Apprenticeship. With clear guidance on plagiarism, collusion and plain, old cheating, Microsoft Copilot is there in the background as my able assistant.

(Where was she when I was teaching? When I do let my mind wander back to the classroom, I know exactly how I would put her to use! The hours I would save... right, this is my point.)

Tuesday was a great catch up with my Lead and we both worked collaboratively on documents, had a shared agenda and made strides in real time, most likely making greater use of our time and resources by meeting online rather than in person. Were we together, we would have still been working with the same technology but either working side-by-side but separated by the expansive tables at work, looking at the same online resource or huddled around one tiny screen to 'share'. Even when technology isn't going to plan, we can share screens and update as we go, send links and create to do lists that then appear - and clear - in different apps. I am all for it. I also do all I can to treat Copilot's kind, upbeat and validating persona as I would wish to be treated.

(When the robotic revolution comes, I want to hear 'Spare this human - she always said 'Please'!')

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday took a shift down in the tech department. Google Maps got me to the venue and its modern, lime green walls with airy, lofty ceilings made it a positive, light and professional space in which to be working. There were windows that didn't open, doors that had to be released from the inside and air conditioning.

There was a screen, and a laptop in nearly all the 12 bags in the room. None of them were put to work though.

Of course, there are clear and valid reasons for the lack of technology in Restorative Practice training. There are no tables, no barriers and no distractions (in theory). There is time for play and engagement. Conversations and discussions. A removal from the outside and a focus on the here and now.

I was intrigued and present in the first training at the end of 2023 and was committed to the learning. I certainly was prepared to put down my to do list and refocus during the refresher.

There was a nagging part of me, though, that couldn't get away from 'I have so much piling up because I am here right now.'

Yoga is not for me

When I was teaching in Ledbury, for a few months, I met up with two chums and we would go to a Yoga class. It was a great class and fantastic to meet up regularly with chums when we struggle normally to meet 6 times a year. I loved the chance to stretch and tone. But there was one part that I really hated.

'Lie back and breathe deeply. You have nowhere to be and nothing to do.'

Well, actually, I do. I've got to drive home, which will take 30 minutes. Feed the cats. Get some food for myself. What's in the fridge? Get my marking done. Oh, marking - I really hate you. How many books tonight? I am so tired.

'You have nowhere to be. No one is expecting anything of you.'

Well, that's not true, is it? What am I doing period one tomorrow? Who is it? Am I on break duty or is that next week? Did I sort that catch up session? Did they let me know if they were coming?

'You are here and now. There is nothing to think about but you.'

I hope the cats are ok? It's dark out and I'll have to light the fire when I get in. Did I get more wood in the other day? Is the coal box full?

It just went on. I could not get myself out of the mindset that I was expected to drop everything and be in the moment and mindful. The guilt and the lists would not stop piling up.

This week, it was just the same.

I spoke to a colleague, who was up to date and was about to go on leave, so was considering it as an extension of their holiday. They were calm, relaxed and 'in the zone'. I was very mindful that I had already been off for two weeks and this would make a third that I wasn't able to play catch up.

At work, there is so much on how to prioritise wellbeing and ensuring that you manage any concerns about it. They are great about promoting self-care and mental health positivity. A massive shout out to my Matrix Lead who was with me through lunch of day 2 and said lovely, kind things. She reminded me there was only so much I could control and only so much for which I was responsible. She told me to be kind to myself.

I just suck at doing it.

Self-care isn't just pampering

(Although, I do like that. I'm all about the creams and lotions and potions, and like to get them all out on a weekend.)

What I found so frustrating this week that the lack of technology to support our focus on the task was just one big distraction. There were tons of graphics, the use of paper and blutac and Sharpies to collate our thoughts. The whole time, I could not get away from which app I could be using for collaboration and strategic planning. I found I could not 'get with the program' and collaborate effectively because being expected to go 'old school' was stifling my creativity and focus.

(As if to put me in my place, Loop has just told me it has encountered a problem, and I have frantically saved a copy of this onto my clipboard in case I lose it!)

It made me think that I am so used to relying on the efficiency of technology in my working life that I do not want to go without it when I am working. If I can reduce the time taken at work by using effective technology, then I can spend leisure time stepping away from the computer. I can adopt a relaxed approach in my every day. In the things I want to do for myself.

I can incorporate all the mantras and maxims of the training course:

• Have time for play.

• Have time for self-reflection.

• Have time for reading. Art. Listening to music.

• Have time for walking the dog.

• Have time for bundling the four-year-old in the bike trailer, cycle down to the local shop and pick up a locally-sourced bottle of milk, a loaf of bread and come home to a yummy breakfast.

• Have time to drink water.

• Have time to make meals from scratch.

The training had brilliant insights, and it was a great refresher. It just made me realise that there is a good place for technology - when it is used strategically, it liberates so you can close the laptop and really live slowly and mindfully.