A Digital Spring-Clean and Favorite #ArtsEdTech Things

Jessica Wilt

A Digital Spring-Clean and Favorite #ArtsEdTech Things

Posted by Jessica Wilt, Apr 22, 2015 0 comments

Jessica Wilt

It’s my favorite time of year – spring is here! The season of rebirth and awakening is finally upon us. We shed our layers, watch everything and everyone come back to life, spring-clean our nests, update our calendar with upcoming culminating events and pay our taxes too.

As part of my annual tax prep, a digital spring-clean ensues. Every year I set aside some time (less than an hour every few days for about a week) to comb through the previous year’s email. I move important messages and archive them in labeled folders; Google Drive is awesome for this task.

Then delete, delete, delete.

Time consuming? Yes! Exhilarating? Heck yes! I feel so much lighter and more organized. Plus, I always find a few surprises hiding in my inbox: people to reconnect with, project related info I should hold onto, an important article, an innovative idea or two. I also clean up and organize apps I use regularly on my smart devices and delete the ones I don’t use, leaving room for extra storage.

Unsubscribewordle

While I’m at it, I take a moment to unsubscribe from email list serves, blogs and anything else where I have lost interest in the content or mysteriously added to a list. These are emails you never read and instantly delete from your inbox. Reduce email anxiety and unsubscribe!

Friend or Acquaintance?

Next comes the social media cleanse. On Facebook I update friends and acquaintance lists. Not every post you share is appropriate for every Facebook “friend” that follows you. Overtime, relationships change too. You can kindly “unfollow” someone or you can “hide” a person from your feed. As I get older, I’m realizing I have a lot more acquaintances than friends and don’t care who I offend by simply clicking “unfriend.”

Unfollow

On Twitter, I unfollow handles that are inactive (haven’t tweeted since 2013 or 2014), no longer provide relevant information I’m interested in, or people I’m not interacting with. There are also third-party sites that will do the dirty work for you. Creating Twitter handle lists by category like “artsed” or “EdTech” can be a great organizational tool as well. It’s amazing how much more valuable content appears in your Twitter feed when it is clean.

Speaking of lists…

People often reach out to me for arts education, social media and technology resources I follow. I thought it might be helpful to curate a list of people and organizations that inspire and inform my work within the ArtsEdTechNYC community, a platform I founded two years ago in New York City for artists, educators, entrepreneurs and technology enthusiasts.

Movers and Shakers (People)

Steven W. Anderson: Blog Founder, Web20Classroom.org, @web20classroom

Guarav Mike Bawa; Director of Marketing & Communications, Baruch College, @GuaravMikeBawa

Ethan R. Clark: Manager, Arts in Education National PTA, @clarkethan

David Dombrosky: Arts Management and Technology Professional, @DDombrosky

Seth Godin: Best Selling Author and Blogger, @SethGodin

Mark Guay: Educator and Founder of the Traveling Cup Podcast, @MarkWGuay

John Maeda: Graphic Designer, @JohnMaeda

Kerry McCarthy: Senior Program Officer, NY Community Trust, @mccrthykrr

Tim McDonald: Social Media and Community Management Influencer, @tamcdonald

Maria Popova: Founder, Brain Pickings, @MariaPopova

Manoush Zomorodi: Host and Managing Editor, WNYC’s New Tech City Podcast, @manoushz