This is a Purot.net wiki
Pages

4.1 Actors

The actors in this project are as follows: pupils, teachers, parents, local residents, local authorities and businesses and other external experts. To take the most out of the available resources, the teacher must think of connections and contributors for every planned activity. As Loogma and Tafel-Viia (2011) have pointed out, networking is considered to be one of the mechanisms which could facilitate the process of adoption and implementation of innovations.

The teacher should:

  • map supposed actors for his/her project (a visualization will allow to see the big picture of the project), by basically writing down every name of potential helper/contributor;

  • contact actors and evaluate their readiness to contribute and their resources;

  • set common schedule for activities and have it confirmed by actors (tools such as Google Docs will come handy here);

  • carry out activities;

  • gather feedback.

Let's compose a draft actors map for a school located in Rakvere, an Estonian town located 98 km to the east of Tallinn. In order to motivate pupils to study local history, the teacher could, for example, contact the following actors:

  • the parents, once the activities draft is done, to gather feedback and possibly get some help with arranging activities;

  • Palmse manor house owners, to arrange a visit to the rural production site of the estate and show pupils what was it like to work at the manor house some 150 years ago;

  • the local administration, to arrange transport to and from Palmse manor house;

  • one of the limestone mining companies in the region, to arrange a field trip and compare old and new mining technology;

  • a construction company, to show how limestone is used in old and contemporary buildings;

  • local residents whose families have been involved into particular activity, such as limestone mining and processing, to arrange home visit or other meeting;

  • the Rakvere Castle Museum, to arrange a theme party for all contacts and contributors to end the project.

Certain activities qualify for a media event, so teacher should not miss the opportunity to get some publicity for the project, if pupils and parents have nothing against it.

As soon as the organizational scheme has been successfully used at the local community level, teacher may apply it to regional and national level to provide more context to the local history lessons.

Discuss & brainstorm