The DREAM project is coming to its end, teachers applied the methodology to their museaters, children visited all partner museums and the first international DREAM performance was held at Postimuseo in Vapriikki, Tampere. Teachers and all the other educators or interested visitors had a chance to get to know the DREAM methodology from the first rows, both online and onsite.
Although it may seem like a challenging task due to the different majors of DREAM museums, the performance managed to combine OERs (Open Educational Resources) from all of the three museums included in the project; M9, Gunpowder Museum at Municipio e Oeiras and Maritime and History Museum of the Croatian Littoral Rijeka. Materials were connected through the story of changes in the world and work throughout the last 400 years. Postal service and interesting paths that letters had to follow were the main structure of the DREAM museater narrative.
Maritime and History Museum of the Croatian Littoral Rijeka tried to contribute to the performance through OER which is connected to the story of the performance but also to history of Rijeka and Croatia. The presented museum item was the lifejacket from the Titanic, an exhibit that represents the museum’s major and also the long history of seafaring in Rijeka. It is chosen as a material for the performance because it is a significant part of world, but also Rijekas history as it is one of five of its kind that is saved in the whole world and the only one that is in Europe. Although Rijeka, one of the most important ports in Croatia throughout history, isn’t on the map of the journey that Titanic took, one other ship connects this maritime town and the story of one of the biggest tragedies that took place on the sea. RMS Carpathia was a Cunard Line transatlantic passenger steamship that traveled from Rijeka and became famous for rescuing survivors of the rival White Star Line’s RMS Titanic. On the steamship was a young waiter, Josip Car, who took one of the vests after they rescued passengers from the Titanic and later handed it to the museum.
On the other hand, there is another way to present the story of the lifejacket held at the museum. It focuses on the history of lifejackets and the safeties on the sea. This aspect of history was incorporated in the DREAM narrative for the transnational performance while explaining how the mail was delivered by sea. Since the Baltic sea was an obstacle on a very important route for mail transportation, peasants had to take that important task. Many accidents happened during spring and autumn storms and the lifejackets came to use in 1854 when captain John Ross Ward created a cork vest in to be worn by lifeboat crews. Before that, there was not much concern for the safety of the crew on board, so the mail was also in danger. In the case of an accident, people from the sinking ship would cling to the wooden remains of the ship to save themselves from drowning. First, the life jacket was made of cork, and later on, using air.
The lifejacket from Titanic is a great example of OER that combined the story of Carpatia which tells about the history of Rijeka, but can also be incorporated in the DREAM narrative made for the transnational performance. It shows all the advantages of the DREAM methodology in storytelling and presenting local history from all around Europe.
