I spent some time looking at SESE Interactive, the latest piece of software from the educational software company, Learning Horizons. Learning Horizons are hoping to capitalise on the success of some of their other software, including Sounds to Words. They have brought in the expertise of practicing teachers to produce this software which aims to cover many of the strands of the SESE curriculum.
I first used this program in the summer and was impressed. It has loads of great activities. I tried out almost all of the 34 games. Each subject has several interactive lessons to support the Irish primary school curriculum, including interactive stories from Ireland, lessons on the Aztecs, Romans and other cultures, virtual science experiments and investigating lifecycles. It is rare to find any educational software specifically based on the Irish curriculum and there’s certainly very little on the market that concentrates on SESE.
Just to be brief, I thought the science section was excellent. The geography section was also good. I was a little concerned by some aspects of the History section and although the content itself was very good, I thought that professionally made content would be better than children’s own art work. However, children don’t seem to mind it that much and perhaps I’m just being nitpicky. Overall, I think it is a great resource for the classroom. I can see how almost all of the activities would work on a stand alone computer or even an interactive whiteboard. I really like the bright colours and they tie in with the design concept of other Learning Horizon software.
Overall, I think this program would be a welcome addition to any classroom and another good quality product from a good Irish company. Learning Horizons have teamed up with Anseo.net to offer a free 21 day trial of the SESE Interactive software and this can be downloaded here.
