SHEER (Survey of Heritage and Environmental Education Resources), Blackrock Education Centre, free to schools.
NOT long ago the costs of physically publishing a CD-Rom were very high, and beyond the reach of small organisations. Spending on content was correspondingly high and average prices for published disks ranged around £100. All that has now changed - with bad as well as good results.
Producing a CD-Rom is now an affordable possibility for voluntary groups or even individuals. While this in itself is very positive, it makes it easier than ever to bring out a researched or presented CD-Rom. There are more bad disks around nowadays.
This is not a bad disk, but it has flaws. It describes 533 heritage and environmental sites to which school students might be brought on trips, giving details such as opening hours, location, admission fees and age suitability. Teachers will undoubtedly find it useful. The database can be searched by county, by name or type of site, or by age suitability. Irish and English-language versions are supplied and it runs on PC or Macintosh (straight (out of the box, with no need for installation on Mac or Windows 95).
However, the structure of the database is poor, making it harder than it should be to find information. Having decided that the area of interest is, say, Donegal, the user can click through the 25 sites listed for the county one by one. There is no way to see a list of all 25 sites and pick from the list - a bit like producing a reference book without an index. Some entries are incomplete, often lacking photographs.
The address information is not always adequate for arranging a visit. For example An Chrannog, in Doire Beaga, west Donegal, is given its postal address of Letterkenny - a 45-minute drive away. And on finishing a session with it the user finds that the "quit" icon on the last screen does no such thing - it restarts the disk.
This is not meant to be unremittingly negative. The Blackrock Education Centre deserves congratulations for making a useful resource available, for having it bilingual and being a pioneer in a relatively new medium for Irish education. Its innovation and effort would be better served with a more thoughtful design and presentation, but there's always the next edition.