about SoDaR
SoDaR is defined as an approach to research that helps researchers create educational software applications (Brown, 2007). SoDaR uses Activity Theory to help the researcher understand the student’s relationship to learning. SoDaR achieves this by qualitatively examining the student’s use of the software and how they create learning artefacts. SoDaR is very much about rigorously capturing this qualitative data and reflecting on the nature of those relationships. Analysing Activity Theory allows for learning activities to be enhanced through software development. In turn this reflection can then be used to do develop better computer mediated learning environments. Thus we see SoDaR methodology as proving a new relationship between learning, Activity Theory and software development. It is when we include action research in this process that SoDaR becomes a tool to help achieve better arts assessment. The SoDaR methodology is very much an approach to research that helps the software developer to document, evaluate their findings and then transfer their interaction and design theory to any number of software applications. For example, Brown and Dillon provide evidence of success in the development of Jam2Jam.
References
Brown, Andrew R. (2007) Software Development as Music Education Research. International Journal of Education & the Arts 8(6).