Through an ethnographic case study, this research examined the impact of a site-base embedded professional development program for integrated technology in the middle school curriculum. The program reviewed was an EETT funded project, CONNECT, which has a 2-year program for middle school social science and language arts teachers in 1 California school district. CONNECT is a professional development project that supports teachers' use of technology through 4 project based learning with multimedia (PBL-MM) projects.

The theoretical framework for this study is derived from Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). From this standpoint, the research focused on the impact of site-embedded professional development on the praxis of teachers through their participating in Communities of Practice that evolved from the project, and the impact of CONNECT on professional identity of participants in the classroom, at the site, and within the large project community.

This case study took place at 1 school participating in CONNECT during the 1^st year of the 2-year project. There was a minimum of 5 primary informants (i.e., Lead Teachers, Project Teachers) and 2 secondary informants, site principal and CONNECT coordinator. Data collection methods included document analysis, surveys, and interviews. Research analysis was conducted using grounded theory development, followed by sociocultural case analysis using CHAT as a theoretical foundation and analytical instrument.

The findings indicated that teachers experienced the following during their participation of CONNECT: (a) teachers learned through classroom collaborations with their students; (b) teachers learned through site collaborative with their colleague; (c) teachers gained new skills, confidence and connections; (d) teachers experienced pressures from accountability issues; and (d) teachers experienced pressures from competing responsibilities.