Using Activity Theory as an Analytic Lens for Examining Technology Professional Development in Schools

In this study, I examined a professional development program for integrating technology into school. The primary purpose of this study was to answer the following question: How did the participation of teachers in a year-long professional development program affect the transformation of newly introduced artifacts into cultural tools in the teachers' activity setting? To address this question, I examined the effects of the professional development program on participant teachers, nonparticipant teachers, and others in the school districts. I went about this by using activity theory (Engeström,1987) as an analytic lens to gain a historical understanding of the developments initiated as a result of interactions that took place between the participant teachers and the professional development.