Sustainability, Scalability and Transferability of ICT-based Pedagogical Innovations in Israeli Schools

For more than two decades the Israeli Ministry of Education and various educational agents have systematically attempted to facilitate the nationwide implementation of information and communication technology (ICT) in schools. Two significant phases of this effort can be identified: the first, in 1993–1998, focused mainly on building the technological infrastructure within schools. The second stage (1998–2003) deals primarily with curricular and staff training aspects. This paper presents data collected between the years 1999–2000 for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development/Centre for Educational Research and Innovation international research of ICT and organizational innovation in five Israeli schools that have widely implemented ICT in a way that has provoked substantial organizational change. We analyze the data collected from two perspectives: (a) using an innovation analysis framework for characterizing ICT-based educational innovations, examining the levels of the innovations (in a sequence progression from initial assimilation of the innovation to a substantial organizational transformation), in four different domains of the schools’ functioning (time and space configurations, students’ roles, teachers’ roles, curricular issues); (b) addressing key issues related to the prospects for sustainability, transferability and scalability of