Technical issues (login scanning, internet connectivity, projector setup, and glitches) frustrated students and created a significant barrier to playlist implementation¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r1 · q2
Currency · newest study 2019 · checked against its sources 2026-10-19 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Technical issues frustrated students to the point of disengagement and impeded implementation, engagement, and playlist completion. → Li 2019

Evidence¶

Li 2019¶

Li, L., Maher, B., Weiser, G., Orenstein, A., Chow, E., & Atienza, S. (2019). Hero Elementary playlist pilot study in after-school programs. San Francisco, CA: WestEd. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED608115

q2 · i? · causal · r1

Observational and interview study of four after-school sites; educators reported unreliable tablet internet connections, scanning login failures, projector setup difficulty, and app glitches (e.g., games freezing), with the authors expecting fixes through further development of the digital assets.

"Technical issues created a significant barrier to implementation and student engagement. The biggest barriers were: (1) the log-in process; (2) the logistics of using devices such as the mi-fi and the projector; and (3) various glitches in digital activities."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Access — moderator: an instructional effect differs with it

Related Claims¶

• Teachers found Hero Elementary playlist hands-on activities easy to implement because materials were supplied and prepped. — related
• Students were highly engaged in the in-school environment, with engagement increasing over the implementation duration. — reports the opposite
• Large shares of students faced technology problems serious enough to impede course participation: 44 percent internet connectivity and 23 percent hardware/software issues — related
• Nearly half of STEM students experienced internet connectivity problems that interfered with course participation after the COVID shift to remote instruction — related
• Digital notebooks presented technical difficulties with projection and loading during in-school implementation. — related
• Motivation, internet connectivity, and hardware/software problems were widespread challenges in remote STEM courses — related
• In informal virtual programs, technology access was the first and most significant barrier to participating in Hero Elementary — related
• Educators rarely facilitated connections between playlist activities or to students' lives; introductions focused on instructions and logistics, and debriefings were often unstructured reviews of the activity — related
• Digital game loading time caused issues but students had no significant navigation problems once the game loaded. — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Student engagement with the Science Power Notebooks and eBooks dropped significantly after the transition to distance learning — related
• Well-designed courseware enhances efficiency, supports independent student navigation, and lets faculty focus on teaching rather than technical challenges — related
• Infrastructure and access constraints were reported in 18 of 54 studies (33%) as the second higher-order technical limitation category — related
• Technical difficulties were the most frequently reported implementation limitation, mentioned in ten of the thirteen studies — related
• Student disengagement in adaptive learning platforms is linked to technical problems, boredom with long or irrelevant content, insufficient challenge and feedback, and declining engagement over time — a broader claim this one bears on
• Second-order technology barriers may be most influential on technology-based intervention implementation, and the quantity of barriers reported was associated with the percentage of students meeting target durations of use — related
• Pico-projector interaction with maps improves task completion time, errors and satisfaction over smart phone screens — related
• The Hero Elementary playlist intervention showed no statistically significant effect on K-2 students' science knowledge (effect size 0.10, p ~ 0.38) — related
• Infrastructure barriers — limited internet speed, connectivity problems and lack of technical support — hinder effective AI use in nursing education institutions — related
• Pepper's classroom operation required frequent teacher supervision in over half of the studies, mainly due to voice recognition and technical failures — related