Things have changed a great deal these days. Technology has transformed the way things are done and virtually all industries and sectors are now involved in it.  Even the education sector is not different at all. Technology has led to the development of different types of learning aids to aid learning.

Many institutions and countries are adopting these learning aids and you can find so many educational institutions in Nigeria also adopting the use of learning aids.  Studies show that many of these learning aids are indispensable provided you want your students to learn better and become the leaders of tomorrow that they are supposed to be.  

While not all educational institutions in Nigeria are using modern learning aids already, some educational institutions are already using many of them. However, most of the institutions already using the learning aids are private institutions.

The information provided in this write-up will help those institutions already using the learning aids to better understand why they should stay glued to their modern method of teaching and will also enlighten those institutions not using the learning aids already to consider using them so that the students can become better academically.

Good examples of modern learning aids are highlighted below:

• Live stream multimedia: This learning aid makes it possible for the teacher to broadcast the subject to be taught in school in the future or the ones that have been taught in the past to help refresh the memory of the students and get their minds prepared for the future classes.

With the help of this learning aid, the information being passed by the teacher will have a wider view among the students. The teacher can use the live stream multimedia to hold lectures, announce programs and even showcase workshop presentations.  The information will be broadcast live and give the students real-time updates. Both students and teachers can have access to the information to this tool can work perfectly for distance learning students.

• Musical instrument for schools: Music is a subject taught in many Nigerian schools starting from the primary level to that of higher institutions. This makes musical instruments to be good examples of learning aids.  A student cannot learn adequately about music if he does not have access to musical instruments. 

What is taught in music class can be easily forgotten if the student fails to practice them and aces to musical instruments will make the practicing a lot easier for the students.  Music is now given attention in the curriculum, thereby necessitating the inclusion of musical instruments as a learning aid in Nigerian schools.  Good examples of music teaching aids are saxophone, trumpet, keyboard, violin, etc.  

• Cloud-based language laboratory: If you want your students to learn languages perfectly, this is one of the best tools to use for the purpose. The instrument is also reliable for teaching the students how to spell and pronounce words. This way, the students can learn those languages and pronounce the words in them the same way a natural speaker will pronounce the words.

The tool can add a lot of excitement to learning and will make the students develop more interest in language learning. These instruments can be used to teach all Nigerian local languages and foreign languages. The learning aid will put the teacher in complete control to ensure decorum in class.   

• Multimedia projector: A projector makes it easier for the teacher to show what he has to teach more clearly to the students. All the teacher has to do is to prepare the lecture in the form of a spreadsheet presentation and play it out to the students.  The use of spreadsheet presentations makes the lecture a lot clearer to the students and can even aid assimilation. It may also remove the need to take notes since some presentations can contain all the information needed by the student.  

After preparing the presentation, it can be loaded on a flash drive or disc and connected to a computer. The computer is connected to a projector that does the rest of the work. Things like words, graphics, PowerPoint presentations, images, and pictures can be thus projected. It can be used for seminars and presentations hassle-free.       

• Interactive whiteboard: This learning aid has perfectly replaced chalkboards in many Nigerian schools. Primary schools, secondary schools, and higher institutions are using it, thereby enabling the teachers to present their lectures in a cleaner and more modernized manner.

The interactive whiteboards make it possible for the teachers to even save their notes on the board and this removes the need to wipe off the board.  It can work between PC and projector, making it possible for the teacher to save the information on a PC for future reference.  

Some other important learning aids that can get the students more interested in learning are highlighted below:

• Touch screen
• Computers, laptops, and tablets
• Student resources
• Teachers resources

 In the next section of this write-up, we will show you some of the many benefits of adopting modern learning aids in Nigerian schools.

Benefits of using modern learning aids in Nigeria schools

Check below for some of the many benefits of using learning aids in schools in Nigeria:

• They are more effective than when you use verbal instructions
• They can make the things taught to be permanent and the students can find something to refer to later when doing personal studying
• They give the teachers and students access to varieties
• They can get the student more focused on learning since they make education a lot more interesting and exciting
• When teachers use the teaching aids, they can save more time disseminating information to the students. They also help the teacher to save more energy
• With the help of learning aids, the teacher can promote better interaction in the classroom
• Beginners will be able to learn better with the help of earning aids
• It can also create a positive environment for student discipline
• Students having problems with speech can find help with learning aids that can assist them to develop their speech faster and better.