A lot has changed since the advent of computers in Nigeria. A couple of years back, all a student was exposed to was just pen and paper. A truckload of books were often piled up on their study table(the number of books sometimes was to show people they were studious). Most time, they didn’t even have the time to go through those books. But did it really matter to them? I guess not. The conventional way that teaching was conveyed was through recitation and memorisation strategies.

Semesters regularly started with lecturers going to the class and giving out their course layout for the semester. All through the procedure, understudies were relied upon to make notes by arbitrarily picking a few lines from what the speakers state. Nonetheless, a few lecturers were sufficiently caring to dictate the notes they had made.

My experience in the university wasn’t completely the ‘New Age’ style. A couple of students had PCs (But not as much as they do now) but some lecturers ould just rather do it the traditional of just speaking and having us form notes. It was horrible indeed. I had a friend who was more or less my reading partner. Her name is Josephine and together went to libraries and sometimes passed the night there. It wasn’t necessarily because we were reading all through but because we couldn’t borrow all the books we needed. The highest we could take home in a day were three books and of course we needed more to expand our scope.

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In a couple of points, I’ll be taking you through ways in which the educational framework has changed in this new age.

• Availability of e-books: soft copies of books are now available to students to study at their convenience. As opposed to how things used to be, most students now own laptops; as such, they no longer need to spend unnecessary time hanging around libraries because they can’t take books home. They can simply download these books anytime they like.
• Virtual Classes: Who could have ever thought a day would come when all you have to do is turn on your computer and log in to attend a lecture. Back then, students had to wake up hours before the lecture time to prepare earlier enough to get a seat in the lecture theatre. You’d be right if you called that horrible. I dreaded Monday mornings because I had a lecture scheduled for 6:00 am and that meant waking up much earlier. More so that the class was a general one often called ‘GST’. But so much has changed in this age to the advantage of students.
• Learning at your own pace: Learning digitally gives you the chance to learn at your pace. Most lectures can be recorded and played back when you have the time. This feature makes it even easier for people to work and school at the same time.
• Learning Comfortably: After all the labour and pressure most of us loaded on our heads, we’ve all come to realise that learning is best done when you are comfortable mentally and physically. So good to know that digital learning has changed things for the better.
• More access to learning aids: Learning aids such as journals, podcasts and projects are all over the internet, and that means that a student does not need to be dependent only on what the lecturer says in class but gets a broader view from the pool of resources that are available online.

On and on, we can not get over the various ways that learning in the digital age outdoes learning the traditional way. A computer and a complimentary internet connection takes the learning process a couple of notches higher in terms of brilliance. With all these good stuff that come with the modern learning style, all we can say is ‘Cheers to the New Age’.