Beyond the Lesson Plan: How Segun Ilori Is using canva to make mathematics click

Ilori’s experience with the pupil in Canada is one example of why that flexibility matters. His work in Nigerian classrooms shows that the same principle applies closer to home: learning improves when teachers have more ways to explain, demonstrate and reinforce what they are teaching.

Helping more teachers discover what is possible.

Ilori believes many teachers have yet to explore the possibilities available in tools they may already know.

People are sometimes surprised when he explains that he uses Canva for video editing and educational content, not just graphic design.

He wants more educators to see how they can use it to prepare presentations, adapt teaching materials, create videos and develop activities for their students.

Getting started does not have to mean redesigning an entire course. A teacher might begin with one topic, find a suitable template, adapt it to the lesson and share the resulting material with students.

Over time, those resources can become part of a more organised approach to teaching and revision.

Ilori is also realistic about the barriers. During a training session for teachers in Lagos State on using technology to teach mathematics, he found that the room had no working computer. An interactive board was present, but it was not functioning.

“You should understand a problem before proposing a solution. What works in another country may not work in the same way here,” he says.

Access to devices, reliable internet and practical training all affect whether teachers can put digital tools to use.

Introducing Canva, therefore, needs to go hand in hand with helping educators understand how it works and how it can fit their classrooms.

Ilori’s experience offers a practical starting point: explore the tools, build a resource around a lesson you already teach, and see how students respond.

For him, the purpose is not to use technology for its own sake. It is to make the work of teaching more manageable and give children more opportunities to understand what they are learning.

Sometimes, helping a student move forward starts with finding a different way to explain the same thing.