Digital tools for supporting Māori Language, Culture and Identity


Digital tools for teaching and learning Te Reo Māori

Two students sitting with laptop screenshot
To develop te reo Māori, it's important to hear, read and use the language in a variety of contexts and situations.   
This page provides an overview of technologies and apps that can be used to build students' te reo Māori. 
  • Consider how different tools can be used to develop reading, listening, writing, and speaking.
  • Integrate digital technologies into your reo Māori learning and curriculum goals.

 Te reo Māori teaching strategies

Using digital technologies to support the teaching of te reo Māori

Teachers from Pegasus Bay School describe how they use digital technology to support the teaching of te reo Māori. In particular, they talk about the apps Tellagami  , Explain Everything  , and Kahoot!
  • Create tasks and challenges that prompt students to focus on meaning.
  • Give students opportunities to comprehend input (listen and read) as well as produce output (write and speak).
  • Take a communicative, task-based  approach to learning te reo Māori.
  • Consider how digital technologies can support learning te reo Māori.

Teaching te reo Māori: Strategies and resources

Te reo Māori in English medium schools
New Zealand's school hub for teaching and learning te reo Māori. Contains curriculum guidelines, teaching tools, school stories, and resources. 
Supporting Māori students through ako-e (e-learning)
This content from Enabling e-Learning looks at strategies for making your classroom more inclusive for Māori learners.
He Reo Tupu, He Reo Ora
A multimedia resource containing unit plans and teacher's notes.

An app that uses the camera in your phone to instantly translate objects into te reo Māori. 
Use this app to turn the world around you into a learning experience.
Maori dictionary logo
The Māori dictionary provides comprehensive translations as well as spoken recordings of words to help develop pronunciation.
Language drops
Google's Language Drops recently included te reo Māori in their language-teaching app. The app uses a drag-and-drop interface to teach letters, sounds, words, phrases, and grammar. It includes free and paid options. 
Google logo
Google Translate
As of July 2019, Google Translate can translate sentences directly into Māori (though not always accurately). Users of the Google Translate app will be able to run their device's camera over a word in te reo and have it automatically translated. 

Tools for practising vocabulary

These tools can be used to help students practise vocabulary in any language, including te reo Māori.

Tools for reading and listening in reo Māori

The following are a selection of tools, apps, and digital resources designed to help tamariki engage with rich Māori language content. Use these tools to provide fun, engaging, and interactive opportunities for your ākonga to listen and read in reo Māori.

Waiata

In Māori language and culture, Waiata (songs) and haka are important mediums for the communication of knowledge, including history, politics, philosophy, geography and emotion. Teaching and learning through Waiata not only develops our oral and written language, but also our understanding of Kaupapa Māori (Māori perspectives, knowledge, and values).  
Hei Waiata, Hei Whakakoakoa
Contains teaching resources that sit alongside recordings of waiata that tie into the New Zealand curriculum.   

Māori-medium games and AR

Use these tools to provide fun ways for ākonga to engage with te reo content.
T.I.A logo
Users of this app can experience the creation stories of Ranginui and Papatuānuku in 3D augmented reality.
Māori pā wars
Māori Pā Wars
Māori Pā Wars is a classic tower defence game where players command warriors and build fortifications to battle hordes of enemies. Play with characters from Māori legends. The game can be fully played in either Te Reo or English. 
Arataki cultural trails
Arataki cultural trails
Combine language learning with place-based education using Arataki cultural trails – an interactive mobile app turning local walks into story-telling experiences. It works by proximity, connecting the user to points of cultural significance around their local area. Walk a local trail, stop and listen to rich narratives from local guides, and be immersed in the stories and places of Aotearoa. 
Quizlet logo
Quizlet
Quizlet creates vocabulary flashcards, games, activities, and assessments from a teacher's word list. It's an easy and effective way of making a set of tools for practising vocabulary. 
Kahoot
Kahoot
Use Kahoot to turn vocabulary review activities into interactive classroom games. 

Tools for speaking

Recording and sharing speech can help your students develop their speaking ability by prompting them to focus more carefully on what they say. Digital tools can offer convenient and collaborative platforms for creating and sharing spoken texts in reo Māori.
Adobe spark
Adobe spark video
Create snappy video content. Record your voice, and pair your spoken reo Māori with images, music, and animations.

Voicethread logo
Voicethread
Voicethread is a platform for creating spoken content. Students can share work and receive comments from classmates. 
Tellagami
Tellagami
Tellagami can help reluctant speakers present in reo Māori by enabling a 3D-animated character to do the speaking. You can write or record yourself talking, then let your character say the message.  

Tools for writing

Use these tools to develop your word-knowledge, sentence structure, and written output in te reo.  
Tipu
Tipu Te Reo Māori
This app teaches vocabulary and tests players by asking questions. Slowly build up to more complex sentences and phrases.
Pepeha logo
A simple, browser-based tool for writing and printing your Pepeha.
He aha tenei?
He aha tēnei?
For younger learners, this interactive reading app develops phonics and vocabulary knowledge with animations and pictures. 

 Coding with reo Māori

Develop skills in te reo and computational thinking simultaneously with these tech tools. 
Minecraft
Minecraft te reo Māori hour of code tutorials
Microsoft now has hour of code tutorials available for Minecraft in te reo Māori. Listen, read, and learn to code with te reo.
Gamefroot
Gamefroot's Mihi Maker
Gamefroot's Mihi Maker tutorial enables users to create a virtual, video game-journey through their own mihi. The platform makes this possible by guiding users through their visual, block-coding programming system.  Players of this tutorial learn coding, computational thinking, and te reo Māori while writing their mihi.
  

More teaching and learning resources

These websites offer resources for learning and teaching te reo Māori, providing materials designed to improve basic listening, reading, writing, and speaking. 
Te Whanake
A comprehensive set of resources for learning and teaching Māori language. Head to Tōku Reo  to find recordings of their official language learning show for Māori Television.
Māori Language.net
The aim of this website is to help learners with the basics of te reo. It contains written, audio, and visual content.
Kauwhata reo
Kauwhata Reo is a central online hub for te reo Māori resources to support the growth of teaching and learning te reo Māori. The hub can be viewed in te reo Māori or English. This website is still in the early stages of development, at present users can search for some new content, resources from Te Kete Ipurangi and from Digital NZ. More features and content are coming soon (18 Oct 2019).
Enabling e-Learning logo
More te reo digital tools
Find more tools and apps on our resources page.

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