Whitireia IT students develop Te Reo Māori Learning App

For immediate release

Whitireia IT students develop Te Reo Māori Learning App

This afternoon, Ngāti Toa and Whitireia Community Polytechnic (Whitireia) will come together to launch the development of a te reo Māori app for tamariki of the Puna Reo.

The Ngāti Toa Puna Reo was opened in February of this year as part of an iwi drive for the revitalisation of te reo Māori for Ngāti Toa.

The idea to use technology to support the acquisition of te reo Māori for these tamariki of the Puna Reo (ages 0-5) came from the nanny of one of Puna Ora’s tamariki, Gina Solomon who is a student at Whitireia, studying on the Bachelor of Information Technology programme. She saw the potential to help with this kaupapa.

Whitireia has a strong relationship with Ngāti Toa. The Faculty of Business and Information Technology have been working to involve iwi with projects IT staff and students could work on as part of their end of year assessments. With that aim, staff at the polytechnic created an internal group to work with Ngāti Toa to find projects of mutual benefit. The app was created by three, Year Three Bachelor of IT students after spending time at the Puna Reo, observing and interacting with the children and staff to understand their needs.

The application works on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets and teaches simple Māori names, colours and numbers in a fun and friendly way and has development potential for all newcomers to te reo Māori.

ENDS

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