10 • A Tour of My Projects last modified:1/11/12

Goethezitat: "Staub soll er fressen, und das mit Lust."

This past summer: dividing the "blockbuster" package into smaller, specialized activities that can be distributed either through a publisher (packaged or downloads) or from my own website (downloads, maybe or maybe not packaged). Learning a lot about on-line selling. In the meantime, older versions will be offered as no-cost downloads.

Specialized activities (on the conference disk):

Cosmo Telefon - easily expanded to other languages

Cosmo Briefsteller - will probably remain German-only

Cosmo Cabaret - already exists for Spanish, with sample models for French and Korean. Medium-difficult to expand too other languages.

--------------------------------

Comprehensive first-year German package "Wie, bitte?". Target price between $19.95 and $39.95), to compete not ony with $150 ink-on-paper textbooks, but also with Rosetta Stone and Auf geht's, both much more expensive. Spanish version already exists; have applied for grants to support Albanian and Swahili.

Features to note:

• Non-linear organization of chapter features (but with a certain "tilt" in the sequence of items on the "resource" buttons.

• Structures (=grammar) accompanied by audio illustrations

• Flexible reveal of dialog content

• Students can record themselves in a dialog role and "enter" the dialog along with the pre-recorded speakers.

• "Word Search" feature

------------------------------

Well along but not on the disk: Cosmo Grammatica - a "kinder, gentler" grammar resource, but with pangs of conscience. Students have a love-hate-insecurity feeling about grammar, and language teachers can always offer more grammar and find something more to criticize. But…

[extra Goethezitat:] "Nach Golde drängt, Am Golde hängt, Doch alles. Ach, wir Armen!"