1. Penn decides to test the Rosetta Stone software in a series of real-world situations: attending a business meeting, going to a Chinese church, ordering in a Chinese restaurant. Then, narrating his experiences, he is able to show how much he has (or hasn’t) learned. How important is it to find situations in which you can really test a product? For the following products, brainstorm ways to test them out in the real world: a bicycle, a pair of shoes, an energy drink.

2. This evaluation is truly multimodal, using video, visuals, and text. In Penn’s five “stories,” he also uses many nontraditional written elements—asking questions of his Facebook fans, for instance. What does this multimodal content say about the evolution of newspapers like Penn’s Tampa Bay Times?

3. WRITING: Watch “Ivan Penn Rosetta Stone,” one of the videos on this website. What does this video add to the text and other visuals that comprise this website? Consider the topics of the other videos on this site. Are there additional topics or types of videos an audience might appreciate as part of this website?

4. VIDEO: Watch the video entitled "Ivan Penn Rosetta Stone." For your own product evaluation essay, create a video like this one (you can simply use a camera phone, a laptop’s internal video camera, or any other available video camera). In your video, go through the steps of introducing the product you will be reviewing, showing it to your audience, and explaining its basics. After you’ve made this simple video, use it as the introduction to your text-based essay by imbedding it in your document. If you have time, you could create a video conclusion in the same way, showing your reader what your final judgments are.