Utah chooses the Visual Thesaurus: every student in the state to have access to the interactive thesaurus and dictionary software

The Utah Educational Network chose the Visual Thesaurus as a software resource for its consortium of universities, schools, and libraries statewide.

NEW YORK, January 2005 - The Utah Educational Network chose the Visual Thesaurus as a software resource for its consortium of universities, schools, and libraries statewide. Over 700,000 students and faculty will have access to the Visual Thesaurus, an interactive dictionary and thesaurus that presents stunning visual displays of words and meanings. Powered by Thinkmap visualization software, the Visual Thesaurus provides an innovative way to explore and learn about words.

The Utah Educational Network (UEN) chose a statewide site license of the Visual Thesaurus software, which is administered online to its large and geographically diverse student populations. The Online Version of the Visual Thesaurus allows students to use the software anywhere they have an Internet connection. This flexibility in access to the Visual Thesaurus fits well into UEN's mission to provide seamless, technology-rich educational resources to its public education partners.

Through its emphasis on exploration and vocabulary building, the Visual Thesaurus can improve reading, writing and communication skills. The software is geared to ages 9 to adult, and is valuable for basic skills, such as identifying parts of speech, and more advanced skills, such as creative writing or journalism. Educators have used the Visual Thesaurus successfully with gifted students, with ESL students, for lessons in varied subject matter, and to integrate technology into a standards-based curriculum.

ABOUT THE UTAH EDUCATION NETWORK
The Utah Education Network (UEN) is consortium of public education partners, including the Utah System of Higher Education and its ten universities and colleges and Utah Electronic College; the Utah State Office of Education, local school districts and the Utah Electronic High School; and the state's Library system. (www.uen.org)

ABOUT THINKMAP, INC.
Thinkmap, Inc. develops and markets software that uses visualization to facilitate communication, learning, and discovery. The company specializes in user interfaces and visualization mechanisms that allow end-users to more effectively browse and understand complex information. Thinkmap customers include Deutsche Bank, Mitre, Unisys, Pfizer, and NOAA. Thinkmap is located at 155 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012. The general phone number is 212-285-8600; Web site is www.thinkmap.com; and general email is salesthinkmap.com.