MapQuest and RABA Technologies Team Up to Develop Educational Software Products for Harcourt School Publishers.

MapQuest and RABA Technologies, LLC to Co-Develop a Series of Interactive Software Products Designed to Teach Map Skills to School Children.

DULLES, VA and COLUMBIA, MD - January 21, 2003? MapQuest, the world's leading online mapping, routing and global location services company and wholly owned subsidiary of America Online, Inc., and RABA Technologies, LLC have teamed up to develop a series of interactive educational software products for Harcourt School Publishers, a leading publisher of textbooks and educational materials for children in grades K through 6. The products, collectively entitled ?GeoSkills,? are a set of highly interactive multimedia products designed to engage students in reading, interpreting, and creating maps. GeoSkills integrates animated lessons, interactive practice sessions, interactive maps, mapmaking tools, and motivational learning activities. GeoSkills provides a fun way for students to practice and extend the Map and Globe skills taught throughout the new Harcourt School Publishers K-6 Social Studies program, Harcourt Horizons and Harcourt Horizontes.

This effort is a unique combination of talents from MapQuest and RABA. With its great depth of experience in the educational marketplace and top-tier cartographic expertise, MapQuest provides the instructional design development, cartography, and overall program management. RABA, with its team of designers and engineers, provides the creative direction, graphic design, and software engineering. The collaboration is designed to create a synergy of process and expertise that allows for fast-track development of complex multimedia products.

Recent world events have reaffirmed the importance of understanding the world around us. However, recent surveys have shown that our children's geographic knowledge falls woefully short. According to the National Geographic-Roper 2002 Global Geographic Literacy Survey, young American adults scored next to last in an assessment of geographic knowledge. About 11 percent of young American citizens couldn't even locate the U.S. on a map. The GeoSkills products are aimed squarely at helping improve the quality of geography related education for U.S. school children. By reinforcing the National Geographic Standards through the use of interactive media, GeoSkills adds a critical component to a student's learning environment.

"We wanted a technology product to accompany our new social studies product to be skills centered and content rich." said Don Lankiewicz Vice President and Editor-in-Chief, Social Studies, Harcourt School Publishers. "Harcourt made GeoSkills instructionally sound. MapQuest and RABA made it inviting and fun."

"MapQuest?s vast cartographic resources and educational expertise have been integral to the success of this project," said Peter Kilpe, Director of Interactive Media for RABA Technologies. "From the production of maps to the writing of imaginative skill-building lessons, MapQuest consistently delivered the highest caliber work."

"The product design and engineering expertise that RABA brought to the table was invaluable to the development of the GeoSkills products. Their consistently well thought out product design has contributed to making GeoSkills a product that will live well past a first edition," said Bennett Moe, Sr. Account Executive and lead Project Manager for GeoSkills at MapQuest. "By employing intelligent architecture and planning techniques, we enabled the product to come to market in just a few months time."

The first GeoSkills products are available now, as a component of the Harcourt Horizons Social Studies program, through Harcourt School Publishers. Additional products will be released through 2003. Screen snapshots of the English version of the GeoSkills product can be viewed at http://www.raba.com/im/geoskills/

About RABA Technologies, LLC.

RABA Technologies is a leading professional services consulting company. RABA provides top-tier intellectual capital focused on research, design, development and integration of leading technology, products, systems, and processes for government and commercial industry. RABA?s management and staff are committed to a set of core operating principles focused on client satisfaction and driving excellence into measurable results. Additional information about RABA is available at http://www.raba.com/.

About MapQuest

MapQuest, a wholly owned subsidiary of America Online, Inc., is a leading provider of custom mapping content and map product development to publishers and corporations. Every year MapQuest produces more than 1.5 billion pages of printed maps for textbooks, directories, travel guides, reference works and corporate promotions. MapQuest authors a wide variety of packaged map products, including road atlases, road maps, map posters, and electronic trip planners. MapQuest.com is consistently the #1 mapping Web site and travel Web site according to Comscore/Media Metrix data. It generates the majority of all Internet mapping page views, licenses its technologies to thousands of business partners and is linked to by hundreds of thousands of other Web sites.

About Harcourt School Publishers

Harcourt School Publishers is a leading publisher of textbooks and educational materials for grades K through 6 and is part of Harcourt Education, a global education provider serving students and teachers in PreK through grade 12, adult learners, and readers of all ages. The Harcourt Education companies are Harcourt School Publishers, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Harcourt Supplemental Publishers (including the Rigby and Steck-Vaughn imprints), Harcourt Educational Measurement, The Psychological Corporation, Harcourt Interactive Technology, Classroom Connect, Harcourt Canada, Harcourt Religion Publishers, and Harcourt Trade Publishers. For further information, please visit http://www.harcourt.com

Harcourt Education is part of Reed Elsevier Group plc (www.reedelsevier.com), a world-leading publisher and information provider. Reed Elsevier Group plc is owned equally by Reed Elsevier PLC (NYSE: RUK) and Reed Elsevier NV (NYSE: ENL).

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Press Contact:
Kristen Thames-Bell
RABA Technologies, LLC
(410) 715-9399
kristen.bell@raba.com