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Discovery Education launches iPad-optimized Web app

Provider of curriculum-based digital content is doing its part to help educators integrate Apple's iPad into their classrooms.

Jim Dalrymple Special to CNET News
Jim Dalrymple has followed Apple and the Mac industry for the last 15 years, first as part of MacCentral and then in various positions at Macworld. Jim also writes about the professional audio market, examining the best ways to record music using a Macintosh. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. He currently runs The Loop.
Jim Dalrymple
Discovery Education optimized iPad Web app
Discovery Education optimized iPad Web app Discovery Education

If you were questioning how much influence the iPad has in our education system, Discovery Education may be part of the answer. The company announced today a new optimized version of its platform, specifically for the iPad.

Discovery Education provides curriculum-based digital content to more than half of U.S. schools. The company said the launch of its iPad platform supports "educators in their efforts to integrate cutting-edge hardware and dynamic digital content into curricula."

Discovery said the iPad version that's available today includes more than 33,000 videos from Discovery Education streaming, Discovery Education Science, and Discovery Education Health.

The videos are presented in an HTML5 video player, which makes sense since the iPad does not support Flash. The Web site itself is made with CSS3 and JavaScript, the technologies recommended by Apple for best viewing on its mobile devices.

Discovery said it would add images, audio clips, PDFs, encyclopedia articles, reading passages, videos, and clips over the next few months.