Attempting to do some rapid catch up this morning on #cfhe12 - Current/Future State of Education, hosted in Desire2Learn. Hitting some significant drag at lift off. Took log in weirdness in stride (system showed me as logged in but when I clicked link from Course Content, system showed me as guest. There was a note from admin that they were having log in issues--reset password as instructed. I tried a few more rounds, didn't manage to get out of guest mode when in the Course Content, and moved on to view the presentations that have happened. Screen shot here is the result of attempt to view Jeff Selingo presentation archive in GoToMeeting (I tried Safari, Chrome and Firefox--same message for each). I don't have time to jump into Twitter to find what's up with this. I imagine it will get solved. Moved on to watch Siva Vaidhyanathan's presentation which was offered up as a .mov. Yay for success but by now, enthusiasm seriously dampened.
I expect a little drag. More than a little, as I experienced today, is rough.
Reducing drag is one of the main concerns of aeronautical engineers when designing aircraft. Drag can stress different parts of an aircraft which can lead to structural failure during certain maneuvers. Further, reduction of drag has a "domino" effect on other important aspects of flight. The less drag an aircraft has, the faster an aircraft can go, or the less power is needed from the engine. Less powerful engines are generally lighter (that is, have less weight) and need less fuel (that is, cost less to fly). A lighter aircraft means that less lift is needed to fly and the airplane can be more maneuverable. If less lift is needed, a smaller wing is required which decreases weight and drag. All of this, taken together, reduces the cost of building and flying the airplane.
