The Learn Tracker
...life-long learning: structured, organized, searchable...

My name is Edward Tanguay.
I have a Bachelors degree in Philosophy, a Masters in Education, and am currently working as a web developer in Berlin, Germany.

I watch over 200 college-level MOOC lectures per year in subjects such as history , psychology, science, religion, art, philosophy, and IT development in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian, and record my notes here.
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edward [at] tanguay.info

Learning Activity by Month:

The primary goal of this Learn Tracker project is to build a web site which serves as one place to record the notes of everything that I am learning from MOOC classes, to foreign languages, to useful code examples and technical how-to notes, so that I not only have an overview of what I have learned, but can search and recall these notes at any time.

The secondary goal of this Learn Tracker project is to work together with companies, universities, and MOOC providers to build software that allows employees, students, and learners to record what they are learning in an efficient way so that it serves not only as (1) a record of what they have learned, but also (2) a place for them to review and search what they have learned.

Since January 2013, I have watched and recorded notes on over 300 MOOC lectures from over 30 different courses in both English and French, and have watched and recorded notes and flashcards on over 50 foreign language videos in Italian, French and Spanish. (I am curently still adding notes I took from 2013 and plan to be caught up by the end of January 2014.

July 2014 Learn Certificate
Watched and took notes on 21 college lectures:
Learned 8 vocabulary words:
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Learned about 10 people:
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Corrected 10 misspelling:
deterence, grievences, Tarifs, clientelle, edifaces, priveleged, eclesiastical, edifaces, sacrements, Britanny
Recorded 81 Flashcards from MOOC lectures:
  • die/der/das Status
                        
  • 2 of the same vowels (SPANISH)
                        
  • Although indirect (SPANISH)
                        
  • And now we come (SPANISH)
                        
  • As we saw earlier (SPANISH)
                        
  • Based on this (SPANISH)
                        
  • Even if (SPANISH)
                        
  • First you should know that (SPANISH)
                        
  • Give these papers to the manager (SPANISH)
                        
  • He told him everything he knew (SPANISH)
                        
  • I cannot even explain what scared me. (SPANISH)
                        
  • I don't know if I will arrive on time (SPANISH)
                        
  • I saw your picture in the newspaper (SPANISH)
                        
  • I think I'll go to the movies (SPANISH)
                        
  • I want to go but I'll be busy (SPANISH)
                        
  • I was recommended green tea (SPANISH)
                        
  • It will depend on its position (SPANISH)
                        
  • It's easier than I thought (SPANISH)
                        
  • Let's look more closely at the above examples (SPANISH)
                        
  • Let's review (SPANISH)
                        
  • Namely (SPANISH)
                        
  • Nor did we put (SPANISH)
                        
  • Now it is time to study (SPANISH)
                        
  • Now we see how you will decide if (SPANISH)
                        
  • Once you have reviewed (SPANISH)
                        
  • Since only the last part (SPANISH)
                        
  • So (SPANISH)
                        
  • Tell me where you want me to leave the book. (SPANISH)
                        
  • Tell me why you did not come on time. (SPANISH)
                        
  • The car (SPANISH)
                        
  • The man washed his hands and went (SPANISH)
                        
  • The matter did not end here (SPANISH)
                        
  • The other special case to be observed is (SPANISH)
                        
  • The reason for your delay intrigues me. (SPANISH)
                        
  • To begin with (SPANISH)
                        
  • Well no. (SPANISH)
                        
  • What scared me (SPANISH)
                        
  • Where do you wish to leave the book (SPANISH)
                        
  • Words whose stressed syllable is the last one (SPANISH)
                        
  • You decide what we will do (SPANISH)
                        
  • You saw that each syllable has a vowel (SPANISH)
                        
  • You see how easy it is (SPANISH)
                        
  • a gap (SPANISH)
                        
  • a hyphen (SPANISH)
                        
  • also (SPANISH)
                        
  • always (SPANISH)
                        
  • any (SPANISH)
                        
  • closed (SPANISH)
                        
  • consists of 3 parts (SPANISH)
                        
  • does not break the diphthong (SPANISH)
                        
  • does not then require (SPANISH)
                        
  • each must maintain its required stress and accent (SPANISH)
                        
  • how (SPANISH)
                        
  • hyphen (SPANISH)
                        
  • in such words (SPANISH)
                        
  • in this case it is already a part of a new word (SPANISH)
                        
  • issue (SPANISH)
                        
  • it should also follow the general rule (SPANISH)
                        
  • new word formed (SPANISH)
                        
  • on any of the five vowels (SPANISH)
                        
  • open (SPANISH)
                        
  • rainbow (SPANISH)
                        
  • review (SPANISH)
                        
  • takes into account the position (SPANISH)
                        
  • that appear to be the same. (SPANISH)
                        
  • that are not preceded by (SPANISH)
                        
  • that is (SPANISH)
                        
  • that we sometimes see (SPANISH)
                        
  • then, yes, the accent is written (SPANISH)
                        
  • therefore takes an accent mark (SPANISH)
                        
  • those vowels (SPANISH)
                        
  • value (SPANISH)
                        
  • we will now discuss (SPANISH)
                        
  • whenever you have the combination (SPANISH)
                        
  • which one (SPANISH)
                        
  • which the table shows you (SPANISH)
                        
  • which would be a combinatoin (SPANISH)
                        
  • who (SPANISH)
                        
  • within the sentence (SPANISH)
                        
  • you have to analyze the position (SPANISH)
                        
  • you remembered how to divide (SPANISH)
                        
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
PROGRAMMING MOBILE APPLICATIONS FOR ANDROID, University of Maryland
•
fragments were added to Android 3.0 to better support interfaces for devices with larger screens
•
some of the design heuristics that made sense for smaller phone display no longer work
•
example application: quote viewer
•
two activities
•
1. shows titles of Shakespeare plays... view all notes
Vocabulary:
heuristic, adj. refers to experience-based techniques for problem solving, learning, and discovery that give a solution which is not guaranteed to be optimal, e.g. where exhaustive search is impractical, heuristic methods are used to speed up the process of finding a satisfactory solution via mental shortcuts to ease the cognitive load of making a decision ⇒ "Some of the design heuristics that made sense for smaller phone displays no longer work on large tablet screens."
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
FUNDAMENTOS DE LA ESCRITURA EN ESPAÑOL, Tecnológico de Monterrey
•
todas las palabras polisílabas del español, o sea, con más de una sílaba, tienen una sílaba que se pronuncia con más intensidad
•
esta es la sílaba tónica o la sílaba con el acento prosódico
•
a-NUN-cio
•
co-MIÉN-do-se-las
•
tu-CÁN... view all notes
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
INTRODUCTION TO DATA SCIENCE, University of Washington
•
what does scalability mean?
•
operationally
•
in the past, "scale up"
•
needs to work even if data doesn't fit in main memory on one machine
•
need to bring in data, work on it, then bring in more data, work on it, etc.... view all notes
Vocabulary:
tractable, adj. of a decision problem, algorithmically solvable fast enough to be practically relevant, typically in polynomial time ⇒ "This algorithm proved to be tractable and became the definition of scalable."
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
FUNDAMENTOS DE LA ESCRITURA EN ESPAÑOL, Tecnológico de Monterrey
•
hemos visto que
•
1. cada sílaba cuenta con una vocal
•
2. podemos tener dos o tres vocales juntas
•
ahora veremos cómo decidirás si marcar la tilde o no en este tipo de palabras
•
hay dos tipos de vocales... view all notes
Friday, July 4, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
FUNDAMENTOS DE LA ESCRITURA EN ESPAÑOL, Tecnológico de Monterrey
•
el acento diacrítico causa más confusión en cuestión de acentuación
•
esa es la tilde que a veces vemos y a veces no vemos en la misma palabra
•
mais no es la misma palabra
•
la tilde diacrítica se usa precisamente para diferenciar dos palabras que aparentan ser la misma
•
pero que realmente tienen, no solo otro significado, sino que se pronuncian con diferente intensidad dentro de la oración... view all notes
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE MODERN WORLD: GLOBAL HISTORY SINCE 1760, University of Virginia
•
societies all over the world by the early 1950s were realizing that WWIII had almost come in the Korean War, and could now come at any time
•
societies began to prepare for WWIII and to survive WWIII
•
what did the general sense that WWIII was coming do to political culture?
•
overwhelming national mobilization
•
profound insecurity that general war could come at any time... view all notes
Monday, July 7, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE MODERN WORLD: GLOBAL HISTORY SINCE 1760, University of Virginia
•
at first the atom bomb was just a colossal kind of destructive force, but then they became bigger than that
•
from 1945 to 1949 only the United States had them
•
this was a reassuring monopoly
•
the Americans didn't feel that they had to build up the rest of their conventional forces as much
•
considered putting atomic bombs and this technology under international control... view all notes
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, The University of Melbourne
•
the half century after 1760 was one of the most tumultuous and significant periods in European, American, and world history
•
at the heart of this extraordinary half-century of upheaval is the French Revolution
•
a time of social, political, economic, and military upheaval
•
Louis XVI
•
1774: his coronation at the age of 20... view all notes
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
FUNDAMENTOS DE LA ESCRITURA EN ESPAÑOL, Tecnológico de Monterrey
•
la tilde diacrítica se usa para diferenciar dos palabras que aparentan ser la misma
•
pero que realmente tienen diferente significado
•
se pronuncian con diferente intensidad dentro de la oración
•
se necesita un tilde en las palabras interrogativas qué, cómo, cuándo, cuánto, dónde, cuál, cuán
•
se tildan estas palabras cuando directa o indirectamente tienen un valor interrogativo o exclamativo... view all notes
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE MODERN WORLD: GLOBAL HISTORY SINCE 1760, University of Virginia
•
the ways in which governments organized themselves began changing significantly in the 1950s
•
in the mid-1950s, apart from India and Indonesia, the main empires are mainly still there
•
British Commonwealth
•
independent states that still regard the Queen as their sovereign
•
dedicated to their common heritage... view all notes
People:
Mohammad Mosaddegh (1882-1967)
Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 until 1953 overthrown by British/Americans
  • pro nationalization of the Iranian oil industry (under British control since 1913)
Josip Tito (1892-1980)
Authoritarian, "benevolent dictator" of Yugoslavia
  • 1943-1980 Supreme commander of Yugoslav army
  • during World War II he was the leader of the Partisans, often regarded as the most effective resistance movement in occupied Europe
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, The University of Melbourne
•
contemporary Paris
•
we are used to a France that is dominated by Paris
•
today 1 in 7 people in France live in Paris and its suburbs
•
2.3 million people
•
Paris was almost fully rebuilt in the middle of the 19th century... view all notes
Friday, July 11, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
FUNDAMENTOS DE LA ESCRITURA EN ESPAÑOL, Tecnológico de Monterrey
•
aquellas palabras formadas por dos o más voces simples
•
pelapapas
•
pela + papas
•
veintidós
•
formado por veinte + dos... view all notes
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, The University of Melbourne
•
18th century France was a society based on a medieval conception of three estates (orders):
•
1. clergy
•
duty was to pray and worship
•
2. nobility
•
duty was to fight and protect... view all notes
Vocabulary:
curate, n. a cleric, especially one who has charge of a parish ⇒ "18th century France had approximately 40,000 priests and 19,000 curates"
bocage, n. [BOH-kahzh] a Norman word which has entered both the French and English languages meaning a terrain of mixed woodland and pasture, with fields and winding country lanes sunken between narrow low ridges and banks surmounted by tall thick hedgerows that break the wind but also limit visibility ornamentation. ⇒ "Whereas 18th century Brittany was characterized by a bocage landscape, in the south of France people mostly lived in the cities themselves."
seigneurial, adj. of or pertaining to the lord of a manor, manorial, vested with large powers, independent ⇒ "The Second Estate in 18th century France collected seigneurial and feudal dues particularly at harvest time."
Tridentine Mass, n. the form of the Roman Rite Mass contained in the typical editions of the Roman Missal that were published from 1570 to 1962, it was the most widely celebrated Mass liturgy in the world until the introduction of the Mass of Paul VI in December 1969 ⇒ "The Tridentine Mass is the old form of Mass that was authorized for use throughout the Roman Catholic Church from 1570 until it was replaced following the second Vatican Council in the 1960s."
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
PENSAMIENTO CIENTÍFICO, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
•
la ciencia trata de entender al mundo
•
ha desarrollado métodos para tratar de distinguir entre distintas explicaciones posibles
•
podríamos decir que trata de buscar verdades
•
al entender mejor las cosas podemos tratar de controlarlas
•
la palabra ciencia viene del latín 'scientia' que quiere decir conocimiento... view all notes
Friday, July 25, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
•
in Huxley's Brave New World, everyone takes drugs given out for free by the government in order to be happy
•
most people see this to be a monstrous future scenario, but it's difficult to say why, since in the scenario, everyone in the world is happy, so what could be wrong with that?
•
the reason why this scenario makes us uneasy is that the definition of happiness in the novel is simplified to mean no more and no less than to experience pleasant bodily sensations more and more of the time
•
since our biochemical system naturally limits the number and duration of pleasant sensations in the body, the only way to make people experience a high level of well-being and pleasure over long period of time is to manipulate this biochemical system with the help of drugs and other medical treatments
•
however, today, most people would define happiness as a sustained sense of well-being and pleasure and this is how science generally defines it... view all notes
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
PENSAMIENTO CIENTÍFICO, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
•
la historia necesariamente es parcial e incompleta
•
se domina la agricultura
•
se generaron los conocimientos necesarios para la vida en las grandes ciudades y la expansión de los primeros imperios
•
las civilizaciones antiguas se formaron un poco después del desarrollo de la agricultura
•
les permitió a nuestros ancestros pasar de ser nómadas a sedentarios... view all notes
People:
Plinio el Viejo (23-79 AD)
Un escritor latino, científico, naturalista y militar romano, escribió una enciclopedia que cubría casi todo el conocimiento antiguo
  • inició su carrera militar en Germania con una duración de doce años
  • en el año 57, donde se dedicó al estudio y cultivo de las letras
  • desempeñó varios cargos oficiales al servicio del emperador Vespasiano
  • desarrolló su carrera militar en Germania, y como procurador romano en Galia e Hispania alrededor del 73
Galeno de Pérgamo (130-200 AD)
Un médico griego, sus puntos de vista dominaron la medicina europea a lo largo de más de mil años
  • aportó mucho al desarrollo de la medicina con avances en anatomía, fisiología, patología, farmacología y neurología
  • los escritos de Galeno se consideran como verdades hasta finales de la Edad Media
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
EMERGENCE OF LIFE, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
•
scientific approach of the world
•
1. at some level, no matter how complex our object of study gets, any system is understandable
•
2. scientific ideas are subject to change
•
scientific theories can stand the test of time in terms of being evaluated, but they can always be replaced by or accompanied by other testable theories
•
3. scientific knowledge is durable... view all notes
Monday, July 28, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE MODERN WORLD: GLOBAL HISTORY SINCE 1760, University of Virginia
•
the Suez Canal background tension
•
how does the United States reconcile its anti-communist goals with the imperialist goals of the British and French
•
imperial interests are creating colonial rebellions that are playing into the hands of the communists
•
the United States wants to be on the side of aspiring nationalists for the sake of its anti-communist confederation
•
that puts it in conflict with the empires, yet these empires are their allies, that's the tension which came to a head in 1956 with the Suez Canal... view all notes
Vocabulary:
collude, v. act together secretly to achieve a fraudulent, illegal, or deceitful purpose ⇒ "What happens then is that the British and French secretly collude with the Israelis so that all three countries launch a joint military occupation which will seize the Suez Canal while the Israelis will attack Egypt in Sinai."
People:
Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969)
Vietnamese Communist revolutionary, president of North Vietnam 1945-1969
  • died of old age in the middle of the Vietnam War (1955-1975)
Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972)
Leader of Ghana 1951-1966 nation's independence from British colonization in 1957
  • winner of the Lenin Peace Prize in 1963
  • saw himself as an African Lenin
Che Guevara (1928-1967)
Argentine Marxist revolutionary against capitalist exploitation of Latin America
  • traveled throughout South America, saw poverty, involved in Guatemala's social reforms, joined Fidel Castro
  • played a pivotal role in the victorious two-year guerrilla campaign that deposed the Batista regime
  • supported international revolution
  • captured and killed by CIA-supported Bolivian troops in Bolivia
Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-1957)
Second president of Egypt after planning 1952 overthrow of monarchy, cracked down on Muslim Brotherhood and ousted president
  • neutralist policies during the Cold War led to tense relations with Western powers
  • retaliatory move to nationalize the Suez Canal Company in 1956 was acclaimed within Egypt and the Arab world
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
BUDDHISM AND MODERN PSYCHOLOGY , Princeton University
•
Buddhism writing teaches
•
the source of unsatisfactoriness is our craving and our attempt to hang on to pleasurable things that don't last
•
the biological mechanics of craving show that we focus on and anticipate pleasure
•
we tend to forget that pleasures we will last only a very short time
•
when eating pleasant food, we don't literally think that the pleasure will last forever... view all notes
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE BIBLE'S PREHISTORY, PURPOSE, AND POLITICAL FUTURE, Emory University
•
Egyptian interest in the Levant can be traced back very early in Egypt's history
•
back to Stone Age (3.4 million years to 3100 BC)
•
civilization had developed in two epicenters:
•
1. Mesopotamia
•
2. Nile Delta... view all notes
Vocabulary:
factor, n. a person who does things for another person or organization ⇒ "Better to live a well-fed factor in Egypt than die a starving free man on the steppes of Asia."
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
KARL DER GROßE - PATER EUROPAE, Universität Würzburg
•
die Herkunft der Franken
•
zahlreich, lebten an der Grenzen des römischen Reiches
•
während des Rückzuges der Römer herausbildete sich aus dem besetzten Teil Germaniens durch Bündnisse mehrerer Kleinstämme
•
260 AD erstmals im römischen Quellen erwähnt
•
das Land war "Francia"... view all notes
People:
Pippin der Kleine (715-768)
Ein fränkischer Hausmeier aus dem Geschlecht der Karolinger und seit 751 König der Franken, Vater von Karl der Große
  • mit Papst Stephan II. schloss er 754 ein Schutzbündnis
Chlodwig I. (466-511 AD)
(Clovis) ein fränkischer König, Begründer des Frankenreichs angesehen, der alle anderen fränkischen reges sowie weitere germanische Stämme gewaltsam unterwarf
  • machte Paris Hauptstadt
  • übertritt zum Katholizismus und nicht wie bei den Germanen damals üblich zur arianischen Form des Christentums
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