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.

January 2015 Learn Certificate
Watched and took notes on 17 college lectures:
Learned 4 vocabulary words:
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Learned about 9 people:
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Corrected 12 misspelling:
admendment, primative, obediance, demonational, virtuousic, basist, geneological, Versaille, bourgeouis, pinnicle, heydey, accomodate
Recorded 99 Flashcards from MOOC lectures:
  • Efforts have also been undertaken (FRENCH)
                        
  • How to reconcile (FRENCH)
                        
  • It was triggered by a letter (FRENCH)
                        
  • based in particular on justice (FRENCH)
                        
  • by which he meant a legally binding instrument (FRENCH)
                        
  • conducted a major survey (FRENCH)
                        
  • contempt of rights (FRENCH)
                        
  • dedicated to the protection (FRENCH)
                        
  • despite the fact (FRENCH)
                        
  • in a book whose title is revealing (FRENCH)
                        
  • international implementation mechanisms (FRENCH)
                        
  • it sets up compliance (FRENCH)
                        
  • led to a polarisation (FRENCH)
                        
  • non-interference (FRENCH)
                        
  • outlined his vision (FRENCH)
                        
  • promote (FRENCH)
                        
  • replaced (FRENCH)
                        
  • respond to requests (FRENCH)
                        
  • should be able to enjoy the four fundamental freedoms (FRENCH)
                        
  • that we have just seen (FRENCH)
                        
  • these efforts have intensified (FRENCH)
                        
  • universal scope (FRENCH)
                        
  • Accordingly (SPANISH)
                        
  • As for the tombs (SPANISH)
                        
  • As mentioned (SPANISH)
                        
  • As mentioned (SPANISH)
                        
  • As we are seeing (SPANISH)
                        
  • Between both we have (SPANISH)
                        
  • I put (SPANISH)
                        
  • I put (SPANISH)
                        
  • Somewhat to the south of the (SPANISH)
                        
  • Somewhat to the south of the (SPANISH)
                        
  • The passage reads from left to right (SPANISH)
                        
  • The passage reads from left to right (SPANISH)
                        
  • The site of the ancient city (SPANISH)
                        
  • The site of the ancient city (SPANISH)
                        
  • The third entity (SPANISH)
                        
  • The third entity (SPANISH)
                        
  • We are told that (SPANISH)
                        
  • We are told that (SPANISH)
                        
  • a bee (SPANISH)
                        
  • a name the Greeks gave to (SPANISH)
                        
  • a name the Greeks gave to (SPANISH)
                        
  • as one has masturbated (SPANISH)
                        
  • as shown in the second sentence of this (SPANISH)
                        
  • as we have seen we can reply that (SPANISH)
                        
  • blocks used in construction (SPANISH)
                        
  • blocks used in construction (SPANISH)
                        
  • contains the name (SPANISH)
                        
  • despite having moved (SPANISH)
                        
  • each of these three aspects (SPANISH)
                        
  • employing to create (SPANISH)
                        
  • evoking the action of (SPANISH)
                        
  • first being of creation (SPANISH)
                        
  • had built (SPANISH)
                        
  • he grabbed his phallus (SPANISH)
                        
  • if we want to define (SPANISH)
                        
  • if we want to define (SPANISH)
                        
  • implies (SPANISH)
                        
  • implies (SPANISH)
                        
  • inasmuch as the demiurge rose from it to heaven (SPANISH)
                        
  • is located today in (SPANISH)
                        
  • is located today in (SPANISH)
                        
  • is repeated twice (SPANISH)
                        
  • metropolitan area (SPANISH)
                        
  • metropolitan area (SPANISH)
                        
  • moisture (SPANISH)
                        
  • priests (SPANISH)
                        
  • priests (SPANISH)
                        
  • since I have raised by daughter (SPANISH)
                        
  • skyward (SPANISH)
                        
  • skyward (SPANISH)
                        
  • such monuments could be built (SPANISH)
                        
  • such monuments could be built (SPANISH)
                        
  • takes place (SPANISH)
                        
  • that you can see to what extent this is so (SPANISH)
                        
  • the beliefs (SPANISH)
                        
  • the boat in which the Sun god is sailing (SPANISH)
                        
  • the drawing (SPANISH)
                        
  • the light vs. darkness (SPANISH)
                        
  • the light vs. darkness (SPANISH)
                        
  • the task of creating (SPANISH)
                        
  • their ancestorrs (SPANISH)
                        
  • they are the ones that generate (SPANISH)
                        
  • thirdly (SPANISH)
                        
  • to hand her over to my father (SPANISH)
                        
  • to note the verb (SPANISH)
                        
  • to note the verb (SPANISH)
                        
  • to the implementation (SPANISH)
                        
  • upwards (SPANISH)
                        
  • we could say (SPANISH)
                        
  • we could say (SPANISH)
                        
  • who had come into existence (SPANISH)
                        
  • with his fist (SPANISH)
                        
  • with what technological means (SPANISH)
                        
  • with what technological means (SPANISH)
                        
  • you have spat (SPANISH)
                        
  • you will disappear (SPANISH)
                        
  • you will disappear (SPANISH)
                        
Saturday, January 3, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
EGIPTOLOGÍA, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
•
el paso del predinástico al dinástico
•
se producen cambios determinantes en el proceso histórico y cultural de Egipto
•
la conceptualización y la organización de del tiempo cultural
•
una impronta de sello cilíndrico sobre arcilla
•
recoge los nombres de Orus de los ocho reyes que constituyen la primera dinastía... view all notes
Sunday, January 4, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
HISTORY OF ROCK, 1970-PRESENT, University of Rochester
•
you would think that American blues-based rock bands would take most of their influence from American blues
•
but the case is that most of these bands were very influenced by the British bands of the 1960s
•
it's as if the blues as to leave the United States, go to Britain, and come back again for Americans to play it
•
e.g. the Stones and Creme were so big that when the American kids were listening to it became teenagers, this is the kind of music that they played
•
when we talk about American blues-based rock, we are often talking of Southern Rock... view all notes
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
BEMERKENSWERTE MENSCHEN, Topic Scooper
•
Frank Vincent Zappa
•
Kindheit
•
geboren 21.12.1940 in Baltimore, Maryland
•
gestorben 04.12.1993 in Los Angeles
•
das erste Kind eines sizilianischen Ehepaars Francis Zappa und Rose Marie... view all notes
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
CHINESE THOUGHT: ANCIENT WISDOM MEETS MODERN SCIENCE, University of British Columbia
•
The Analects ("Lúnyǔ", or "Edited Conversations")
•
or "collected sayings" or "categorized sayings"
•
a record of Confucius' teachings as put together by disciples after his death
•
we don't have written texts directly from the pen of Confucius
•
we have an account of his teachings from people who know him and interacted with him... view all notes
Vocabulary:
honorific, n. a title or word implying or expressing high status, politeness, or respect ⇒ "Especially in the Han Dynasty, there is this idea that they want to single out Confucius as special so they added another honorific "fu" which means "supper" in the middle of his name so "Kongzi" became "Kongfuzi" or, Latinized, "Confucius"."
People:
Xunzi (313-238 BC)
A Chinese Confucian philosopher who lived during the Warring States period, believed man's inborn tendencies need to be curbed through education and ritual, a counter to Mencius and so did not believe that man is innately good, and had a pragmatic flavor compared to Confucian optimism
  • believed that ethical norms had been invented to rectify mankind
  • contributed to one of the Hundred Schools of Thought (philosophers and schools that flourished from the 6th century to the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC)
  • "I once tried standing up on my toes to see far out in the distance, but I found that I could see much farther by climbing to a high place."
Monday, January 12, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
ANALYZING THE UNIVERSE, Rutgers University
•
visible light can be bounced of a curved mirror and directed to a focal point
•
x-ray light, however, will be absorbed by the mirror
•
will not bounce back to the focal point
•
X-ray photons penetrate into the mirror in much the same way that bullets slam into a wall
•
likewise, just as bullets ricochet when they hit a wall at a grazing angle, so too will X-rays ricochet off mirrors... view all notes
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
SUBSISTENCE MARKETPLACES, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
•
low literacy and consumer behavior
•
for those with low literacy it is difficult to:
•
locating the product
•
when you can't read, it takes a long time just to find the product, so when you find one, you buy it without deciding if it is the best one
•
locating the right price... view all notes
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE MAGNA CARTA AND ITS LEGACY, University of London
•
England 800 years ago when the Magna Carta was signed
•
differences
•
communication much slower
•
society was much more localized
•
much less crowded, 3 million compared to today's 60 million... view all notes
People:
King John Lackland (1166-1216)
Known for signing the Magna Carta in 1215 which promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown
  • King John was given the nickname of Lackland because, unlike his elder brothers, he received no land rights in the continental provinces
  • yet the failed rebellion of his elder brothers between 1173 and 1174 made him the favorite child of the reigning monarch, King Henry II
  • although he has been described as "hard-working administrator, an able man, an able general" he is generally described critically in his capacity of a king, showing "distasteful, even dangerous personality traits, such as pettiness, spitefulness and cruelty"
  • these negative qualities provided extensive material for fiction writers in the Victorian era, and John remains a recurring character within Western popular culture, primarily as a villain in films and stories depicting the Robin Hood legends
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
KEY CONSTITUTIONAL CONCEPTS AND SUPREME COURT CASES, University of Pennsylvania
•
the Progressive Era Amendments
•
1890s to 1920s
•
they are connected with a kind of optimism about government and society
•
government can be improved following scientific methods
•
good government can be a force for good... view all notes
Friday, January 16, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
EGIPTOLOGÍA, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
•
qué es una pirámide
•
ejemplos
•
las pirámides de Guiza
•
las pirámides de Khufu
•
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
BUDDHISM AND MODERN PSYCHOLOGY , Princeton University
•
does the Buddhist prescription help us see the world more clearly?
•
one of the main parts of the Buddhist prescription is viewing the world mindfully
•
this can change your relationship to your feelings
•
there are feelings that perhaps used to mediate your interaction with reality in a way they no longer will
•
but does this changed relationship to your feelings help you see the world more clearly... view all notes
People:
George Romanes (1848-1894)
Canadian-born English evolutionary biologist who laid the foundation of comparative psychology, postulating a similarity of cognitive processes between humans and other animals
  • the youngest of Charles Darwin's academic friends
  • invented the term neo-Darwinism, which is still often used today to indicate an updated form of Darwinism (i.e. transmission of characteristics from parent to child through genetic transfer rather than Darwin's "blending process")
  • our base feelings are fundamentally about approach and avoidance of phenomena in our environment: approaching a rattle snake feels bad, approaching food feels good
  • we assume our primate relatives have these feelings as well, and this may go down to very simple organisms
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
INTRODUCTION AUX DROITS DE L'HOMME, Université de Genève
•
les États sont peu enclins:
•
à limiter leur souveraineté
•
de donner suite aux demandes d'internationaliser les droits de l'homme
•
malgré le fait qu'il y a eu
•
plusieurs propositions dans la période d'entre-guerres... view all notes
Friday, January 23, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
CHINESE THOUGHT: ANCIENT WISDOM MEETS MODERN SCIENCE, University of British Columbia
•
Confucius sees himself as merely passing on the Western Zhou tradition
•
Analects 7.1
•
"I transmit, I do not innovate."
•
doesn't see himself as a creator or an innovator
•
however, Confucius did actually innovate or transform Zhou thought... view all notes
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
HISTORY OF ROCK, 1970-PRESENT, University of Rochester
•
Progressive Rock
•
the style that develops in the 70s that is most consistent with the values of the hippy aesthetic
•
importantly happened in Britain
•
some progressive rock happened in the States but it was mostly an echo of the progressive rock going on in Britain
•
an obsession with concept albums... view all notes
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
INTRODUCTION TO CLASSICAL MUSIC, Yale University
•
most of the world generally listens to what is called "popular music"
•
it is the "music of the people"
•
music that most everybody likes
•
downloads of popular music outnumber download of classical music about 30 to 1
•
classical music... view all notes
Vocabulary:
virtuosic, adj. requiring a high level of technical skill, something impressive and sometimes flamboyant ⇒ "In the progressive rock movement, the songs were long with lots of virtuosic display."
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE BIBLE'S PREHISTORY, PURPOSE, AND POLITICAL FUTURE, Emory University
•
Biblical history runs from the Book of Genesis to the Book of Kings
•
presents Israel as naturally evolving from the family of Abraham to a prodigious nation consisting of twelve tribes
•
twelve sons of Abraham's grandson Jacob whose name was changed to Israel
•
but this Biblical description is not historical
•
at least not in its basic contours... view all notes
Vocabulary:
autochthonous, n. indigenous rather than descended from migrants or colonists ⇒ "In contrast to the book of Exodus, the Book of Genesis tells a history of Israel that is autochthonous."
Monday, January 26, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, The University of Melbourne
•
National Assembly had laid down a blueprint for a new society and a new political system
•
August Decrees on Feudalism (19 decrees made in August 1789)
•
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
•
the fundamental problem was: Louis XVI had withheld his consent on these two documents
•
after all Louis XVI had convened the Estates General to give him advice on the reform necessary to make the kingdom flourish again... view all notes
Vocabulary:
cockade, n. a badge, usually in the form of a rosette, or knot, and generally worn upon the hat as an indication of military or naval service, or party allegiance ⇒ "They were furious when news arrived that army officers in Versailles had shown disrespect for the new revolutionary cockade of the red, white, and blue who had stamped it under foot during a banquet."
People:
Pierre-François Palloy (1755-1835)
Entrepreneurial building contractor remembered for the demolition of the Bastille
  • married the daughter of a building contractor and joined the trade himself, eventually taking over his new family's business
  • by 1789 he had made the company one of the largest building firms in Paris, employing 400 workers
  • when the Bastille fell on July 14, 1789 there was some debate as to what should replace it
  • Palloy knew exactly what he wanted to do and by that evening had begun the process of dismantling the structure
  • he secured the contract to demolish the building two days later
  • Palloy labelled himself a patriot and emphasized the symbolism of the Bastille, writing speeches, painting pictures, and even arranging celebratory festivals and theatrical reconstructions of the day the Bastille fell
  • he sent miniature replicas of the Bastille to each of the 83 departments asking only to be reimbursed for transport and postage
Friday, January 30, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
EXPLORING BEETHOVEN'S PIANO SONATAS, Curtis Institute of Music
•
form
•
necessary when discussing the effect of music
•
people hear form or analysis in a musical context and they tend to think of something dry
•
form is indeed about rules
•
and about the grammar and construction of music... view all notes
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