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.

August 2015 Learn Certificate
Watched and took notes on 13 college lectures:
Learned 8 vocabulary words:
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Learned about 4 people:
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Corrected 11 misspelling:
interchangable, geneology, absense, privelege, prophesized, accomodate, anomolous, gallopping, calvary, defendent, agressive
Recorded 66 Flashcards from MOOC lectures:
  • And we realize that one of the motors (FRENCH)
                        
  • But we realize that (FRENCH)
                        
  • So it is especially port cities we will study (FRENCH)
                        
  • So there are several (FRENCH)
                        
  • as opposed to the countryside (FRENCH)
                        
  • at the beginning (FRENCH)
                        
  • bring raw materials (FRENCH)
                        
  • but all that is within the city (FRENCH)
                        
  • but it's everything in between (FRENCH)
                        
  • coastal cities (FRENCH)
                        
  • it is those we just named (FRENCH)
                        
  • one can speculate that (FRENCH)
                        
  • railway lines (FRENCH)
                        
  • since they are numerous (FRENCH)
                        
  • string of cities (FRENCH)
                        
  • the challenges (FRENCH)
                        
  • the cities are spread around the continent's coastline (FRENCH)
                        
  • the continent is empty (FRENCH)
                        
  • the corridors (FRENCH)
                        
  • the same actors are found almost everywhere (FRENCH)
                        
  • then bring them to Europe (FRENCH)
                        
  • to the southern tip of Africa (FRENCH)
                        
  • two thirds of them (FRENCH)
                        
  • which sets up (FRENCH)
                        
  • with respect to the countryside (FRENCH)
                        
  • But this portrait helps us understand (SPANISH)
                        
  • Christ just told his disciples (SPANISH)
                        
  • Despite the variety of gestures (SPANISH)
                        
  • For centuries (SPANISH)
                        
  • He died there in 1519 (SPANISH)
                        
  • In today's video (SPANISH)
                        
  • It is he who (SPANISH)
                        
  • It seems to me (SPANISH)
                        
  • It was a qualitiy (SPANISH)
                        
  • Perhaps the most important (SPANISH)
                        
  • See in this picture (SPANISH)
                        
  • The above pictures (SPANISH)
                        
  • a stream of water (SPANISH)
                        
  • astronished (SPANISH)
                        
  • beautiful (SPANISH)
                        
  • became famous (SPANISH)
                        
  • betrayal (SPANISH)
                        
  • carefully ordered (SPANISH)
                        
  • due to the experimental technique (SPANISH)
                        
  • has been able to represent (SPANISH)
                        
  • his movements and expressions (SPANISH)
                        
  • intertwined (SPANISH)
                        
  • led to the idea that they could excel (SPANISH)
                        
  • many copies were made (SPANISH)
                        
  • must represent (SPANISH)
                        
  • such as pain (SPANISH)
                        
  • the effort (SPANISH)
                        
  • the face (SPANISH)
                        
  • the hands of one lead our eyes to the other (SPANISH)
                        
  • the nose of a woman (SPANISH)
                        
  • the qualities of the damaged original (SPANISH)
                        
  • this partial image (SPANISH)
                        
  • tool (SPANISH)
                        
  • tried to approach (SPANISH)
                        
  • until then (SPANISH)
                        
  • we can believe they are real (SPANISH)
                        
  • we go back in time a few decades (SPANISH)
                        
  • went together (SPANISH)
                        
  • were unfinished or damaged (SPANISH)
                        
  • which were collected after his death (SPANISH)
                        
  • which will lead to (SPANISH)
                        
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE ANCIENT GREEKS, Wesleyan University
•
Second Persian War
•
479 BC: ended with the battles of Plataea and Mycale
•
a general sense of euphoria among the Greeks
•
three practical results from this war
•
1. the Persian threat was effectively at an end... view all notes
Vocabulary:
scion, n. descendant or heir ⇒ "Pausanias was a Spartan general of the 5th century BC who was a scion of the royal house of the Agiads but was not in the direct line of succession."
ephors, n. [Ἔφορος] From "one who oversees", ephors were leaders of ancient Sparta who shared power with the Spartan kings, five ephors were elected annually, who swore on behalf of the city, the ephors were elected by the popular assembly and all citizens were eligible for election and forbidden to be reelected. Ephors provided a balance for the two kings, who rarely cooperated with each other. Up to two ephors would accompany a king on extended military campaigns as a sign of control, even gaining the ability to declare war at some points in Spartan history. Every autumn along with the Krypteia, a kind of state security force organized by the ruling classes, the ephors would declare war on the helot population so that any Spartan citizen could kill a helot without fear of blood guilt. The ephors did not have to kneel down before the Kings of Sparta and were held in high esteem by the citizens, because of the importance of their powers and because of the holy role they earned throughout their functions. Cleomenes III abolished the ephors in 227 BC, but they were restored by the Macedonian king in 222 BC. While Sparta fell under Roman rule in 146 BC, the position existed into the 2nd century AD, when it was probably abolished by the Roman emperor Hadrian and superseded by Imperial governance as part of the province of Achaea. ⇒ "On his arrival in Sparta, the ephors had Pausanias imprisoned, but he was later released, as nobody had enough evidence to convict him of disloyalty, even though some helots gave evidence that he had offered certain helots their freedom if they joined him in revolt."
Friday, August 7, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE BIBLE'S PREHISTORY, PURPOSE, AND POLITICAL FUTURE, Emory University
•
history central highland states
•
Biblical story
•
Book of Samuel
•
authority shifting along a succession of judges
•
people of Israel assemble and petition the prophet Samuel to find a king... view all notes
Monday, August 10, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A HISTORY OF THE WORLD SINCE 1300, Princeton University
•
the global upheavals that happening in the mid 19th century were part of a global economic process
•
result of changes that began to intensify
•
a shift in the world from interconnected to interdependent
•
societies which were able to take care of themselves were now increasingly dependent on other societies
•
societies are not just in contact with each other, they're not even just influencing each other, they have become dependent upon each other... view all notes
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
DESCUBRIENDO LA PINTURA EUROPEA DE 1400 A 1800, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
•
el Bosco y Brueghel siguieron una tradición muy diferente de la que dominó la pintura europea desde principios del siglo XVI
•
que se inspiraba en el arte de tres artistas principales
•
1. Leonardo da Vinci
•
2. Miguel Ángel
•
3. Rafael... view all notes
People:
Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)
Flemish Baroque painter, proponent of an extravagant Baroque style that emphasized movement, color, and sensuality, known for his Counter-Reformation altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects
  • ran large studio in Antwerp that produced paintings popular with nobility and art collectors throughout Europe
  • classically educated humanist scholar and diplomat
  • knighted by both Philip IV of Spain and Charles I of England
  • his father and mother fled Antwerp for Cologne in 1568
  • later his father became legal advisor and lover to Anna of Saxony
  • after his father was released from prison for the affair, Peter Paul Rubens was born, his father died, he moved back to Antwerp and was raised Catholic
  • while Rubens received a humanist education, studying Latin and classical literature, religion naturally figured prominently in much of his work and he later became one of the leading voices of the Catholic Counter-Reformation style of painting
Friday, August 14, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
HISTORY OF ROCK, 1970-PRESENT, University of Rochester
•
Disco
•
just the word is enough to anger 1970s rock and rollers
•
how can you get so upset about a style of popular music?
•
as if you wanted to stamp it out
•
and wish it never existed in the first place... view all notes
Saturday, August 15, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
REASON AND PERSUASION THROUGH PLATO'S DIALOGUES, National University of Singapore
•
what is Socrate's like?
•
at the start of Euthyphro
•
Socrates and Euthyphro meet outside the Archon Basileus' court
•
Archon Basileus
•
official in charge of overseeing religious matters in Athens... view all notes
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
GREEKS AT WAR: HOMER AT TROY, Colgate University
•
takes place as a series of individual encounters, not has a continuous narrative
•
monotonous for some modern readers
•
two warriors engage, one is hit, his limbs collapse, darkness descends, and then we're on to the next engagement
•
only once do we get a sense of the sweep of the battlefield
•
when Zeus holds up his golden scales to determine which side should prevail... view all notes
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
LETTERS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL, Harvard University
•
Rome refounded Corinth as a colony of free persons
•
some scholars read references to slavery in Paul's letters as metaphorical or abstract
•
e.g. inner freedom or slavery as sin
•
in Romans, "You are set free from sin and have become slaves of God"
•
Paul talks about himself as a slave... view all notes
Monday, August 24, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
JESUS IN SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION, University of Notre Dame
•
issue of choseness
•
Jacob was renamed Isreal
•
Jacob is the chosen son over his brother Esau
•
poses problems for both men
•
important for the Bible's understanding of what choseness is all about... view all notes
Vocabulary:
umbrage, n. feeling of anger or annoyance caused by something offensive ⇒ "Joseph's brothers took great umbrage at the fact that Joseph used his privileged status with his father to inform his father of wrong things they had done and to get them in trouble."
vest, v. to clothe or robe, as in ecclesiastical vestments ⇒ "Jacob vests Joseph with a special garment, which means that as long as the brothers are awake and conscious, they are visibly aware of Joseph's privileged status."
sheaf, n. bundle of cut stalks of grain or similar plants bound with straw or twine ⇒ "Hear this dream which I have dreamed: behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose and stood upright, and behold, your sheaves gathered round it, and bowed down to my sheaf."
providentially, adv. happening through divine intervention ⇒ "Even though these dreams are given providentially, Joseph's behavior is no more innocent than that of his brothers."
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
EMERGENCE OF LIFE, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
•
scientific inquiry
•
progressive, looping feedback of multiple stages of inquire that culminate in the establishment of a new cycle of inquiry
•
an infinite process of hypothesizing, testing, observing
•
stages on spiral that narrows onto a problem area
•
initiation... view all notes
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
ALEXANDER THE GREAT, Wellesley College
•
raising horses
•
central Greece
•
the land and resources of not particularly suited to rearing horses, which require:
•
fields
•
fodder... view all notes
Vocabulary:
mount, n. a means of conveyance, such as a horse, on which to ride ⇒ "Not having saddles or stirrups, ancient Macedonian horsemen had to control their mounts by the use of harsh bridles, or bit, or the pressure they exerted with their legs."
Saturday, August 29, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
KEY CONSTITUTIONAL CONCEPTS AND SUPREME COURT CASES, University of Pennsylvania
•
Ernesto Miranda didn't know he had a right to remain silent
•
Miranda was arrested based on circumstantial evidence linking him to a rape
•
circumstantial evidence
•
evidence that is not based on direct observation or physical evidence
•
the police interrogated him for two hours without telling him he didn't have to answer their questions... view all notes
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
VILLES AFRICAINES: LA PLANIFICATION URBAINE, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
•
des villes africaines
•
du passage de l'urbanisation à la ville
•
des formes d'urbanisation en forme des villes
•
il n'existe pas un seul modèle de ville, une seule ville africaine qu'on retrouverait du Maghreb jusqu'à l'Afrique du Sud
•
mais une multiplicité... view all notes
Vocabulary:
Sahel, n. une bande de l'Afrique marquant la transition, à la fois floristique et climatique, entre le domaine saharien au nord et les savanes du domaine soudanien, où les pluies sont substantielles, au sud, et d'ouest en est, il s'étend de l'Atlantique à la mer Rouge ⇒ "Il est vain de tenter de définir précisément la limite entre le Sahara et le Sahel et entre le Sahel et le Soudan, ou à l’intérieur du Sahel entre les secteurs sahélo-saharien et sahélo-soudanien."
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