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 2013 Learn Certificate
Watched and took notes on 26 college lectures:
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE SCIENCE OF GASTRONOMY, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
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conduction
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thermal energy is transferred from one molecule to the nearby molecule by means of a collision, there is no relocation of molecules
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during cooking, heat is transferred from the outside to the center of a solid piece of food by means of conduction, e.g. steak
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cellular structure of food impedes heat transfer
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rate of heat transfer is determined by... view all notes
Friday, August 2, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
HISTORY OF ROCK AND ROLL, PART ONE, University of Rochester
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Cashbox and Billboard
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record industry charts
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Cashbox
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from 1942 to 1996
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now revived online... view all notes
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY, University of Toronto
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throughout the centuries, humans have generally perceived themselves as distinct in some way, i.e. spirits in a material world
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yet for things that were physical, as the scientific method was developed, humans began to see that interactions that those materials show show adherence to physical laws, and through careful observation and systematic experimentation, they could figure out what those laws are
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led to physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy
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as humans continued to perceive themselves as spiritual beings, it didn't make sense to study themselves scientifically
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this began to change first through philosophical thought, and then through autopsies and biological experiments on the body... view all notes
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE MODERN WORLD: GLOBAL HISTORY SINCE 1760, University of Virginia
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choices made in late 1916 on whether to continue the war
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the study of history is analyzing choices as stories in which people confront a situation, try to make sense of it, see their problems there, try to figure out what is the best way to solve these problems, and then take action, which then leads to new situations
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we want to discover why choices made towards the end of 1916 merged together so that the outcome would be to continue this already horrifying war
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United States in 1916
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Wilson's American was neutral, and was doing extremely well as a result... view all notes
Monday, August 5, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC SPEAKING, University of Washington
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how are we going to evaluate speeches?
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standardizing of grading is an important aspect but not the most important aspect
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we are going to evaluate rubrics, i.e. various aspects of the speech
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we get better at speaking by studying these parts in isolation and in tandem with each other
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parts of impromptu speech... view all notes
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY, University of Toronto
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psychology has a tension in terms of its scientific merit, which leads to two kinds of psychology
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clinical approach
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scientific approach
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late 1800s: psychology was born in Germany
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late 1800s, a period where Germany was economically a very strong country, the strongest in Europe and perhaps in the world... view all notes
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE LAW OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Universiteit Leiden
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1951 European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)
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failed to come to a defense or political community
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1957 European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM)
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purpose: to create a specialist market for nuclear power in Europe
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today legally distinct from the European Union... view all notes
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE MODERN WORLD: GLOBAL HISTORY SINCE 1760, University of Virginia
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World War I was not just a war but an event in history that changed the ideas of how to organize these modern, industrial societies, and during the war, this took the form of moving the warring countries, some more than others, toward total states
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the war was absolutely devastating, more than any other war people could remember, on a scale no one had ever experienced
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the idea of 100,000 and millions of chemical explosions going off is giving a different feel for warfare
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one of the horrors of some of the soldiers is that they would be caught in a shell hole full of water, they couldn't crawl out of it because the sides would be too slippery, and they would find themselves drowning in the water polluted by their dead comrades
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painting: Gassed, by John Singer Sargeant... view all notes
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE ANCIENT GREEKS, Wesleyan University
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as with other ancient civilizations, what we have with Sparta are a number of stories which we can try to turn into a coherent narrative
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Lycurgus [ligh-KER-gus] (820BC-730BC)
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law-giver
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established the military-oriented reformation of Spartan society in accordance with the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi
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The Rhetra [RAY-tra]... view all notes
Friday, August 9, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
HISTORY OF ROCK AND ROLL, PART ONE, University of Rochester
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Bill Haley (1925-1981)
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Bill Haley and His Comets
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Bill Haley the first musician to "really get this Rock and Roll thing"
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sold over 25 million records worldwide
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self-admitted alcoholic, had alcohol problems at end of life, cancelled European tour... view all notes
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE MODERN WORLD: GLOBAL HISTORY SINCE 1760, University of Virginia
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America officially entered WWI in April 1917, and even in early 1918, it was not clear who was going to win the war
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situation in 1917
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Britain and France
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in terms of lack of military advancement and sheer casualties, both countries had another terrible year
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yes the Americans had joined the war in April 1917 but the American soldiers were just being trained to fight and hardly any are engaging in combat in France... view all notes
Monday, August 12, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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background and context
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about 13 billion years ago, matter, energy, time and space came into being in what is known as the Big Bang
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the story of these fundamental features of our universe is called physics
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about 300,000 years after their appearance, matter and energy began to combine into structures which we call atoms and these atoms then combine into even more complex structures called molecules
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the story of molecules, atoms and their interactions is called chemistry... view all notes
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC SPEAKING, University of Washington
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the skill set of developing main points and then being able to talk through each one is hugely useful in job interviews, informational interviews, client meetings, anytime you need to craft a message in a semi-formal setting
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inventing main points
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decide on your position, one side or the other
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ask yourself why your thesis is true
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try to come up with ten claims why your position is true... view all notes
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE MODERN WORLD: GLOBAL HISTORY SINCE 1760, University of Virginia
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Woodrow Wilson had talked about a peace without victory
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popular vision for a world exhausted by war
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but if you were e.g. France where the Germans had largely destroyed your country, you may not be for this vision
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problems that peace makers faced
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five empires collapsed between 1912 and 1922... view all notes
Friday, August 16, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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the various species of human (those species which belonged to the genus Homo) shared many characteristics with each other
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had extraordinarily large brains
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mammals weighting 60kg usually have a brain 200cc (cubic centimeters)
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homo sapiens today who weigh 60kg have a brain weighing 1200-1400cc
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2.5 million years ago, the earliest men and women had smaller brains than we do today but compared to other animals it was still proportionally large and increased as humans evolved... view all notes
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE SCIENCE OF GASTRONOMY, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
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glucose
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a kind of sugar (the suffix "-ose" denotes a sugar)
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glucose levels have much to do with how we feel, e.g. if we are hungry
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after a meal, you accumulate glucose in your blood
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gradually the level of glucose in your blood declines... view all notes
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE MODERN WORLD: GLOBAL HISTORY SINCE 1760, University of Virginia
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one of the biggest effects of World War One was the rise of modern communism and the communism vs. anti-communism split was the biggest fault line of the new politics of the 1920s
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war
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ruling parties were not able to prevent the war, communism was portrayed as a solution that would prevent war
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chaos
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what takes the place of those shattered empires... view all notes
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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humans for most of their existence had large brains, the ability to produce and use tools and had complex social structures
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however, they were weak and marginal in the ecosystem
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yet in the last 100,000 years, humans ascended to the top of the food chain and became the most powerful and influential animals
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how did humans make the jump to the top of the food chain?
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one skill that helped them do this was the domestication of fire... view all notes
Friday, August 23, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR, The University of Melbourne
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avoid anthropomorphism
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e.g. are dolphins happy and content when free to jump in the water?
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this is a bad question, since we have no way of knowing if dolphins are happy in the same way as humans are happy
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we can, however, measure things like heart rate
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cows are known to have higher heart rates when around certain other cows... view all notes
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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the significant revolution in the status of humans in the ecosystem came only after the appearance of our own species, Homo sapiens
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appeared between 300,000 and 200,000 years ago in Africa
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by 150,000 years ago, East Africa was populated with Homo sapiens which looked much like us
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around 70,000 years ago, some of these Homo sapiens left East Africa and reached the Middle East and began spreading over the Eurasian land mass
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when these Homo sapiens arrived, most of Eurasia was already populated with other species of humans, e.g. Homo neanderthalensis (Europe), Homo denisova (Siberia), and Homo soloensis (Java), this is one of history's biggest and most important questions: why did these other species of humans become extinct, and what role did Homo sapiens play in their extinction?... view all notes
Monday, August 26, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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for more than 2 million years, the earth was populated with a number of human species, not just one
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from 2 million years ago to around 70,000 years ago, these human species were for the most part unimportant animals living in the middle of the food chain and had a small impact on the environment around them, and they had not done anything particularly influential
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70,000 years ago something began to change:
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Homo sapiens began migrating out of Africa
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as they spread out onto the Eurasia land mass, they drove the other human species (e.g. Homo neanderthalensis [Europe], Homo denisova [Asia/Siberia], and Homo soloensis [Java]) into extinction... view all notes
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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something amazing started happening to Homo sapiens about 70,000 years ago which had to do with our language, the way we talk and think, it is our language which has made us the masters of this world
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what is so special about Homo sapiens language
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Homo sapiens are not the only animals with vocal communication abilities
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other animals can communicate through less sophisticated sounds, or through chemicals in order to communicate information about the location of food, flowers, etc.
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animal even use vocal languages, such as green monkeys... view all notes
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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what is it that makes human language so powerful?
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talk about exterior events, e.g. where lions and food is
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gossip about others in your group in order to know who you can best trust and cooperate with
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human language is a fictive language, and is unique, no other animal does this
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you can't convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him that he will go to monkey heaven... view all notes
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE MODERN WORLD: GLOBAL HISTORY SINCE 1760, University of Virginia
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after WWI the common sentiment was that Europe was a broken world
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the certainties of the past seemed gone
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human losses:
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9-10 million people killed
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10s of millions people damaged in some way, physically or psychologically... view all notes
Friday, August 30, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE ANCIENT GREEKS, Wesleyan University
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meaning of "tyrant"
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the modern meaning of the tyrant is extremely negative, suggesting brutality, greed, and lawlessness
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the original Greek meaning of tyrant was "someone who seized power in a non-constitutional way and held it personally"
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one of the ironies in ancient Greece is that tyranny was a necessary prelude to democracy
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Corinth... view all notes
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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it is easy for us understand how primitive cultures believed in ghosts and spirits
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it is harder for us to appreciate is that our own modern institutions such as banks, governments, and countries function on the same basis
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the legend of Peugeot car company
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one of the biggest and oldest car manufactures in Europe
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began in 1896 as small village in North East France... view all notes
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