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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Contact Me via E-Mail:
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.

December 2015 Learn Certificate
Watched and took notes on 18 college lectures:
Learned 6 vocabulary words:
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Learned about 3 people:
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Corrected 9 misspelling:
defendent, negociate, echos, disonances, Manichaen, heirarchy, inpermanence, asthetic, accomodate
Recorded 109 Flashcards from MOOC lectures:
  • Animosities (FRENCH)
                        
  • Another point that should be emphasized (FRENCH)
                        
  • As a result is this the cause (FRENCH)
                        
  • As an individual (FRENCH)
                        
  • Both in Judaism and Islam (FRENCH)
                        
  • Especially since it is a profession (FRENCH)
                        
  • Even though it is possible with the naked eye to see spots on the moon (FRENCH)
                        
  • I said just now (FRENCH)
                        
  • I would like here to outline just some features (FRENCH)
                        
  • I would say it has intensified (FRENCH)
                        
  • It is a not a question for Aristotle (FRENCH)
                        
  • It nevertheless remains that (FRENCH)
                        
  • On the other hand (FRENCH)
                        
  • So we need to shed some light on the possibilities (FRENCH)
                        
  • The fact remains that what Aristotle says (FRENCH)
                        
  • This approach encourages us to go beyond the obvious (FRENCH)
                        
  • This is the whole question (FRENCH)
                        
  • We have covered several elements (FRENCH)
                        
  • Western art (FRENCH)
                        
  • What is the point of sexuality (FRENCH)
                        
  • a matter of self-fulfillment (FRENCH)
                        
  • although it is said to be universal (FRENCH)
                        
  • an art that aims to set the scene (FRENCH)
                        
  • and is still taken into account in the analysis (FRENCH)
                        
  • are driven to compete (FRENCH)
                        
  • as well as their affects and implications (FRENCH)
                        
  • based on a long and involved presence (FRENCH)
                        
  • but also our own faults and our quests (FRENCH)
                        
  • but that which we can talk about (FRENCH)
                        
  • chaos theory (FRENCH)
                        
  • civil servant (FRENCH)
                        
  • drawn from nature (FRENCH)
                        
  • during a preceding lesson (FRENCH)
                        
  • faith (FRENCH)
                        
  • fright (FRENCH)
                        
  • go crazy (FRENCH)
                        
  • his irregular passions (FRENCH)
                        
  • if I take out this formula (FRENCH)
                        
  • if there is a relationship with catharsis (FRENCH)
                        
  • in a context of progressive confidence that engages (FRENCH)
                        
  • in the context of investigations (FRENCH)
                        
  • in the part of this module (FRENCH)
                        
  • in the sense of knowledge gained through forged relationships (FRENCH)
                        
  • in which they encountere adventure and uncertainty (FRENCH)
                        
  • in which we are exposed (FRENCH)
                        
  • includes a bet (FRENCH)
                        
  • interpretation of the data collection (FRENCH)
                        
  • investigative situations (FRENCH)
                        
  • is either unattainable (FRENCH)
                        
  • it is clearly present in Aristotle (FRENCH)
                        
  • it is practice that makes perfect (FRENCH)
                        
  • it refers primarily to the debate about the transformations (FRENCH)
                        
  • it's important to be aware of the part (FRENCH)
                        
  • kindness today (FRENCH)
                        
  • maximum excerpts from interviews (FRENCH)
                        
  • meetings (FRENCH)
                        
  • not everything revolves around this (FRENCH)
                        
  • often prove to be the key (FRENCH)
                        
  • on the relationship between (FRENCH)
                        
  • one wonders about the nature of reality (FRENCH)
                        
  • our workshops (FRENCH)
                        
  • ours as well as those of our partners (FRENCH)
                        
  • purification (FRENCH)
                        
  • rabbits (FRENCH)
                        
  • requires a rigorously qualitative approach (FRENCH)
                        
  • researcher (FRENCH)
                        
  • rise in rank (FRENCH)
                        
  • since then (FRENCH)
                        
  • some extremely important issues (FRENCH)
                        
  • sometimes unbeknownst to us (FRENCH)
                        
  • story (FRENCH)
                        
  • taht in reality (FRENCH)
                        
  • that emerge from our person (FRENCH)
                        
  • that keeps track of our paths (FRENCH)
                        
  • that people have seen what Aristotle saw (FRENCH)
                        
  • that which a man could grasp (FRENCH)
                        
  • that which is unbearable (FRENCH)
                        
  • that which prevents (FRENCH)
                        
  • the awareness of the inherent subjectivity (FRENCH)
                        
  • the complexity of life occurs for everybody (FRENCH)
                        
  • the countless interactions (FRENCH)
                        
  • the data is recorded (FRENCH)
                        
  • the disruption of the order of the world (FRENCH)
                        
  • the entry of the choir (FRENCH)
                        
  • the field notebook (FRENCH)
                        
  • the misunderstanding of others (FRENCH)
                        
  • the scholars of Aristotle (FRENCH)
                        
  • the tragedy conceals (FRENCH)
                        
  • this condition is interconnected with the person (FRENCH)
                        
  • those whose career, whose occupation involves a risk (FRENCH)
                        
  • to be attentive to emotional upheaval (FRENCH)
                        
  • to be forgotten (FRENCH)
                        
  • to confine itself to establish a framework (FRENCH)
                        
  • to erase (FRENCH)
                        
  • to experience, to receive, to meet (FRENCH)
                        
  • to realize that (FRENCH)
                        
  • to set the ground rules that all must respect (FRENCH)
                        
  • to succeed in our lives (FRENCH)
                        
  • to take into account the impact of the individual researcher (FRENCH)
                        
  • uncertainty is part of the complexity (FRENCH)
                        
  • we are not even aware of what is happening in our braing (FRENCH)
                        
  • we conduct research (FRENCH)
                        
  • we should not be surprised that the cows (FRENCH)
                        
  • we would see that (FRENCH)
                        
  • which are as far from each other as the planets (FRENCH)
                        
  • which has become more complex (FRENCH)
                        
  • which has its purpose in itself (FRENCH)
                        
  • with attention to detail (FRENCH)
                        
  • woven relationships (FRENCH)
                        
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
DÉCOUVRIR L'ANTHROPOLOGIE, Université catholique de Louvain
•
le mythe de l'anthropologie qui est surdéterminée par la subjectivité
•
1. les transformations des faits induites par la place du chercheur
•
le chercheur est souvent un enjeu négligeable sur son terrain
•
tout ne tourne pas autour de lui
•
il y a une impossibilité d'annuler tout effet de la rencontre... view all notes
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE RISE OF CHINA, Tsinghua University
•
why is China interesting
•
China's economy is already the second largest in the world
•
second largest economies in history
•
most number twos in the world run into economic and political trouble
•
Germany before WWI... view all notes
Saturday, December 5, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
KEY CONSTITUTIONAL CONCEPTS AND SUPREME COURT CASES, University of Pennsylvania
•
write to have a lawyer
•
Clarence Earl Gideon
•
had a rough life
•
father died when he was three
•
made it through the 8th grade... view all notes
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
À LA DÉCOUVERTE DU THÉâTRE CLASSIQUE FRANçAIS, Université Paris-Sorbonne
•
le lien entre ce que vous être en train de dire et la catharsis
•
Jean Chapelain : Lettre sur la règle des vingt-quatre heures (1630)
•
il ne paraisse aucune différence entre l'objet imité et celui qui imite
•
le but c'est de purger le spectateur de ses passions déréglées
•
Aristote a écrit dans sa Poétique un passage dans lequel il dit que le but de la tragédie c'est de provoquer des émotions violentes, la frayeur et la pitié... view all notes
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
JESUS IN SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION, University of Notre Dame
•
the end of the Joseph story
•
Genesis chapter 50
•
Joseph having undergone tremendous change is now a new person
•
Jacob has died
•
had asked his sons to bury him in the land of Canaan... view all notes
Vocabulary:
stichomythia, n. [stick-oh-MITH-ee-ah] a technique in drama or poetry, common in ancient Greek arrangement of dialogue, in which alternating lines, or half-lines, are given to alternating characters, voices, or entities ⇒ "A special type of turn allocation occurs when speaker's alternating turns are of one line each, often called stichomythia and is often, albeit not exclusively, used in contexts where characters compete or disagree with one another."
Monday, December 7, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
INTRODUCTION AUX ÉTHIQUES PHILOSOPHIQUES, University of Geneva
•
la postérité d'Aristote
•
pendant des siècles, Aristote a été considéré comme une autorité
•
dans tous les domaines, la pensée d'Aristote a paru être une pensée tellement assurée et solide qu'elle a fait que les gens ont vu ce que voyait Aristote
•
Aristote prétendait que les corps célestes étaient purs, mais était possible de voir même à l'oeil nu des tâches sur la Lune
•
Aristote disait que les lièvres se reproduisaient sans reproduction sexuée... view all notes
People:
Averroes (1126-1198)
[ah-VAIR-oh-eez]
  • a medieval Andalusian polymath known for attempting to reconcile Aristotelian thought with Islam, and who wrote on logic, theology, psychology, political theory, geography, mathematics, and the medieval sciences of medicine, astronomy, and physics
  • Averroes was born in Córdoba to a family with a long and well-respected tradition of legal and public service
  • the 13th-century philosophical movement based on Averroes's work is called Averroism
  • Averroes's philosophical ideas were considered controversial in Ash'arite Muslim circles, whereas al-Ghazali believed that any individual act of a natural phenomenon occurred only because God willed it to happen, Averroes insisted phenomena followed natural laws that God created
  • Averroes had a greater impact on Christian Europe, where he has been described as the founding father of secular thought in Western Europe
  • Latin translations of Averroes's work led the way to the popularization of Aristotle
Avicenna (980-1037)
[ah-vih-SEN-ah]
  • a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age who wrote 450 works, around 240 which have survived, including 150 on philosophy and 40 on medicine
  • his most famous works are The Book of Healing, a philosophical and scientific encyclopedia, and The Canon of Medicine, a medical encyclopedia, which became a standard medical text at many medieval universities and remained in use as late as 1650
  • besides philosophy and medicine, Avicenna's corpus includes writings on astronomy, alchemy, geography and geology, psychology, Islamic theology, logic, mathematics, physics and poetry
  • Avicenna was born in a village near Bukhara, present-day Uzbekistan, which was the capital of the Samanids, a Persian dynasty in Central Asia
  • the story is told of Avicenna that "as a teenager, he was greatly troubled by the Metaphysics of Aristotle, which he could not understand until he read al-Farabi's commentary on the work: forty times, it is said, he read through the Metaphysics of Aristotle, till the words were imprinted on his memory, but their meaning was still obscure, until one day they found illumination, from the little commentary by Al-Farabi, which he bought at a bookstall for the small sum of three dirhams, and so great was his joy at the discovery, made with the help of a work from which he had expected only mystery, that he hastened to return thanks to God, and bestowed alms upon the poor"
Al-Farabi (872-951)
Renowned medieval philosopher, scientist, and mathematician is credited with preserving the original Greek texts during the Middle Ages because of his commentaries and treaties
  • Al-Farabi spent almost his entire life in Baghdad, but at the end of his life traveled to Egypt, then to Syria where he was supported by Sayf al-Dawla, the ruler of the Hamdanid dynasty (890-1004), where he died in Damascus
  • as a philosopher, Al-Farabi led a school of thought that breaks with the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle and moves from metaphysics to methodology, a move that anticipates modernity
  • one of his most notable works is Al-Madina al-Fadila in which he theorized an ideal state as in Plato's The Republic, but regarded the ideal state to be ruled by the prophet-imam, instead of the philosopher-king envisaged by Plato
  • in the area of physics, Al-Farabi wrote a short treatise "On Vacuum", where he thought about the nature of the existence of void, and may have carried out the first experiments concerning the existence of vacuum, in which he investigated handheld plungers in water
  • he had a great influence on science and philosophy for several centuries, and was widely considered second only to Aristotle in knowledge in his time
  • although mainly an Aristotelian logician, he created and included a number of non-Aristotelian elements in his works
  • he wrote a book on music titled Kitab al-Musiqa in which he presents philosophical principles about music, its cosmic qualities, and its influences
  • in the area of social psychology, he argued that "an isolated individual could not achieve all the perfections by himself, without the aid of other individuals," and that it is the "innate disposition of every man to join another human being or other men in the labor he ought to perform"
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A HISTORY OF THE WORLD SINCE 1300, Princeton University
•
Japan ushered in a new age for the Japanese people
•
but in the course of their expansion began to transform the geo-political theater of East Asia
•
with tremendous consequences for the 20th century
•
1894-95: First Sino-Japanese War
•
became almost like a template of what would happen in the rest of the world... view all notes
Vocabulary:
politico, n. a politician whose conduct is guided by considerations of policy rather than principle ⇒ "Otto von Bismarck, a shrewd and calculating politico who was the strong man of the strongest, single regimes of the German confederation of states, Prussia, was able to promote the idea of a Kaiser, an imperial ruler who would issue his dominion over all of German-speaking peoples from a capital, a national capital, in Berlin."
Friday, December 11, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
L'AVENIR DE LA DÉCISION : CONNAîTRE ET AGIR EN COMPLEXITÉ, ESSEC Business School
•
le problème de la complexité existe depuis qu'il y a une humanité
•
au cours de l'histoire humaine, des penseurs, des observateurs, des écrivains l'ont traité sans employer le mot de complexité
•
Héraclite
•
"vivre de mort ou mourir de vie"
•
"éveillés, ils dorment"... view all notes
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
WESTERN MUSIC HISTORY THROUGH PERFORMANCE, Curtis Institute of Music
•
one of the biggest issues with neumatic notation is that it doesn't show rhythm
•
there's a flow to a chant
•
some notes are held longer than others
•
sometimes it speeds up
•
sometimes it slows down... view all notes
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE GREAT WAR AND MODERN PHILOSOPHY, KU Leuven University
•
the First World War was a true global war
•
but when we think of WWI, the first images that come to mind are British, German, and French soldiers
•
in reality over 4 million non-European soldiers fought in the war
•
French army at at least 500,000 colonial troops
•
the colonial prehistory to the war... view all notes
Vocabulary:
Manichean, adj. [man-ih-KEE-an] of or relating to a dualistic view of the world, dividing things into either good or evil, light or dark, black or white, involving no shades of gray, named after Manes (216-276 CE), the Persian founder of Manichaeism, a religion which espoused a doctrine of a struggle between good and evil. ⇒ "Sartre argued that colonialism is cosmological in the sense that it produces a universe, fundamentally a Manichean universe, which posits an anthropological break in that it creates and depends on the constitution of a difference between the human and the other-than-human, or the inhuman."
Saturday, December 19, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
HIGHLIGHTS OF MODERN ASTRONOMY, University of Rochester
•
orders of magnitude in terms of money
•
1. a dollar
•
10^0 dollars
•
one Snickers bar
•
2. ten dollars... view all notes
Sunday, December 20, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
INTRODUCTION AUX ÉTHIQUES PHILOSOPHIQUES, University of Geneva
•
le débat éthique contemporain de cet héritage d'Aristote
•
1. respecter simplement quelques règles, ou
•
2. de se cantonner à fixer un cadre à l'intérieur duquel l'ensemble des activités humaines pourrait être légitime
•
il ne s'agit pas pour Aristote de s'abstenir de faire certaines choses
•
mais au contraire il faut rechercher le bien... view all notes
Monday, December 21, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO IRRATIONAL BEHAVIOR, Duke University
•
the fundamental issue of cheating is conflicts of interest
•
when we are paid or encouraged to do things that are slightly different than the truth, we think and act with a bias
•
sports are a good example
•
if you support team A and the referee makes a call for team B, then you find his call to be unfair
•
this may even make the game more fun... view all notes
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
BUDDHISM AND MODERN PSYCHOLOGY , Princeton University
•
human beings are very inclined to have a story about why they do the things they do
•
at some times they seem capable of generating false stories
•
we are designed to convince the world that we have coherent motivations
•
and in the process we convince ourselves of this
•
in terms of evolution... view all notes
Vocabulary:
beneffectance, n. the quality of consciousness which leads people to reinterpret events in such a way that they put themselves in a favorable light and increase their readiness to take credit for success but not for failure, enhancing their actions both in internal and external dialogue in order that they appear to themselves and to others to be morally good. ⇒ "In psychological research literature, there are several indications that a beneffectance bias is associated with effective performance in situations in which perseverance might be the critical determinant of effectiveness."
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
HISTORY OF ROCK, 1970-PRESENT, University of Rochester
•
punk rock is an significant phenomenon in the history of Rock music
•
a return-to-simplicity movement
•
begins to bubble up in an underground scene way off the radar at the beginning of the 1970s
•
then explodes on the scene in the UK in 1977 with the Sex Pistols
•
New Wave becomes the adaptation of the punk attitude... view all notes
Friday, December 25, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, The University of Melbourne
•
1789-1791: attempts by the National Assembly to remake the new France
•
National Assembly
•
May 1789, deptuties chosen to be the representatives of the three estates
•
National Assembly is made up for these three estates had come together to be the National Assembly
•
those who could not work with this body had resigned and left... view all notes
Monday, December 28, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE BIBLE'S PREHISTORY, PURPOSE, AND POLITICAL FUTURE, Emory University
•
587 BC: Siege of Jerusalem
•
Nebuchadnezzar II
•
culminated in the destruction of the city
•
after Siege of 597, Nebuchadnezzar installed Zedekiah as tributary king of Judah at the age of twenty-one
•
revolted against Babylon, and entered into an alliance with Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt... view all notes
Vocabulary:
synchretism, n. the combining of different, often contradictory beliefs, while blending practices of various schools of thought, the merger and analogizing of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thus asserting an underlying unity and allowing for an inclusive approach to other faiths ⇒ "The Nabonidus Cylinder of Sippar is a long text in which Nabonidus describes how Nabonidus repaired three temples: the sanctuary of the moon god Sin, the sanctuary of the warrior goddess Anunitu in Sippar, and the temple of Šamaš in Sippar, a significant text in that it offers a full syncretism of Sin (moon god), Marduk (patron deity of Babylon), and Nabu (god of wisdom and writing)."
hypostasize, v. to treat or represent something abstract as a concrete reality ⇒ "Anat-Yahu was represented as either the wife or sacred consort of Yahweh, or as a hypostatized aspect of Yahweh."
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
WAR FOR THE GREATER MIDDLE EAST, Boston University
•
Carter's effort to resolve the Iran hostage crisis ultimately succeeded after dragging on 444 days
•
Iranian authorities chose January 20, 1981 as the date to set the hostages free
•
the date Carter left office and Ronald Reagan became president
•
so Reagan presidency began on a triumphal note
•
some argued that the prospect of dealing with a steely Reagan rather than a weak and wimpy Carter persuaded the Ayatollahs to release the hostages... view all notes
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