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 2017 Learn Certificate
Watched and took notes on 14 college lectures:
Learned 1 vocabulary words:
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Learned about 2 people:
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Corrected 5 misspelling:
transfered, prominant, spurios, plagerism, embarassment
Recorded 111 Flashcards from MOOC lectures:
  • Furthermore
                        
  • It crossed the threshold of one billion
                        
  • It is this process called demographic transition
                        
  • Mortality begins to fall
                        
  • Not to mention all the migrants
                        
  • They are not at the same stage
                        
  • You will see
                        
  • and by far completed its transition
                        
  • approximately
                        
  • as many births as deaths
                        
  • as well as North America
                        
  • begins to fall
                        
  • begins to grow rapidly
                        
  • do not take place at the same time
                        
  • find that children survive in greater numbers
                        
  • focuses on demographics
                        
  • have begun to limit births
                        
  • have resulted in a decline in mortality
                        
  • it began to increase rapidly
                        
  • little more in the following decades
                        
  • often announce around nine
                        
  • prevailing at the time
                        
  • the become a burden
                        
  • the excess of births over deaths continues
                        
  • the world population has not increased
                        
  • this despite AIDS
                        
  • time offset
                        
  • which fueled growth
                        
  • which has brought the world's population
                        
  • will then stabilize
                        
  • And look also (SPANISH)
                        
  • Around the year 1600 (SPANISH)
                        
  • But in spite of its appearance (SPANISH)
                        
  • Despite his reputation (SPANISH)
                        
  • During the last four years of life (SPANISH)
                        
  • Evangelist Matthew (SPANISH)
                        
  • He was a successful painter who (SPANISH)
                        
  • It made no sense (SPANISH)
                        
  • One of the legs of the bench (SPANISH)
                        
  • Seeing to counter the messages (SPANISH)
                        
  • The artist we know as (SPANISH)
                        
  • The picture we see on the screen (SPANISH)
                        
  • There's something unexpected about her (SPANISH)
                        
  • This makes the soldier appear (SPANISH)
                        
  • When painting people (SPANISH)
                        
  • a strange sense of isolation (SPANISH)
                        
  • afraid to be arrested (SPANISH)
                        
  • although at first sight (SPANISH)
                        
  • an ordinary man (SPANISH)
                        
  • and hence this is where the name comes from (SPANISH)
                        
  • are powerful (SPANISH)
                        
  • as he headed back to Rome (SPANISH)
                        
  • as if they were very close to the spectator (SPANISH)
                        
  • as seen in this image (SPANISH)
                        
  • becomes (SPANISH)
                        
  • between the orange fabrics and the black background (SPANISH)
                        
  • but he had to do (SPANISH)
                        
  • but the mood of the scenes (SPANISH)
                        
  • carefully (SPANISH)
                        
  • contempt to authorities (SPANISH)
                        
  • crudness with beauty (SPANISH)
                        
  • darkened by teh sun (SPANISH)
                        
  • different from what was done before (SPANISH)
                        
  • do not miss this church (SPANISH)
                        
  • endow them with (SPANISH)
                        
  • fills a space (SPANISH)
                        
  • follower of Christ (SPANISH)
                        
  • for carrying arms (SPANISH)
                        
  • he denies it (SPANISH)
                        
  • he did it (SPANISH)
                        
  • he died as miserably as he had lived (SPANISH)
                        
  • he had to leave Rome (SPANISH)
                        
  • he painted scenes (SPANISH)
                        
  • he was tried and arrested several times for fighting (SPANISH)
                        
  • his suffering (SPANISH)
                        
  • in fact they are inspired by them (SPANISH)
                        
  • is usually somewhat different than in previous pictures (SPANISH)
                        
  • it reminds me of contrasts (SPANISH)
                        
  • latest works (SPANISH)
                        
  • maybe most of all (SPANISH)
                        
  • no a wise man (SPANISH)
                        
  • novel (SPANISH)
                        
  • otehrs (SPANISH)
                        
  • paint people as they were (SPANISH)
                        
  • seeks (SPANISH)
                        
  • show traces of his complicated psychology (SPANISH)
                        
  • signature (SPANISH)
                        
  • so real-looking (SPANISH)
                        
  • stand out against the dark background (SPANISH)
                        
  • supports (SPANISH)
                        
  • surprisingly lyrical (SPANISH)
                        
  • surrounding the figures (SPANISH)
                        
  • that fits within the profile (SPANISH)
                        
  • that had an impact (SPANISH)
                        
  • that his threat (SPANISH)
                        
  • that seems to happen (SPANISH)
                        
  • that soon will be unlimited in Europe (SPANISH)
                        
  • that we saw (SPANISH)
                        
  • the face (SPANISH)
                        
  • the pursuit of beauty (SPANISH)
                        
  • the soldier's helmet (SPANISH)
                        
  • there is a strong contrast (SPANISH)
                        
  • they fought (SPANISH)
                        
  • until he died in 1610 (SPANISH)
                        
  • was rejected by the church that had commissioned it (SPANISH)
                        
  • was returned (SPANISH)
                        
  • was trained (SPANISH)
                        
  • were very convincing (SPANISH)
                        
  • where I am often surprised (SPANISH)
                        
  • whose wisdom had come to them from God (SPANISH)
                        
  • wrapped in a large white cloth (SPANISH)
                        
Sunday, January 1, 2017
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A HISTORY OF THE WORLD SINCE 1300, Princeton University
•
economic model: export-led growth
•
changed formerly inwardly-oriented villages
•
led to villages in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, which produced not for themselves but for the rest of the world
•
had a dramatic effect on the hinterland regions in particular on the relationship between humans and other animals
•
consumers would have a powerful effect on natural environments around the globe... view all notes
Tuesday, January 3, 2017
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
BIG HISTORY: FROM THE BIG BANG UNTIL TODAY, University of Amsterdam
•
how could all of this complex life have emerged from far more simple chemicals
•
very little hard data
•
a lot of room for speculation
•
what we have is speculation based on some empirical evidence
•
current hypotheses for the emergence of life... view all notes
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE RISE OF SUPERHEROES AND THEIR IMPACT ON POP CULTURE, Smithsonian Institute
•
June 1938
•
sociological conditions that were present in America and the world
•
poverty
•
depression
•
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
BUDDHISM AND MODERN PSYCHOLOGY , Princeton University
•
push back against the modular view of the mind
•
sometimes these frames of mind set in
•
I'm not really aware of them happening
•
they are sometimes triggered by feelings
•
I could see a movie that could affect my subsequent behavior... view all notes
Vocabulary:
valence, n. negative or positive psychological value assigned to something based on its attractiveness ⇒ "When you are curious about something, it flips the valence from unpleasant to pleasant."
Saturday, January 14, 2017
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
WESTERN MUSIC HISTORY THROUGH PERFORMANCE, Curtis Institute of Music
•
the Baroque period in Germany
•
delayed behind France and Italy due to the Thirty Years' War (1618-48)
•
a struggle between Catholicism and Protestantism
•
much of the country was destroyed
•
territories were transferred... view all notes
Monday, January 16, 2017
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
DÉVELOPPEMENT DURABLE, CentraleSupélec
•
transition démographique
•
la population mondiale va fortement croître dans les années qui viennent
•
va passer d'un peu plus de sept milliards d'individus aujourd'hui
•
à plus de neuf milliards dans 40 ans
•
cela va représenter un poids considérable pour... view all notes
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
SøREN KIERKEGAARD: SUBJECTIVITY, IRONY AND THE CRISIS OF MODERNITY, University of Copenhagen
•
the central focus of attention in most of the concept of Kierkegaard's irony is Socrates
•
Kierkegaard was not only interested in the concept of irony, but in the figure of Socrates
•
Socrates (469-399 BC)
•
the dialogue The Apology is an account of his trial
•
the dialogue The Phaedo is an account of his final hours and his execution by drinking hemlock... view all notes
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
HISTORY OF ROCK, 1970-PRESENT, University of Rochester
•
1980s: rap music became CNN for black people
•
as it becomes a bigger commercial entity
•
began to offer many various kinds
•
one version of rap music was socially conscious rap
•
realistic communication of what urban life is really like for African American people... view all notes
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
INTRODUCTION AUX ÉTHIQUES PHILOSOPHIQUES, University of Geneva
•
Emmanuel Kant était un penseur essentiellement théoricien
•
mais ce serait une erreur de penser qu'il ne s'est jamais occupé de la réalité concrète
•
dans sa vie quotidienne, ce n'était pas un homme isolé des autres
•
il a cultivé l'amitié
•
sa vie a été incontestablement très rangée... view all notes
Sunday, January 22, 2017
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
PHENOMENOLOGY AND THE CONSCIOUS MIND, Trinity College
•
what is it that makes a dripping faucet so annoying?
•
a single drip is an innocuous sound and probably not even very loud
•
the sensory properties of each drip are pretty constant
•
you have a non-sensory awareness that these sensations are not new
•
drip number 42 doesn't differ from drip number 1... view all notes
Monday, January 23, 2017
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
MOONS OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM, The Open University
•
the right to name moons and features on their surfaces belongs to a body known as the International Astronomical Union (IAU)
•
founded in 1919
•
if you find a new moon, you suggest a name to the IAU but they don't have to accept it
•
today, when a moon is discovered
•
it is given a provisional name, e.g. S/2005 P1... view all notes
People:
Simon Marius (1573-1625)
German astronomer who claimed to have discovered four major moons of Jupiter some days before Galileo Galilei
  • Galileo accused Marius of plagiarism
  • a jury in The Netherlands in 2003 examined the evidence extensively and ruled in favor of Marius
  • while Galileo named the moons Jupiter I, Jupiter II, Jupiter III, and Jupiter IV, Marius named them after the lovers of Zeus, i.e. Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto
  • drew conclusions about the structure of the universe from his observations of the Jovian moons and the
  • concluded from his observations of the Jovian moons that they must orbit Jupiter while Jupiter orbits the Sun
  • Marius concluded that the geocentric Tychonic system, in which the planets circle the Sun while the Sun circles the Earth, must be the correct world system, or model of the universe
  • spent most of his life in the city of Ansbach
Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695)
Leading Dutch mathematician and scientist of his time whose work included early telescopic studies of the rings of Saturn and the discovery of its moon Titan, and the invention of the pendulum clock
  • mathematical tutor Jan Jansz de Jonge Stampioen set the 15-year-old a demanding reading list on contemporary science
  • studied law and mathematics at the University of Leiden from 1645 to 1647
  • generally wrote in French or Latin
  • in 1655, Huygens proposed that Saturn was surrounded by a solid ring, "a thin, flat ring, nowhere touching, and inclined to the ecliptic"
  • in the same year, he observed and sketched the Orion Nebul, his drawing, the first such known of the Orion nebula
  • 1659, Huygens was the first to observe a surface feature on another planet, Syrtis Major, a volcanic plain on Mars
  • shortly before his death in 1695, Huygens completed Cosmotheoros, published posthumously in 1698, in which he speculated on the existence of extraterrestrial life on other planets which he imagined was similar to that on Earth
  • he argued that extraterrestrial life is neither confirmed nor denied by the Bible, and questioned why God would create the other planets if they were not to serve a greater purpose than that of being admired from Earth
  • Huygens postulated that the great distance between the planets signified that God had not intended for beings on one to know about the beings on the others, and had not foreseen how much humans would advance in scientific knowledge
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
DESCUBRIENDO LA PINTURA EUROPEA DE 1400 A 1800, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
•
Caravaggio (1571-1610)
•
se llamaba Michelangelo Merisi
•
su familia era de un pueblo llamado Caravaggio
•
cerca de Milán
•
pintó escenas de aspecto radicalmente diferente de lo que se había hecho hasta entonces... view all notes
Friday, January 27, 2017
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
SWITZERLAND IN EUROPE, University of Basel
•
The European Commission
•
the executive body of the European Union responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the EU treaties and managing the day-to-day business of the EU
•
accused Switzerland of predatory tax regimes
•
the Swiss cantons played an important role
•
the Swiss state structure... view all notes
Saturday, January 28, 2017
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
JESUS IN SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION, University of Notre Dame
•
what is the relationship between the historical Jesus and the Jesus that the Church that proclaims in the creeds
•
no single criterion will give us a reliable historical Jesus
•
imagine Martin Luther never wrote anything down
•
that only his followers wrote down what he said
•
and so we have to reconstruct Martin Luther from voluminous material... view all notes
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