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.
Hundreds of free, self-paced university courses available:
my recommendations here
Peruse my collection of 275
influential people of the past.
View My Class Notes via:
Receive My Class Notes via E-Mail:

VIEW ARCHIVE

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.

February 2017 Learn Certificate
Watched and took notes on 13 college lectures:
Learned 4 vocabulary words:
...loading...
Learned about 6 people:
...loading...
Corrected 7 misspelling:
perferate, indiginous, Camanches, millenia, eschelons, porcelin, pasturals
Recorded 122 Flashcards from MOOC lectures:
  • Age of Enlightenment (FRENCH)
                        
  • And moreover (FRENCH)
                        
  • As long as the room is lit up (FRENCH)
                        
  • As the writer liked to write (FRENCH)
                        
  • I agree to be attentive (FRENCH)
                        
  • In this context (FRENCH)
                        
  • It brings us back to one aspect (FRENCH)
                        
  • It can be seen that in less than a century (FRENCH)
                        
  • It is above the question (FRENCH)
                        
  • Kant is very wary of (FRENCH)
                        
  • The Emperor Decius (FRENCH)
                        
  • The same is true of the American continent (FRENCH)
                        
  • The state violates (FRENCH)
                        
  • This attraction of cults (FRENCH)
                        
  • We must not think it is easy to (FRENCH)
                        
  • What makes the human being (FRENCH)
                        
  • a flash in the pan (FRENCH)
                        
  • a historical account (FRENCH)
                        
  • a real intermission (FRENCH)
                        
  • a widespread, everyday reality (FRENCH)
                        
  • a will to power (FRENCH)
                        
  • achievement (FRENCH)
                        
  • act out of duty (FRENCH)
                        
  • addressed by the philosophers (FRENCH)
                        
  • all the more so (FRENCH)
                        
  • and sometimes executed (FRENCH)
                        
  • are divided into several sub-categories (FRENCH)
                        
  • armchairs (FRENCH)
                        
  • as close to reason as possible (FRENCH)
                        
  • as such (FRENCH)
                        
  • as well as special conventions (FRENCH)
                        
  • as well as the guarantee of safety (FRENCH)
                        
  • at least three times (FRENCH)
                        
  • begging in the streets (FRENCH)
                        
  • both in the East and in the West (FRENCH)
                        
  • can only rely on sentiment (FRENCH)
                        
  • candied fruits (FRENCH)
                        
  • cannot just remain passive (FRENCH)
                        
  • clothing (FRENCH)
                        
  • could have imposed itself to the detriment of Christianity (FRENCH)
                        
  • cults attract (FRENCH)
                        
  • difficult to admit (FRENCH)
                        
  • dishonorable and demeaning (FRENCH)
                        
  • do not take into account the (FRENCH)
                        
  • does not contain anything (FRENCH)
                        
  • duty requires submission (FRENCH)
                        
  • encounter opposition (FRENCH)
                        
  • end the persecution (FRENCH)
                        
  • extending (FRENCH)
                        
  • freedom of association (FRENCH)
                        
  • go back to the 19th century (FRENCH)
                        
  • has the following wording (FRENCH)
                        
  • idleness (FRENCH)
                        
  • in addition (FRENCH)
                        
  • in just three centuries (FRENCH)
                        
  • including among elites (FRENCH)
                        
  • interspersed with intervals (FRENCH)
                        
  • irrespective of their ethnicity or gender (FRENCH)
                        
  • is partly standing (FRENCH)
                        
  • it only calls for respect (FRENCH)
                        
  • it then spawned (FRENCH)
                        
  • lighting (FRENCH)
                        
  • looking for a motive (FRENCH)
                        
  • made boos (FRENCH)
                        
  • moreover (FRENCH)
                        
  • night watchman (FRENCH)
                        
  • often stiff (FRENCH)
                        
  • on reading this text (FRENCH)
                        
  • on the ground (FRENCH)
                        
  • one also emphasizes membership (FRENCH)
                        
  • one the room (FRENCH)
                        
  • otherwise (FRENCH)
                        
  • painful to see them suddenly put (FRENCH)
                        
  • provide the goods (FRENCH)
                        
  • reason of pride (FRENCH)
                        
  • religions of salvation (FRENCH)
                        
  • standing (FRENCH)
                        
  • stardom (FRENCH)
                        
  • that drives me to act (FRENCH)
                        
  • that we were interested (FRENCH)
                        
  • the Jewish question (FRENCH)
                        
  • the adherents claim to hold (FRENCH)
                        
  • the aegis (FRENCH)
                        
  • the apartment (FRENCH)
                        
  • the chandeliers (FRENCH)
                        
  • the fear (FRENCH)
                        
  • the feeling that raises the sense of duty (FRENCH)
                        
  • the least well-defined (FRENCH)
                        
  • the poorest (FRENCH)
                        
  • the posters (FRENCH)
                        
  • the respect which the moral law raises in me (FRENCH)
                        
  • the said rights (FRENCH)
                        
  • the second drawer (FRENCH)
                        
  • the so-called formal equity (FRENCH)
                        
  • the terror (FRENCH)
                        
  • there was a cut (FRENCH)
                        
  • thereafter (FRENCH)
                        
  • these expectations (FRENCH)
                        
  • they appear as renegades (FRENCH)
                        
  • tinker (FRENCH)
                        
  • to arouse in us the requirement of duty (FRENCH)
                        
  • to be the requirement of duty (FRENCH)
                        
  • to blow out the candles (FRENCH)
                        
  • to face (FRENCH)
                        
  • to implement the will (FRENCH)
                        
  • to require benefits from the state (FRENCH)
                        
  • to which each of us is called (FRENCH)
                        
  • trigger a kind of quarrel (FRENCH)
                        
  • try to soften (FRENCH)
                        
  • unconfessed motives (FRENCH)
                        
  • unhealthy (FRENCH)
                        
  • upset (FRENCH)
                        
  • very closely linked to cultural affiliation (FRENCH)
                        
  • which at that time fell upon the Empire (FRENCH)
                        
  • which awakens in the soul (FRENCH)
                        
  • which hit its readers (FRENCH)
                        
  • which imposed itself (FRENCH)
                        
  • which proudly pushes back any kinship (FRENCH)
                        
  • which underpins the rights (FRENCH)
                        
  • why despite the respect that duty gives rise to (FRENCH)
                        
  • will undergo five acts (FRENCH)
                        
  • worthy of you (FRENCH)
                        
Thursday, February 2, 2017
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
CHINESE THOUGHT: ANCIENT WISDOM MEETS MODERN SCIENCE, University of British Columbia
•
archeological texts
•
some are versions of the Daodejing
•
texts that we have uncovered in their original written form
•
most written on bamboo with ink
•
some are silk text... view all notes
Sunday, February 5, 2017
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
KARL DER GROßE - PATER EUROPAE, Universität Würzburg
•
Pfalzen und Reisenkönigtum
•
wie konnte Karl der Große Herrschaft zur Geltung bringen
•
Aachen
•
Karl der Große und Aachen werden oft zusammen genannt
•
Aachen wurde während der Sachsenkriege aufgebaut... view all notes
Vocabulary:
Mundschenk, n. im Mittelalter ein Hofbediensteter, der für die Versorgung mit Getränken vor allem mit Wein zuständig war ⇒ "Während seiner gesamten Regierungszeit zog Karl der Große kreuz und quer durch sein riesiges Reich. In seinem Gefolge befand sich ein Hofstaat mit etwa 1000 Menschen, darunter ein Mundschenk und ein Jägermeister. Auf seinen Reisen machten Karl und sein kaiserlicher Tross immer wieder in einer der mehr als 100 Pfalzen Station, zu denen jeweils ein eigener Wirtschaftshof gehörte."
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
INTRODUCTION AUX ÉTHIQUES PHILOSOPHIQUES, University of Geneva
•
il ne faut pas penser qu'il est facile d'agir par devoir et de vivre éthiquement
•
l'immoralité est d'ailleurs une réalité quotidienne très répandue
•
derrière la façade, que l'humanité nous montre et que nous montrons aux autres il se cache bien des choses qu'il serait difficile d'avouer et pénible de les voir subitement mises au jour aux yeux de tous
•
Paul Valéry : "si le regard pouvait tuer, si le regard pouvait féconder, les rues seraient pleines de cadavres et de femmes grosses."
•
si l'être humain est un être raisonnable et un être limité par l'animalité passionnelle qui est en lui, il lui est impossible de se déterminer froidement à agir par raison... view all notes
Friday, February 10, 2017
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
DINOSAUR ECOSYSTEMS, University of Hong Kong
•
synapomorphies
•
features that are shared between groups of dinosaurs
•
autapomophies
•
anatomical features that are not found in other dinosaurs
•
Phanerozoic Eon (542 million years ago)... view all notes
Saturday, February 11, 2017
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A HISTORY OF THE WORLD SINCE 1300, Princeton University
•
after the U.S. Civil War resolved the conflict between the South and the North
•
United States turned its sights to the West
•
1867 Indian Peace Commission
•
under the leadership of Major Joel Elliot
•
signed treaties with the Cheyennes, Plains Apaches, Comanches, Arapahos, and Kiowas... view all notes
Vocabulary:
feral, adj. in a wild state, especially after escape from captivity or domestication ⇒ "There was a careful, managed balance of forces between Indian peoples and native, feral herds"
equipoise, n. balance of forces or interests ⇒ "As the bison were slaughtered and removed from the Great Plains, they were replaced by cattle and cattle ranching, and cities began to emerge on the plains to induct them into a national economic system, Chicago becoming in a sense the bovine capital of the world defining a new balance in the relationship between the city and the country each specializing in a task in relationship to other regions. Humans had coexisted with this macrofauna for centuries if not millennia, but the intensification of land use for commodity production upset this delicate equipoise."
Sunday, February 12, 2017
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
SEXING THE CANVAS: ART AND GENDER, The University of Melbourne
•
Boucher's pastoral paintings
•
a pendant pair
•
two works that were created to be displayed together
•
hung on either side of a medallion portrait by John Baptist Lemuel of Louis XV
•
both the paintings and the medallion sculpture are from 1748... view all notes
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
HISTORY OF ROCK, 1970-PRESENT, University of Rochester
•
punk arose from an underground scene in New York
•
you had to be at CBGB to know that it was there
•
some elements of that, especially the music of the Ramones, translated into a UK scene
•
Malcolm McLaren put together the Sex Pistols
•
the bands in New York profited from this... view all notes
Vocabulary:
coif, v. to style or arrange someone's hair ⇒ "When analyzing Boucher's painting Leçon de flute, one must remember that these are not real shepherds and shepherdesses who work in the fields, but idealized shepherds and shepherdesses who wander around the landscape all day with their sheep and think about nothing but love, and therefore the sheep which gather around them in the paintings are always perfectly coiffed."
People:
Madame de Pompadour (1721-1764)
A member of the French court and was the official chief mistress of Louis XV from 1745 to 1751
  • took charge of the king's schedule and was a valued aide and advisor, despite her frail health and many political enemies
  • secured titles of nobility for herself and her relatives, and built a network of clients and supporters
  • she was particularly careful not to alienate the Queen, Marie Leszczyńska
  • she was a major patron of architecture and decorative arts
  • was a patron of the philosophes of the Enlightenment
  • contemporary opinion supported by artwork from the time considered her to be beautiful, with her small mouth and oval face enlivened by her wit
  • her husband was soon infatuated with her and she was celebrated in the fashionable world of Paris
  • she founded her own salon, at Étiolles, and was joined by many philosophes, among them Voltaire.
  • in February 1745, she was invited to a royal masked ball at the Palace of Versailles
  • by March, she was the king's mistress, installed at Versailles in an apartment directly above his
  • by May, the official separation between her and her husband was pronounced
  • on 14 September, she was formally introduced to the court by the king's cousin, the Princess de Conti, and she quickly mastered the highly mannered court etiquette
  • she and Louis XV ended their sexual relationship after 1750, but remained intimate friends
  • Louis XV was devoted to her until her death from tuberculosis in 1764 at the age of forty-two
  • Voltaire wrote of her death: "I am very sad at the death of Madame de Pompadour. I was indebted to her and I mourn her out of gratitude. It seems absurd that while an ancient pen-pusher, hardly able to walk, should still be alive, a beautiful woman, in the midst of a splendid career, should die at the age of forty-two."
François Boucher (1703-1770)
French painter, draughtsman and etcher who worked in the Rococo style, known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes
  • perhaps the most celebrated painter and decorative artist of the 18th century
  • painted several portraits of his patroness, Madame de Pompadour
  • a native of Paris, Boucher was the son of a lesser known painter Nicolas Boucher
  • at his death, along with that of his patron Madame de Pompadour, had become synonymous with the French Rococo style
  • "Boucher is one of those men who represent the taste of a century, who express, personify and embody it."
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
INTRODUCTION AUX DROITS DE L'HOMME, Université de Genève
•
les droits de la deuxième génération
•
les droits économiques, sociaux et culturels
•
remontent au 19ème siècle
•
incarnent selon Vasak, la valeur d'égalité
•
Karel Vasak (1929–2015)... view all notes
People:
Anatole France (1844-1924)
French poet, journalist, and novelist, ironic and skeptical, considered in his day the ideal French man of letters, and won the 1921 Nobel Prize in Literature in recognition of his brilliant literary achievements, characterized as they are by a nobility of style, a profound human sympathy, grace, and a true Gallic temperament
  • as a child, his father's bookstore, called the Librairie France, specialized in books and papers on the French Revolution and was frequented by many notable writers and scholars of the day
  • became famous with the novel Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard (1881)
  • in Les Opinions de Jérôme Coignard (1893), he captured the atmosphere of the fin de siècle
  • took an important part in the Dreyfus affair. He signed Émile Zola's manifesto supporting Alfred Dreyfus
  • in L'Île des Pingouins (1908), he satirizes human nature by depicting the transformation of penguins into humans, after the animals have been baptized by mistake by the nearsighted Abbot Mael, a satirical history of France, starting in Medieval times, going on to the writer's own time with special attention to the Dreyfus Affair and concluding with a dystopian future
  • Les dieux ont soif (1912) is a novel set in Paris during the French Revolution about a true-believing follower of Robespierre and his contribution to the bloody events of the Reign of Terror of 1793–94
  • La Revolte des Anges (1914) is often considered France's most profound novel. Loosley based on the Christian myth of the War in Heaven, it tells the story of Arcade, the guardian angel of Maurice d'Esparvieu. Arcade falls in love, joins the revolutionary movement of angels, and towards the end realizes that the overthrow of God is meaningless unless in ourselves and in ourselves alone we attack and destroy Ialdabaoth
  • he died in 1924 and is buried in the Neuilly-sur-Seine community cemetery near Paris
  • is widely believed to be the model for narrator Marcel's literary idol Bergotte in Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time
Saturday, February 18, 2017
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF CHINA, Pompeu Fabra University Barcelona
•
China didn't enter the intellectual landscape in Europe until the end of the 16th century
•
Chinese themselves didn't refer to the territory as such
•
260 BCE Warring States of China
•
Qin
•
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
CHRISTIANISME ET PHILOSOPHIE DANS L'ANTIQUITÉ, Sorbonne University
•
quelle était la manière dont le christianisme est devenu une religion distincte du judaïsme
•
dans l'empire romain, l'Église connaît au cours du temps une évolution considérable
•
d'abord, elle apparaît aux Grecs et aux Romains comme une religion orientale parmi d'autres
•
parfois mal distinguée du judaïsme
•
mais elle va en trois siècles à peine devenir la religion officielle de l'Empire romain... view all notes
People:
Julian the Apostate (331-363 AD)
Roman Emperor from 361 to 363, as well as a notable philosopher and Greek author, a man of unusually complex character: military commander, social reformer, man of letters, and theosophist (theosophy, mystic philosophy seeking the origin and purpose of the universe)
  • a member of the Constantinian dynasty, Julian became Caesar over the western provinces by order of Constantius II in 355 and in this role campaigned successfully against the Alamanni and Franks
  • most notable was his crushing victory over the Alamanni in 357 at the Battle of Argentoratum (Strasbourg), leading his 13,000 men against a Germanic army three times larger
  • in 360 in Lutetia (Paris) he was proclaimed Augustus by his soldiers, sparking a civil war between Julian and Constantius
  • before the two could face each other in battle, however, Constantius died, after naming Julian as his rightful successor
  • was the last non-Christian ruler of the Roman Empire, and it was his desire to bring the Empire back to its ancient Roman values in order to, as he saw it, save it from dissolution
  • purged the top-heavy state bureaucracy and attempted to revive traditional Roman religious practices at the expense of Christianity
  • Julian was mortally wounded in a campaign against the Sassanid Empire (224-651 Turkey/Iran) and died shortly thereafter
Friday, February 24, 2017
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
PALEONTOLOGY: EARLY VERTEBRATE EVOLUTION, University of Alberta
•
what kinds of environments the earliest vertebrates inhabited
•
paleontology is blending of
•
biology
•
geology
•
to understand how and why certain features evolved, we need to interpret the rocks that fossils are found in... view all notes
Saturday, February 25, 2017
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
À LA DÉCOUVERTE DU THÉâTRE CLASSIQUE FRANçAIS, Université Paris-Sorbonne
•
matinée théâtrale
•
une après-midi de théâtre
•
commence officiellement à quatorze heures
•
était constituée, dans un premier temps, par une pièce en cinq actes
•
mais il faut bien concevoir que la pièce en cinq actes, dans les conditions de représentation de l'époque était une pièce qui supposait un véritable entracte à la fin de chaque acte... view all notes
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE RISE OF SUPERHEROES AND THEIR IMPACT ON POP CULTURE, Smithsonian Institute
•
in the first half of the 1900s, the wave of immigrations of Jewish immigrants continued from Eastern Europe and Russia
•
many settled in New York
•
many looking to make large fortunes
•
but this is not what many found in the Great Depression of the 1930s
•
but their entrepreneurial spirit prevailed for some... view all notes
show all recorded days