Stan Garrod Lectures on Media Literacy

Last Friday, to celebrate Media Education Week, emeritus faculty member Stan Garrod delivered a series of lectures to various student groups around the topic of media literacy. Stan, a prolific contributor to educational publications, has contributed to nearly thirty text books, and has taught many disciplines including mathematics, geography, economics, and comparative government. His talk to the Grade 10 and 11 classes took advantage of the excitement of the US election to highlight the importance of new media in communicating a political message and the challenges that this brings to the task of analysing and filtering the content of such sources. As always, Stan provided a rich and flavourful dish of ideas beginning with Plato, progressing through the traditional mass media to the present day explosion of the information age. Students were asked to reflect on the motive behind the message and the psychology of the commercial influences that frame so much of our world. Stan will return at the end of the month to host the first of a series of classic film nights beginning with Chaplin's "Modern Times".