Dr. Redding 2019 Knowles Award Winner
The 2019 Malcolm Knowles Award for significant lifelong contributions to the field of self-directed learning was presented to Terrence R. Redding at the International Self-Directed Learning Symposium on February 7. Dr. Redding earned his Ph. D. in Adult Education and Higher Education with a minor in Marketing at the University of Oklahoma in1997, a student of Dr. Huey B. Long. His M. Ed. in Educational Psychology was also from the University of Oklahoma, adding to a B.S. in Education/Business Administration, with honors, from Cameron University.
Dr. Redding’s involvement with self-directed learning spans almost 30 years. It began when he was a Kellogg Fellow at the University of Oklahoma and a doctoral student of Dr. Huey Long. In 1991 he co-authored Self-Directed Learning Dissertation Abstracts, 1966-1991 with Dr. Long and completed his doctoral dissertation focusing on SDL in 1997: Association of Historical Events and the Development of Self-Directed Learning Readiness of Amateur Radio Operators. He has presented and published many more papers, chapters, and articles focused on self-directed learning in the ensuing years (see attached vita.) He has also taught graduate seminars in self-directed learning for the University of Oklahoma. Since 1999 he has been the president of OnLine Training Institute, West Palm Beach, Florida.
He is a founding member and founding Board member of the International Society for Self-Directed Learning and has participated in nearly every SDL Symposium since 1990. Since 2004 he has also served on the Symposium Planning Committee, offering many helpful ideas and services, including using his mass mailing capabilities as president of Online Training to disburse announcements and reminders to the ISSDL mailing list, lending technical assistance in numerous areas, including the design of marketing materials for the Symposium, and many others. He has received many service awards from the ISSDL, and in 2016 was invited to bring his technical staff to the Symposium to receive a special appreciation sward presented to Online Training for all of their assistance.
Dr. Redding has also contributed many volunteer hours over 20 years of involvement with Global Learn Day, an initiative of the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Global Education. The 24-hour event circles the globe and promotes distance education and technology, emphasizing self-directed learning, in the conviction that such undertakings will accelerate learning achievement through affordable application of new tools and innovative pedagogic practices. In 2012 he also promoted SDL in a NASA-approved project with the South Florida Science Museum, connecting more than 160,000 high school students with astronauts at the International Space Station through amateur radio.
Dr. Redding has made many and varied contributions to the promotion of self-directed learning and to the International Society for Self-Directed Learning, and he richly deserves to be recognized with the Malcolm Knowles Award for Lifetime Contributions to the Field of Self-Directed Learning.
Submitted by Lucy M. Guglielmino
