A few days ago, my Orthodox Christian Bible Studies Blog reached its first anniversary (the OCBS Blog discusses - in addition to other things - developments in my free online multimedia Bible studies forOrthodox teens ). The first real post I wrote for the blog was a brief reflection on whether I should create a podcast for Orthodox teens.

Regular readers and/or listeners will know that I finally decided "Yes," and in October launched GET WISDOM - The Orthodox Bible Study Program for Teens . GET WISDOM is available both as a podcast , and as a radio program that streams each weekend on The ARK .

I knew when developing GET WISDOM that I wanted to create, in addition to the program itself, free downloadable study guides to accompany each episode. While writing my thesis for the Antiochian House of Studies / University of Balamand , I engaged in research on the benefits youth derive from educational materials being presented in more than one medium (such as using curricula combining textual elements with audio/video elements). I therefore create these text-and-graphic based study guides to enhance the learning experience of listening to the audio program.

A recent Australian study reinforces the validity of this approach, finding that using podcasts in conjunction with other educational resources significantly improves student performance and test scores, increases student attentiveness, and boosts educational gains among those who were socially isolated or suffered literacy problems.

My work on GET WISDOM is only one of the ways in which the Antiochian Department of Youth Ministry and the Orthodox Christian Network partner to provide quality educational resources for Orthodox teens. In January 2008, members of Teen SOYO and the OCN will also begin "Orthodox Teen Talk," another program that will equip teens to learn more about Orthodox Christianity.

I should note that GET WISDOM is not the only Orthodox program to make available free study guides to enhance the listener's experience. At the request of Fr. Christopher Metropulos, I also developed the downloadable study guides for Come Receive the Light . These study guides provide not only an article expanding upon the theme of that week's episode, but also links to additional resources for learning and action. The current author of the study guides, Brad Borch, follows this model to assist listeners in applying in their lives the things they hear in the radio program.