Messages are sent to all subscribers. The quality of the discussion in a listservs is determined by the experience and personalities of the participants and the moderator s ability to steer the discussion. The educational use of listservs might involve discussions between teachers in curriculum writing, planning thematic units, grant writing, technology integration ideas, or educational updates. Older students might also have the opportunity to moderate homework or TAAS study groups or hotlines, collect survey and research information, plan and execute collaborative projects. Newsgroups can be read with the newsreader feature of any browser.
Discussions are, again, limited by the participant s ability to communicate and expertise.
Private newsgroups, accessible only to certain students have obvious advantages. Colleges have uses BBSs for years to post course assignments, discussions, and to allow students to ask questions for the benefit of the entire class. The Discovery Channel offers students BBSs related to educational TV programs where student discussions with celebrities and top scientists take place. This usually requires the installation of chat client software on the local computer system. Most chat systems allow aliases, which can protect the participant but often promotes unabated trivial or sexually oriented communication.