Moderated listserves have a moderator which over looks the group ensuring that topics remain on track and that messages are appropriate. A moderator may also act to keep a discussion going, and may act as a tutor for new users to the listserve. Messages to the listserve can be sent to each individual user or they can be stored on a central computer for users to access. This type of environment can be subsumed by computer conferencing. Users do not have to be located in the same place nor logged on at the same time.
Groups interact completely.
Documents and graphics can be hypertext linked. An information base dynamically evolves and students and teacher contribute to the conference. Reading and writing are, of course, crucial to good education. The advantages are too often underestimated. We could call this type of conference a telediscussion-type conference.