In the third substudy, we follow the students that presently attend the four Nordic schools. Massive investments in digital technology have found its way into schools of today, and most secondary students have access to a computer of their own for school work and, more or less openly, are constantly connected through their own smartphones (Sahlström et al., 2019). This possibility of always being connected to the internet has also been described as being “always-on” in “hybrid spaces” (Trentin, 2016). In this presentation we focus on the students’ experiences of participation with others in these new hybrid school spaces. The aim is to further understandings of what ongoing digitalisation means in relation to the role of classrooms and schools as shared spaces for knowledge and inclusion, from the perspective of the students. Theoretically we understand the concept of space as produced and emerging in relations between social and material dimensions of people’s lives, always entailing different connections to places and time (Massey, 2005; Lefebvre, 1991). We investigate the school's spaces as conceived, perceived and lived spaces and their importance and possibility for learning and knowledge communication (Leijon, 2016). The study is conducted in close collaboration with students (aged 14-15) at the project schools where we have employed citizen science for investigating the role of digital technologies in students' everyday sociality (Haklay, 2018). The students document their digital communication at school and beyond in the form of screenshots, video- and screen recordings as well as digital and analogue surveys and logs. Students and researchers then analyze these materials together in recorded data sessions. Still in the initial phases of analysis, we will present some preliminary findings from this innovative and collaborative field-work. Although findings point to a continued importance of schools as sites for meeting peers with different backgrounds, the boundaries between schools and families have become blurred due to the constant availability in both ways. Students can always be reached from the outside, and schools are always present in the homes through digital apps and platforms. Almost all screen-mediated social interactions are based on physical relations and we see few examples of relations based exclusively online. Based on preliminary findings we discuss how our study can contribute to knowledge about the role of contemporary schools as meeting places for students with diverse backgrounds, who attend the same schools.

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