Platformization of Third Digital Spaces During the COVID-19 Emergency : A Research in Higher Education in Italy

Communication in the interactive environments of digital platforms can enable informal exchanges between faculty and students that go beyond teaching activities. The online contacts through G-Meet, Teams, Zoom, or WhatsApp, and Telegram profiles between faculty and students that became widespread during the pandemic are now considered to be common social practice, promoted by the high usability of these platforms. However, the design and operation of digital platforms are not neutral and influence teaching activities by creating what are called third spaces. 16 university lecturers were involved in the research through in-depth interviews, while 12 of them were involved through focus groups. Moreover, we also interviewed 32 students. Our participants were from different Italian universities. We investigated what kind of relationships can be established on digital platforms, based on our participants’ experiences. The results of this research show that these third digital spaces are used as an alternative to physical spaces, but they present some differences. In addition, it emerges that the communicative style remains formal within an open dialectic between technological affordances and forms of resistance requiring separation between personal and professional dimensions.