Internationalizing the Extension and Extending the Internationalization
Fapes Universal
Acknowledgements are due to Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e Inovação do Espírito Santo – Fapes – Call 3/2021 (Fapes Universal) for funding the Project: Internacionalizando a Extensão e Estendendo a Internacionalização/Interiorização for the period 01/11/21 to 31/10/24.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4.7 challenges the university to integrate education for global citizenship as a way to provide learning opportunities for the development of global, national and local (glonacal) citizenship. The objective of this project is to promote glonacal education in the post-Covid context, using technology to place small and medium-sized companies from Espírito Santo, Brazilian and foreign students, professors and researchers in interconnected relationships, collaborating in the development of teaching, research, extension, internationalization actions in an integrated way with the communities involved.
More specifically, the project aims to integrate actions of teaching, research, extension, internationalization of UFES in the development of a “glonacal” citizenship, acting in the exchange/and transfer of knowledge, innovation and technology at UFES with the internal and external community. With this objective, the project aims to integrate actions of teaching, research, extension, internationalization and internalization of UFES and the University of Valencia (UV) in Spain (linked to YES3D project) with the community around small and medium-sized companies in Espírito Santo in order to assist the process of internationalization of these companies, thus promoting the transfer of knowledge and the internalization of research and university extension to the entire community of the State of Espírito Santo.
This project is articulated with the Youth Entrepreneurship for Society project in 3D (YES3D) which investigates the role of three-dimensional virtual reality and simulations in contexts of international virtual exchanges between university students of English for specific purposes of the UV in the context of the processes of formation of futures professionals from the business world and, more specifically, from social entrepreneurship based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) proposed by UNESCO and coordinated by Professor Ana Sevilla-Pavón from UV, with the participation of Professor Kyria Finardi, proponent of this proposal. The YES3D project envisions problem-based tele-collaborative learning and simulations of professional environments in virtual worlds, offering a fertile ground to overcome global and physical barriers meeting the needs of students and citizens of the 21st century.
This is especially relevant today in the current context of the pandemic and the need for online training given the imposition of social distancing and the need to develop internationalization and internalization of internationalization in the State. In a context where academic mobility was the privilege of less than 2% of Espírito Santo’s academic population before it was suspended due to the pandemic, virtual mobility through simulations of professional virtual environments in virtual exchanges in three-dimensional worlds emerges as a powerful tool for internationalize/internalize teaching, research and extension actions. Virtual mobility has been increasingly adopted to replace and complement physical mobility, providing potential benefits similar to those derived from an academic or professional exchange abroad.
This project proposes virtual exchanges between academics from UFES and UFES and Espirito Santo communities to solve problems of interpersonal and intercultural communication added to simulations of professional environments and social entrepreneurship in three-dimensional virtual worlds to help the internationalization of university extension as well as the expansion of teaching, research, extension and internationalization actions for the interior of the State of Espírito Santo.