Institutional learning and information regime within the scope of university extension: the experience of the Cybercitizenship Program at UFSC

Abstract

Introduction: This article analyzes the trajectory of the Cybercitizenship Program, developed within the Federal University of Santa Catarina, focusing on the institutional transformations associated with the adoption of a dialogical approach to university extension. It begins with the problem of the limitations of extension practices of an assistance-based and diffusionist nature, understood as an expression of information regimes that restrict participation and the shared production of knowledge, especially in contexts of social vulnerability. Objective: To examine to what extent the experience of the Cybercitizenship Program contributed to the reorganization of extension practices in the analyzed institutional context. Methodology: The research is characterized as exploratory-descriptive, based on document analysis and structured as an analytical account of the institutional experience of the Cybercitizenship Program. Results: These indicate that the incorporation of extension into the curriculum, especially through the Social Enterprise Laboratory discipline, favored the training of information mediators and the strengthening of the articulation between university and community, challenging pre-established informational practices. Conclusion: The analyzed experience highlights university extension as a space for institutional learning, capable of influencing the organization of academic practices within the context of the Federal University of Santa Catarina and of promoting reconfigurations in the information regime in which it is embedded.