LIM Education and Collaboration among the Developing Countries: An Overview of Opportunities and Barriers in the Age of Social Media

Abstract

The use of social media has taken all walks of life by storm. It provides ample opportunities to connect and collaborate with one’s peers regardless of their locations. The intelligent use of social media brings various opportunities to improve collaboration among academics at individual, organizational, national and international level. It is generally assumed that formal collaborations are not common among developing countries, let alone among various schools within a developing country such as Pakistan. Social media’s (Facebook, Twitter, Skype, etc.) reach is not limited to developed country, rather it is catching up to its popularity in terms of usage in developing countries as well. It is important to leverage social media to foster collaboration and connectivity and therefore, to improve the quality of LIM education. Under this background, it is important to identify the opportunities offered by the social media and the ways that these opportunities may be used to propel collaboration. Furthermore, it is equally important to identify the barriers on the ways of collaboration and connection despite widespread availability and access to social media.

The paper is based on literature review, personal observations, experience as head from 2009-2018 of the oldest and leading school of Pakistan, and interactions with the international professional community of the first author. Furthermore, interviews from the selected members of eight other schools in Pakistan were also conducted to get their opinions on the subject matter. Findings indicate that the social media provides ample opportunities to form successful collaboration among schools and faculties in developing countries. However, lack of willingness, visionary leadership, cultural and political differences are some serving as impeding factors in this regard. The identification of the opportunities and barriers may provide a map for developing meaningful collaboration among the developing countries using social media. There is a dire need of developing faculty’s ICTs skills and inculcate the value of collaborations. The mutual exchange of expertise will help in reducing the gaps in term of curriculum development, its implementation and research quality among schools of developing countries.