Digital Innovation Fellow:

Digital Community Schools:

Number of positions: 2Duration: 6–7 monthsInitial location: kishangarh with travel to other DCS locationsSubsequent engagement: Potential engagement across other DCS locations, based on the project requirementsReports to: Program Lead

About Digital Community Schools:

Digital Community Schools (DCS) are informal learning spaces for children from marginalised and underserved communities, particularly children who have limited access to quality and continuous education.

DCS provides children with a safe, flexible and supportive space to learn, explore, express themselves and build confidence. The aim goes beyond foundational learning to build children's aspirations, agency, critical thinking, self-expression and leadership.

Digital tools are an important part of this approach not as an end in themselves, but as a way to expand what children can learn, imagine, create, communicate and lead.

The DCS model includes digital integration in teaching and learning, educator capacity building, innovation and opportunities for children to develop creative problem-solving and digital citizenship.About the Fellowship

We are looking for two Digital Innovation Fellows who are excited about the intersection of technology, education, creativity, storytelling and rural innovation.

The Fellows will work closely with community educators as well as directly with children to explore how digital tools can make learning more engaging, creative, contextual and empowering.

This is not a conventional digital literacy role. The Fellows will not simply teach children how to use computers, apps or software.

Instead, they will explore how digital tools can help children:

learn → explore → create → express → solve → imagine → lead The Fellows will spend the first three months embedded in one DCS location, where they will observe, understand the context and experiment with different approaches. The remaining period will focus on deepening successful approaches, developing stronger projects, documenting learning and exploring how these can be adapted for other DCS locations.

The Fellowship Journey

Phase 1: Understand & Experiment | Months 1–3

The Fellow will spend significant time in one DCS location.

They will

- Understand the DCS, community, educators and children.
- Observe existing teaching and learning practices.
- Understand children's interests, strengths and aspirations.
- Assess the available digital infrastructure and constraints.
- Work closely with educators to identify opportunities for digital integration.
- Experiment with different digital tools and creative approaches.
- Work directly with children on digital creation projects.
- Try different forms of storytelling, media, creative technology and problem-solving.
- Explore local/rural innovation as a source of learning.
- Reflect on what works, what does not and why.

The first three months are intentionally designed as a period of exploration and experimentation with guidance provided by program team Phase 2: Deepen & Develop | Months 4–5

Based on the first three months, Fellows will identify promising approaches and take them deeper.

They will

- Develop selected digital learning projects with children.
- Support educators to integrate successful approaches into regular learning.
- Deepen children's digital storytelling and creative projects.
- Develop projects around local issues,



rural innovation and community knowledge.
- Experiment further with AI and other emerging technologies where relevant.
- Create stronger opportunities for student-led projects.
- Refine digital learning resources and activities that can be used by educators.
- Identify approaches that strengthen children's aspiration, agency and leadership.

The emphasis shifts from “What can we try?” to “What is worth developing further?” Phase 3: Document, Package & Share | Months 6–7

The final phase will focus on learning from the experimentation and making the work useful beyond the individual Fellow or DCS.

Fellows will

- Document the most successful digital learning approaches.
- Build a portfolio of children's digital creations.
- Document stories of change and learning.
- Capture educators' experiences and learnings.
- Develop simple, adaptable digital activities/resources.
- Identify what can be replicated across DCS locations.
- Share learnings with the wider DCS team.
- Support the introduction of successful approaches in other DCS settings, where required.
- Contribute to a broader DCS Digital Innovation Framework/approach based on the fellowship experience.

Key Responsibilities: 1. Work with Community Educators:

- Co-create digital learning activities with educators.
- Understand educators' existing practices and challenges.
- Demonstrate how digital tools can strengthen existing learning.
- Build educators' confidence in using digital tools.
- Support educators to independently use selected tools and approaches.
- Develop simple resources that educators can continue using after the fellowship.

2. Work Directly with Children: Create opportunities for children to use digital tools to:

- Tell stories.
- Make videos and films.
- Create podcasts and audio stories.
- Make digital art, comics and animations.
- Research and explore new ideas.
- Document their communities.
- Solve local problems.
- Create campaigns around issues they care about.
- Develop and present their own ideas.

The focus is on children becoming creators rather than consumers of technology. 3. Digital Storytelling:

Storytelling will be an important part of the role.

Fellows will support children to tell stories about:

- Their own experiences.
- Their communities.
- Local innovations.
- People and livelihoods around them.
- Issues they care about.
- Their aspirations and dreams.
- Changes they would like to see.

The Fellow will also help document the DCS learning journey through photographs, videos, case stories and other digital formats. 4. Contextual Digital Learning:

Digital learning should connect with children's own lives, experiences and communities rather than feel disconnected from their everyday realities.

- The Fellow will encourage children to use digital tools to:
- Explore questions and issues that emerge from their own surroundings.
- Document stories, people, places and experiences from their communities.
- Explore local knowledge and everyday practices through digital media.




- Investigate problems they observe and develop creative responses to them.
- Turn their observations, ideas and questions into digital stories, videos, photo essays, presentations, animations or other creative projects.
- Connect their local experiences with wider ideas, people and possibilities through digital platforms.

The emphasis will be on helping children look at their own world with curiosity and use digital tools to explore, understand, create and communicate. The Fellow should be alert to the possibilities that exist within each DCS context and allow children's own interests and questions to shape the projects, rather than bringing a pre-designed set of digital activities.

5. Build Aspiration, Agency & Leadership:

Digital activities should contribute to the larger purpose of DCS.

Fellows will create opportunities for children to:

- Discover new possibilities and careers.
- Explore ideas beyond their immediate environment.
- Express their thoughts and opinions.
- Take ownership of projects.
- Collaborate with others.
- Solve problems.
- Present and defend their ideas.
- Take action on issues that matter to them.

DCS specifically seeks to build children's ability to articulate their thoughts and take individual or community-level action.

What We Are Looking For

We are looking for people who are curious, creative and willing to experiment.

You may come from a background in:

- Technology
- Digital media
- Design
- Education
- Communication
- Film/storytelling
- Creative arts
- Innovation
- Engineering
- Social sciences
- Or another relevant field

You should have:

- Strong interest in digital tools and emerging technology.
- A willingness to experiment and learn new tools quickly.
- Creativity and a maker mindset.
- Good storytelling and communication skills.
- Ability to work directly with children.
- Ability to work collaboratively with community educators.
- Sensitivity towards rural and marginalised contexts.
- Ability to work with limited infrastructure and connectivity.
- Interest in AI and emerging digital technologies.
- Ability to document, reflect and learn from experimentation.
- Willingness to travel and spend extended periods working at a DCS location.

We are more interested in curiosity and the ability to create than in a long list of technical certifications. What Success Would Look Like

By the end of the fellowship, we would like to see:

- Children creating and communicating through digital tools.
- Educators becoming more confident in integrating digital tools into learning.
- New forms of contextualised digital learning emerging from DCS.
- Children developing stronger voice, confidence and agency through digital creation.
- Rural/local knowledge and innovation becoming part of children's digital projects.
- A portfolio of children's work and stories.
- Tested digital learning approaches that can be adapted across DCS.
- A stronger understanding within Bindi of what meaningful digital innovation can look like in informal, rural learning spaces.

Ultimately, the success of the Fellowship will not be measured by how many digital tools children have used, but by what those tools enabled children to do that they could not or did not have the opportunity to do before. We want children to move from being users of technology to becoming creators, storytellers, problem-solvers and leaders.

Pay: ₹20,000.00 - ₹25,000.00 per month

Advantages

- Health insurance

Work Location: In person

📌 Digital Innovation Fellow (Kishangarh)
🏢 EMPBindi International Association
📍 Kishangarh