Chris Alfano thinks the demand for online learning right now is more like a scramble: Schools are figuring out how to carry out instruction and get online more aggressively since the switch to virtual learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the cofounder and CTO of dev firm Jarvus, Alfano runs a tech effort that focuses on community engagement and open-source principles. One of his jobs is building Slate, an open-source education integration platform provided by Jarvus that helps schools, as he says, “get online and stay online.” It allows teachers and students to monitor skill growth, learning portfolios and daily tasks, as well as “own their own data” and access new edtech tools.

Slate was developed at Science Leadership Academy (SLA) in 2010 when Alfano was working as the high school’s in-house tech support and saw firsthand how the school’s software wasn’t aligned with its needs. Jarvus launched and picked up Slate soon after. In addition to SLA, the platform is now also used at Building 21 and the Spark program, as well as elsewhere around the county.

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