Scott Tiner

Scott Tiner

A trained educator, graduating from the Boston University School of Education, Scott is interested in the integration of technology and education. He works at Bates College managing the Client Services portions of Information Technology. Scott directs the Service Desk, which is responsible for the support of all classrooms and computers on campus. He also oversees the campus training programs and specifies and purchases computing equipment for the campus. He stays very active in the AV and IT fields, having presented at both regional, national and international conferences. Scott writes columns and blogs regularly for rAVe [Publications]. In order to continue to develop and strengthen his leadership and management skills Scott has attended the Management Institute and the Leading Change Institute, sponsored by EduCause. He earned his MBA form the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics, at the University of New Hampshire. During his time in graduate school Scott developed an interest and expertise in leadership and team building. As an experienced speaker and writer, Scott is always looking for new experiences to share, learn and grow. Scott can be contacted via LinkedIn, on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stiner or via email at stiner08@gmail.com

Diversity in Hiring

I recently had a position open on my team, and decided that we were going to make recruiting a diverse talent pool a priority. As many have discussed over the years, IT tends to be a very homogenous area (high percentage of white men). This homogeneity leads to groupthink, customers not feeling like they are […]

Diversity in Hiring

The Ideal Classroom

I was recently recording a podcast with a group of fellow technology managers in higher ed. A question came up that I have not thought of in quite a while: What does the ideal classroom look like? Often when we ask questions like this we limit ourselves to the current technology that we know exists, […]

The Ideal Classroom

An Analysis of Crestron’s ‘Town Hall’ Sessions: Addressing the Supply Chain

It is no secret to the AV world that most companies have dealt with incredible supply chain issues in the past 18 months. We hear horror stories of companies changing ship dates from weeks, to months to even years. It is not uncommon today to hear of 18 -24-month ship dates. For some reason, much […]

An Analysis of Crestron’s ‘Town Hall’ Sessions: Addressing the Supply Chain

Will Supply Chain and Inventory Problems Change AV?

In mid-August, Gary Kayye shared an advertisement from Aurora on his LinkedIn page. In the advertisement, Aurora took on Crestron’s well-known stock issue directly. You can read more about the various reactions in Steph Beckett’s blog post here. The comments are interesting as a real-life experiment regarding what works with advertising — or what doesn’t. […]

Will Supply Chain and Inventory Problems Change AV?

Where Is the Innovation in AV

In technology, we often use terms like innovation and disruption. Yet, in our industry, I have been thinking lately about the lack of true innovation over the past few years. I have to think that some of this has to do with the pandemic, after all it is hard to innovate when you are simply […]

Where Is the Innovation in AV

Make a Disaster Recovery Plan

Last month I wrote about cybersecurity in schools and what steps we can take to prevent attacks from happening. I wrote in the blog that there are many things we can do to harden our security and to make our institutions less of a soft target. Yet, as I pointed out in that piece, chances […]

Make a Disaster Recovery Plan

Identifying Your Customer’s Needs

I love it when I read something that really gets me thinking. This is what happened with Mark Coxon’s recent article “Saving the Office Park.” It is a short but worthwhile read. In it, Mark suggests that instead of finding circumstantial reasons (to keep the cafeteria employed) to have people back in the office, or […]

Identifying Your Customer’s Needs

Security Could Be Success or Failure for Schools

In December 2021, Lincoln College in rural Illinois suffered a devastating ransomware attack. The attack shut down all systems, including those for recruitment, retention and fundraising. While the college had preexisting fiscal problems due to the pandemic, this ransomware attack proved to be too much for the college to navigate. In the spring of 2022, […]

Security Could Be Success or Failure for Schools

Trade Show Season Is a Time to Support Diversity

rAVe [PUBS] and many other industry publications have written recently about the great work of the AVIXA Women’s Council and its partnership with Rosie Riveters. Since this has been written about in many places, I won’t rewrite everything here. There are a few points I would like to make, however. First, it is fantastic to […]

Trade Show Season Is a Time to Support Diversity

Act Now for School Safety

I wrote an entire article for this month about security and severe consequences of not following security protocols and keeping up to date on security. The blog was about cybersecurity, and then the heartbreaking events of Robb Elementary School forced me to put that blog aside and write about a different type of security. In […]

Act Now for School Safety

How to Make a Case for Getting Training and Professional Development

It’s good to be back to having conferences, trade shows and events in person again. They started out with lower attendance numbers, but seem to be bouncing back. Over the past few weeks, and every time trade show season rolls around, there’s a lot of discussion about paying for training, particularly in-person training. In fact, […]

How to Make a Case for Getting Training and Professional Development

Professional Development Future Comes More Into Focus

Those of us who spend time thinking about the future, whether that’s technology, people or culture, are often taking educated guesses at what the future will look like. The only way we know whether we were right or wrong, is by waiting and seeing. That is where we are now with educational opportunities. Clearly during […]

Professional Development Future Comes More Into Focus

Will NFTs Play a Role in AV?

Over the past two months, I have written about the metaverse and cryptocurrency. The next logical topic of this new digital world is the NFT. What is an NFT, and will you as an AV professional ever have to deal with them? Let’s get started with the first question. NFT stands for non-fungible token. That […]

Will NFTs Play a Role in AV?

Lessons Learned and Re-Learned

I was recently attending a conference of higher ed technology support people and was enlightened by a discussion that occurred. Several of the people in the meeting discussed some changes they had made in their classrooms over the past several years. In particular, many of them had eliminated the “dedicated computer” from their classroom designs. […]

Lessons Learned and Re-Learned

Is Cryptocurrency Right for Your Business?

Last month, I wrote about the metaverse. As I mentioned in the article, I am not an expert in the metaverse, but I need to better understand it as we hear more and more about it in our industry. The same is true about cryptocurrency. There is a general assumption that the way things will […]

Is Cryptocurrency Right for Your Business?

HETMA Opens PRISM Scholarship

At InfoComm 21, the Higher Education Technology Manager’s Alliance (HETMA) joined with AVIXA to announce the PRISM Scholarship. According to HETMA, “The Prism Scholarship was founded by HETMA in partnership with AVIXA to encourage women, LGBTQIA+, Black, Latino, Asian, Indigenous, disabled persons, and anyone who identifies as being underrepresented in the AV industry, to become […]

HETMA Opens PRISM Scholarship

The AV Industry Can Do Better by K-12 Schools

If you have read my blogs in the past, you know that I work in higher ed, and it has hopefully come out that I am passionate about education. In fact, my career was supposed to be in education. I went to college to be a teacher, did my student teaching in a high school […]

The AV Industry Can Do Better by K-12 Schools

What in the Universe Is the Metaverse

In IT (and therefore AV as well), we certainly don’t have a shortage of our acronyms and buzzwords. When Meta, formerly known as Facebook, changed its name in October, the newest buzzword, “metaverse,” exploded into our feeds. We have heard the word countless times, but what the heck does it really mean? What, after all, […]

What in the Universe Is the Metaverse

Do We Need to Revisit Standards?

One thing I truly love about writing a blog for rAVe is when I get a reaction from my peers about what I wrote. These responses always help me further think through what I originally wrote, and I always learn from others in these scenarios. In my December blog, I wrote about the supply chain […]

Do We Need to Revisit Standards?

Log4j Could Drive New Business for AV

In late December, a flaw in software that is ubiquitous around the world was reported, and it sent cybersecurity pros into a frenzy and turned the hairs of technology pros gray. There are countless articles about this vulnerability, so I am not going to go deep into the technology of what occurs. Here is what […]

Log4j Could Drive New Business for AV

Summer Plans Already on Hold?

Sometimes it seems like the topic of every conversation has changed from “COVID, COVID, COVID” to “supply chain, supply chain, supply chain.” This is for good reason. Just about everything is in short supply, and prices are rising everywhere. The good news from this — the news that people are still spending money — gets […]

Summer Plans Already on Hold?

The Home Office Sector

In November, Gary Kayye interviewed Crestron’s new president and CEO, Dan Feldstein. The interview was very interesting, especially since Dan is a new public face to Crestron, even though he has “been working there since he was 5.” Take some time over your next lunch break to listen to the interview and get to know […]

The Home Office Sector

Learning From the Exercise Industry

After all the guessing, prognostication and assumptions, it actually happened. InfoComm 2021 took place in Orlando the last week in October. What surprised me most during the event was the social media banter that went back and forth between the “should” and “should not” crowds. That is those who thought that AVIXA “should have” InfoComm […]

Learning From the Exercise Industry

eGlass Changes Classroom Design

Due to continuing travel restrictions at my institution, I was not able to attend InfoComm in person this year. However, thanks to an amazing social network of #AVtweeps and rAVe [PUBS], I was able to attend virtually. Higher ed is certainly a vertical that has felt the change since March 2020. As I watch products […]

eGlass Changes Classroom Design

#DearVendor — Episode 7: Integrator Flexibility Is Key

In this episode, I speak with John Cheatham of the University of North Georgia. John gives some great insight into how integrators being flexible with their services is key to being a good partner. John also talks about how the university used integrators this summer and how their work required a network reconfiguration. Podcast: Play […]

#DearVendor — Episode 7: Integrator Flexibility Is Key

Conferences Need to Adapt to the New Normal

Over the past couple of months, we have seen some in-person conferences begin to resume. The biggest in our industry, InfoComm, is coming up in just a few weeks. AVIXA has been very clear that unless it is told by authorities to cancel the show, the show will go on in person. Yet, there are […]

Conferences Need to Adapt to the New Normal

The Great Resignation in Higher Ed

For the past 18 months, firms in most industries have struggled with the dual challenge of hiring new employees and retaining current employees. Retaining employees has become a major issue across our country as the number of people quitting their jobs has been dubbed “The Great Resignation.” The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that […]

The Great Resignation in Higher Ed

Privilege in the AV Industry

I recently attended a graduation where the keynote speaker addressed the topic of privilege. Unfortunately, like so much of our dialog these days, the term was taken far out of context, and that out-of-context interpretation was then politicized. As I walked away, I was disheartened at the misinformation all the new graduates had just received. […]

Privilege in the AV Industry

Bridging the Gap: ITSM Tools for AV and IT

Over the past several months at my institution, we have been implementing a new Information Technology Service Management Tool (ITSM). After looking at several different products, we chose to go forward with TeamDynamix. The cost is reasonable (not cheap, but reasonable), even for small higher ed institutions (like us). Cost was a factor in our […]

Bridging the Gap: ITSM Tools for AV and IT

#DearVendor — Episode 6: Class Capture Is the New Normal

Learn all about class capture in this episode as I speak with Kathleen Dooley of Midwestern University. Kathleen discusses her role and how much it has evolved to support the video recording, storage and distribution of classes. She also gives some great insight into how manufacturers have been critical to her success. Podcast: Play in […]

#DearVendor — Episode 6: Class Capture Is the New Normal

Removing the Uncertainty

Many of us have wondered what business will be like in the “new normal.” During that time, so many of us assumed the new normal also meant post-coronavirus. As we continue to experience surges in the delta variant and wonder about future variants, I am beginning to wonder if living with COVID-19 is actually the […]

Removing the Uncertainty

What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been

Jerry Garcia and crew certainly had it right when they sang, “What a long, strange trip it’s been.” Seventeen months ago, colleges and universities around the country abruptly shut down in-person learning and sent students home. Over the summer of 2020, they worked to make sure their faculty and students were prepared to learn and […]

What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been