What's in a name?

As indicated in last week's post, clearly, the abbreviation ‘3D’ is currently disappearing from some digital product marketing schemes, and is being replaced with other substitute words. We now must surveil for code words like “immersive”, “VR”, or “mixed reality”, to name but a few. 3D Might be hiding there. You never know. The ways we now describe 3D visualization technologies are at the same time confusing, shifting, and converging. Let’s just say that conversations are never easy in this promethean field.

Part of the complication we face is that 3D has truly become a culturematic in modern society. In my lead-in quotation from last week's post, Juliet laments:

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”.

Of course, what this means is: it matters what something is, not what it may be called. But in the education world, it sure makes it harder to hold conversations, build momentum, and do business around the notion of 3D.