The Joyous Paradox of Making the Multitude the Norm: Blended Learning as a Reconstructive Act

Abstract

As educational decision makers and learning design professionals alike explore how to move beyond emergency measures enacted during the pandemic, much conversation centers around the idea of the “new normal.” In this paper, I explore the idea of the “new normal” along with why blended learning has such strong appeal as both a micro and macro strategy. Metamodernist theory helps to frame the discussion on how seemingly contradictory ideas may be brought together and how blending is a form of reconstruction.