A couple of sets of circumstances puzzle me. In set one, I attend a great class in courseware development, come home, turn on the computer, and sit in front of it doing what I saw demonstrated until 3 a.m. This is flow and I'm learning. In set two, I turn on the computer, load a twitch game, and stay awake playing until 3 a.m. This is also flow. But in case two, I'm no better off for my cognitive increases or skill building than when I first sat down, while I'm clearly ahead in case one.
Both times I was challenged by what was in front of me. But in case one, I saw, before I began, a possible path to my own personal betterment. I knew in case two that nothing but higher scores would come of my efforts. In the second case, the flow is present but wasted.
Games get my attention, but so do projects. Some of the projects, to get through to the end, required a lot of drudgery. But my own recognition of the potential for growth led me to stick with them without a lot of flow easing the burden.
The conclusions that I draw from my experiences, however limited they may be:
(1) Flow is not inimical to learning.
(2) Flow is not necessary to learning.
(3) The presence of flow does not indicate the presence of learning
(4) Learning aided by flow seemed a more efficient process than learning without flow.
Item #4 gives me the clue about what, as a courseware developer, I should be trying to use to style the work I create. I definitely cannot let up on the cognitive content for the sake of fun. But where I can get the content to the learner while making it fun, I may as well do so. This would be a way that I could take advantage of creating learning products in a multimedia environment. The measurable learning outcome would be no different than if I developed a page turner, but the learners would get the outcome more quickly and more reliably.
Two of history's most successful teachers, Socrates and Jesus, punctuated their lessons (if they can be called that) with parables and narrative examples. This was the multimedia that they had available. I imagine that to talk with either of them would have been a flow experience.