[quoting Bruce Jones, 10 Dec 98.a] Let's use the word creativity here for a second. NO project has to be boring and uninteresting!! By using creativity and looking at the project as a "game," or in some other way that increases its interest for you, and using your imagination and creativity, flow should occur.
Is this the pearl in Marshall's paper? Do we, as designers of the learning experience, have an obligation to frame the content in a way that causes flow to occur? And does the requirement of frequent user response that characterizes computer games actually make the flow happen?
I agree that anything that people can learn must, at one time or other, have been of sufficient interest to somebody. But we all bring cultural baggage with us to the learning experience that cause us to regard certain topics as interesting and others as uninteresting. Does involvement in a game help to lighten the baggage load so that learning will take place even in areas we had considered uninteresting?