Simkins Cha. 3 + 4

Chapter 3 focused on making a real-world connection. It gave 10 examples of how to make real-world connections, but the one that I liked the most was 4. Improving the real world. I liked this example because I feel like students that go to school (myself included) are so focused on school (whether it be studying or being the most popular) that they don't even pay attention to what is going on around them. By creating a project that focuses on improving something that is happening now, you can take students out of that realm and have them try to make a difference in the world.
The example I liked the least was 1. Connecting through student interests. I felt like this option sounded good at first, but as I kept reading the book, it talked about how students can come up with projects that they might not necessarily learn from (such as the skiing example). This made me think that if you choose this option, you may have to spend a lot of time with students to cater their idea more towards what you want them to learn. Whereas with an example like above, you already have the project laid out for everyone, and now they can dive right in and begin.

Chapter 4 focused on how to develop and plan a multimedia learning project. What I found I got the most out of was "Can I Put It in a Nutshell?" which states that you need to explain your project in 40 words or less. It sounds tedious, but I agree with the author that it is important. If you can't give a summary of what you plan on doing then that means that you yourself are confused by what you want to do. If you are confused about what you are doing, think about how confused your students will be.
I also think that time is another important aspect to consider, especially if this is your first time doing a project like this AND you are using technology. You may think that something will only take a couple hours, but chances are some program may not be opening correctly or you may have some sort of bug happen, which slows everyone down. When we are planning our Digital Media projects, the rule of thumb is usually you figure out how much time you think it will take you to do something and then you double that.
Another good point the book made was how to measure what the students learned. I think one thing that I learned from the WebQuests that could be applied to Project-Based Learning is to create an Evaluation Rubric. This way your students can see what they need to do in order to get a certain grade.