Project-based learning: Does it fit teacher education molds?

Today's students experience the massive use of rubrics, matrix, highly structured assignments, and keeping up will teacher's rules for this project forms -- Are students able to create quality work without rubrics and the like? Are we most interested in the outcomes as with a graded test when utilizing technology-based, CIA projects? After all, rubrics provide the guidelines for MAKING THE GRADE in most core classes.

Are students fully capable of and will they actually produce quality end-result work with minimal guidelines in project-based instruction? For example, creating podcasts in Garageband, integrating photos into iPhoto and various software packages.

Give me your honest educated answers... even Epinions!

John