Homo Naledi by Professor Lee Berger

Information fluency is the ability to unconsciously interpret information in all forms in order to extract the essential knowledge, perceive its meaning and significance and use it to complete real-world tasks. (Digital Citizenship Module Manual 2016, 2015)

There are a lot of websites available on the internet and everyday there are a lot of information being added to the internet. The internet never stops. InfoWhelm is the bombardment of information and it refers to the availability of information. Facts become obsolete more quickly, with the knowledge built on those facts becoming less durable. (Digital Citizenship Module Manual 2016, 2015)

Homo Naledi by Professor Lee Berger from Wits University needs to be analysed with the information fluency process.

On the 10^th of September 2015, it was announced that a new species of the human ancestor had been discovered. Homo Naledi had a small brain and a small and slender body. Homo Naledi’s skeleton shows that it stood upright and was bipedal which means its more Homo than the genus Australopithecus. Homo Naledi had ape-like shoulders. (Wikipedia, 2016)

With the new discovery and information the scientists needed to ASK themselves: where and when did it live? How did it get in the chamber? Is it more human or ape?

By asking good questions, you would get great answers. (Digital Citizenship Module Manual 2016, 2015)

The first discovery of Homo Naledi was made in 2013 which means the scientists had to ACQUIRE all of the information so that they could start their research on it by prioritising the search strategy and scanning through their resources. (Digital Citizenship Module Manual 2016, 2015)

After they found the information which was the results of their search, they will yield the information that needs to be ANALYSED to create a cohesive picture of whether the new discovery is part of the Homo genus or part of the Australopithecus genus.

The knowledge that they acquired should then be APPLIED to the problem of where and when it lived, how it got in the chamber and if it was more human or ape.   

The scientists believe that Homo Naledi is a new species of the human relative and it could tell us more about the hominin’s behaviour. According to Professor Lee Berger Homo Naledi deliberately disposed of its own dead by placing them in the chamber. (EWN, 2016)

The scientists gathered information for 2 years to find the most relevant information about Homo Naledi. Before they could publish their findings they had to ASSESS the process they went through, asking questions about the process they used and what they could have done better through the process.

References:

Digital Citizenship Module Manual 2016. (2015). In T. I. Education. Pretoria: The Independent Institute of Education.

EWN. (2016, May 28). Retrieved from http://ewn.co.za/Features/Naledi/What-Makes-Naledi-Special

Wikipedia. (2016, May 28). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_naledi