Montana History Portal director, Jennifer Birnel visits assisted living programs, nursing homes and senior centers around the state with History Portal programming and has this advice to share, 

"I find that the Adventure Lab Exhibits and the other exhibits work very well for this population. These are high interest topics generally, and the images included usually generate memories for discussion. 

Since this population typically is not one that is spending time on computers, I tend to share the exhibit to a group on a large screen. I read the exhibit out loud to the group. I open the images and zoom in on areas of interest. I will do internet searches to answer questions, if necessary.  I also will open Google maps and search for specific locations if necessary.  

My experience with home-bound seniors is that they will have stories to share. I let them tell the stories. I may not get through the whole program in the time allotted, but it does not matter as long as the group is engaged. If the other members of the group are not interested in the stories, I will try to bring the group back to the program. I am tactful, but direct. "Thanks for sharing, now let's continue." 

Engagement will vary. I have some senior groups who ask lots of questions and are very interactive with sharing their own personal experience. I have other groups who are very quiet. At times I thought they were bored during the presentation, only to find out later they talked about the program endlessly after the fact. This is often related to their comfort level with me and with each other. Just because they are quiet, does not mean they are not interested.

It has also worked very well to share a set of photos on certain topic. I usually open about 20 images in tabs before the presentation begins. Then open and show each image. I read the image description, and then view it 100% to see the details. It generally takes about an hour to go through the images and answer questions or discuss them.

I try to plan for 45 minutes to an hour max. We discuss what we notice, what surprises us, and what we recall from our youth that we see in the images. "