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Daniel Muberekwa, a Granville Central Middle School student, said doing assignments in pencil relieves his eyestrain.Andrea Ellen Reed for NBC News

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Close your laptop, grab a pencil: Inside a school district’s ‘tech-free’ experiment

Catch up with NBC News Clone on today's hot topic: North Carolina Granville County School District Tech Free Rcna343553 - Breaking News | NBC News Clone. Our editorial team reformatted this story for clarity and speed.

A rural North Carolina district stopped students from using screens on Tuesdays and Thursdays. A public health professor who studied the switch shared the results exclusively with NBC News.

May 24, 2026, 7:00 AM EDT

By Tyler Kingkade

STEM, N.C. — Stan Winborne remembers when his school district here in Granville County bought laptops for every student a decade ago. He expected that the devices would help students learn through individualized instruction and more detailed feedback. “We’ve made it,” he thought at the time. He was wrong.

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