Daniel Muberekwa, a Granville Central Middle School student, said doing assignments in pencil relieves his eye strain.Andrea Ellen Reed for NBC NewsEXCLUSIVEFORSUBSCRIBERSClose your laptop, grab a pencil: Inside a school district’s ‘tech-free’ experimentA 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 EDTSTEM, 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.Just a moment.We are getting your experience ready.