Inside a North Carolina school district’s ‘tech-free’ experiment

Students in Granville County, North Carolina, were banned from using screens on Tuesdays and Thursdays. A public health professor found surprising results.

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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