Hello,
It is Yannick Lyons from The Teaching Twin Newsletter
Creating an AI avatar feels deceptively simple. You upload an image, choose a voice, paste in a script, and within minutes a digital version of you is speaking on screen.
What’s less obvious is what that avatar actually is.
In most modern tools, your avatar isn’t “owned” by the platform in the legal sense. You retain rights to your likeness and voice. The platforms aren’t trying to claim you. They’re simply providing the machinery that renders and animates what you give them.
The real distinction is more practical than legal:
Are you treating your avatar as a tool output or as a long-term teaching asset?
Most educators use these platforms the way they’d use a slide generator. Create a clip. Export it. Move on. That’s perfectly fine for experimentation.
But when an avatar becomes part of your teaching identity, the mindset shifts.
Your avatar is:
Your presence in asynchronous lessons
Your voice in explainer content
Your stand-in for announcements, reminders, and micro-lectures
In other words, it becomes part of how students experience you.
That’s where intention matters.
The educators who get the most value from this technology treat their avatar the way they treat their course materials:
They think about consistency
They care about how it looks and sounds over time
They design it to feel aligned with who they are in the classroom
An avatar created in a rush can feel generic.
An avatar designed with intention can feel familiar, human, and credible.
What to Keep in Mind
Your avatar is an extension of your teaching presence
Consistency matters more than novelty
Students respond to clarity and familiarity, not spectacle
The technology should disappear into the background
When done well, students stop thinking, “This is AI.”
They think, “This is my professor explaining something.”
That’s the bar.
How to Approach This Thoughtfully
Decide what role your avatar will play before creating it
Keep it visually simple and academically grounded
Let it support your teaching style, not replace it
An avatar works best when it feels like a continuation of you, not a substitute.
Talk later,
Yannick
How We Can Help
For professors who want professional AI avatar videos without dealing with tools, setup, or editing, we handle the entire process:
Get started at LyonsMediaProductions.com and tell us exactly what you need.
See real examples of AI avatar videos we’ve created being used (here).
Prefer to experiment first?
Create and test your own avatar using free tools with my free training: https://gamma.app/docs/How-You-Can-Create-and-Test-Your-Own-AI-Avatar-prc006lf27gvvs7Reply to this email with any questions you may have. I respond to everybody.