Writers In Electronic Residence (WiER) connects students across Canada with writers, teachers and one another in an animated exchange of original writing and commentary. The writers, who are all published Canadian authors, join classrooms in online conferences to read and consider the students' works, offer insights and ideas, and guide discussions between the students.

WiER was created in 1988, by Trevor Owen, at that time a secondary school teacher at Riverdale Collegiate in Toronto, Ontario, with the support of Gerri Sinclair and the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University, and poet Lionel Kearns, who was the first writer in electronic residence.

In the spring of 1990, The Writers' Trust of Canada (then The Writers' Development Trust) adopted WiER as its primary educational program in order to promote WiER's growth, and to provide financial stability through fund-raising. This initiative was guided by novelist Katherine Govier.

The Faculty of Education at York University assumed pedagogical and technical responsibility for WiER from SFU in the spring of 1992 in order to inform and advance online learning through teacher education and research, and opened its first WiER writing conferences in January, 1993. This initiative came about thanks to Dr. Stan Shapson, the Faculty's former dean.

In 2000, the Canadian Education Association (CEA) entered into an alliance with WiER. The CEA is the only national charitable organization that offers a vehicle to connect with educational leaders and decision makers. This initiative came about as a result of the efforts of Penny Milton, who has served as Trustee and Chair of the Toronto Board of Education,and as  Deputy Minister of Education in Ontario. She currently serves as CEA's Chief Executive Officer.

WiER's long-standing and productive association with York University concluded in 2003, and WiER's online conferences and web site moved to OISEnet, the online learning network of Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT), which is administered by the Education Commons. This initiative came about thanks to Robert Cook, then a co-director of the Education Commons. He currently serves as CIO for the University of Toronto.

In 2008, WiER announced the establishment of The Writers in Electronic Residence Foundation, a national, charitable, not-for-profit organization. The Foundation assumed responsibility for WiER from the Canadian Education Association, and will continue to operate WiER in alliance with CEA and OISE/UT, working with corporate, foundation and government sponsors throughout Canada to create beneficial links between the arts and education communities.